Practical Strategies to Address Challenging Behavior

[@nithinps5639]

Shall I create this as highlight video? Rather than just putting as hours duration.

[@Neilgs]

"We try to avoid eye contact with the child if it s serves as a reinforcer for an undesired behavior." In traditional terminology, psychoanalytical, psychotherapeutic, developmental and last but not least human connectedness what is conveyed to our child beneath the words and at the most simple basic level is "conditional acceptance." Basically, it is on part of the adult clinician or the parent narcissistic, as what is being promoted here is a form of advised psychopathological emotional withholding, initimidation and abuse. Ignoring your child (e.g., not making eye contact in order to avoid reinforcing the undesired behavior) under what was once hailed as "science" is now largely regarded as pseudoscience and is completely and totally at odds with Developmental Affective Neuroscience, Interpersonal Neurobiology, Infant and Childhood Mental Health neurophysiology etc.

[@Neilgs]

This is not how to engage your child biopsychosocially, developmentally and individually but rather how to foster an environment of hyperarousal, excessive stress hormones, i.e., cortisol (or conversely, hypoarousal, parasympathetic withdrawal/shut down), dissociation and trauma. Completely bereft of compassion or empathy or anything to do with neurodevelopmental challenges with kids on the spectrum or with Infant and Childhood Mental Health in general. This is not "Science." This is, however, control, intimidation, bribery and abuse at its finest! Congratulations!

[@0LOTR]

I have been following your comments Mr Neilgs. Could you suggest an effective way to help one cope with aggression in a non-verbal child?

[@Neilgs]

@@0LOTR Since that is such a broad question, I would need more specific information, age, context, what is precisely happening and when and in relation to others, how they are intersecting with him/her, and/or surrounding environment; capacity at all to maintain simple calm, optimal arousal state and when most calm, etc., in order to intelligently comment. Also, there are at least two parts of a single process, how do you cope and how does your child cope in relationship to one another? All behaviors cannot be viewed as compliant non compliant or appropriate vs inappropriate. Also all “behaviors” are really not a question of self management of those behaviors but rather first and foremost understanding that all behaviors are emergent and adaptive states. The tendency has been to look at the antecedent-behavior-consequence map. That is egregiously superficial and misguided. So when we look from say a comprehensive biopsychosocial perspective we are not placing name tags or absurd schedules of reinforcement and see what immediately precedes or follows the behavior which is maintaining or reinforcing the “behavior.” We look at the whole child (emotional-sensory-relational) and specifically from his/her perspective, his/her sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic nervous system with respect to how s/he is accessing, registering and processing his/her world with others and surrounding. For example, “Do I feel safe with you and my surroundings or is my sympathetic nervous system adaptively mobilized for defensive fight/flight behaviors or worse parasympathetic withdrawal/shutdown or dissociation. So it is always (again lacking specifics cannot comment) about you slowing down and feeling /seeing the language behind externalizations of the “aggressive behavior” and helping him/her slow down and cultivate the conditions of internally felt (interoceptive) safety with you, others and surroundings. In other words helping him/her shift from sympathetically adaptive defensive fight/flight responses to increased feelings (physiological/ autonomic registered state) of safety.