Challenging behaviour, communication
Society expects certain appropriate behaviours from children. Children use their behaviour, appropriate or inappropriate to express themselves.
Challenging behaviour refers to behaviour that is considered inappropriate to the social situation such as pinching, throwing objects, hitting, spitting on someone among others.
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These behaviours can be challenging for parents as the child may end up hurting themselves or others.
For children with Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN), challenging behaviours may be additional difficulties that their parents may need support to manage.
Some children with SLCN may often resort to the use of behaviours to express themselves because of their difficulties to use language instead.
Challenging behaviours often have a communicative purpose.
The function of behaviour is generally to communicate any of these - Medical (pain, hungry, sleepy), Escape (break, get out of work, play),
Attention (help, look at me, my turn), Tangible (toffee/sweets, toy, game), Sensory (spin, jump, squeeze, tickle).
The behaviour communicates that the child either wants something or there is a problem that needs attention.
It may be used to communicate emotions and needs such as anger, frustration, distress, anxiety, boredom, hunger, discomfort.
Situations
These behaviours may be a child’s attempt to communicate information such as:
1. Their inability to understand what is being said or communicated at a particular point in time.
2. Their difficulty expressing their needs clear enough to be understood, resulting in frustration.
3. Their difficulty coping with something in their environment such as loud music, resulting in becoming overwhelmed.
Support
There are several behaviours that may be responsible for challenging behaviours in children with speech, language and communication needs in particular.
To be able to manage behaviour, it is important to first and foremost identify the cause of that behaviour.
Understanding why the behaviour occurs and identifying the triggers reduce the risk of challenging behaviour.
After identifying the triggers, developing strategies to support the child in understanding language, communicating effectively or coping with a certain stimuli that may be overwhelming for them, can be helpful in reducing the challenging behaviour.
If it is identified that Kwame pulls his sister’s hair whenever he wants some of the biscuits she is having, trying to find a means for Kwame to make request appropriately may help reduce the hair-pulling behaviour.
Teaching Kwame how to use a picture of a biscuit to request for a biscuit is likely to help eliminate Kwame’s hair pulling behaviour.
Consistently reinforcing appropriate behaviours are helpful in managing challenging behaviours.
Giving Kwame a hi-five or clapping for Kwame whenever he uses the picture to request for a biscuit is a way of telling Kwame that you like what he just did and to encourage him to want to do more to get praise.
Some children may occasionally continue an undesirable behaviour because of the attention it attracts.
Ignoring undesirable behaviours is a behaviour management skill that is planned and used to negate a disruptive behaviour each time it occurs.
However, it not to be used when one’s safety is at risk.
Seeking professional help
Children with challenging behaviours may need specialist support and advice.
It is important that the appropriate referrals are made to seek help for them.
These specialists may include clinical psychologists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and neuropaediatricians.
The writer is a Speech & Language Therapist/Clinical Tutor, University of Ghana. E-mail: [email protected]