Behavioural and developmental issues and disorders in children Flashcards
_______ refers to the personality characteristics
you are born with—what is innate rather than
learned
Temperament
two-thirds of children can be classified into one of three categories of temparament
1
2
3
easy, 15%
difficult 15%
slow to warm up 70%
A child with a difficult temperament
will be __________
emotionally labile and have difficulty coping
with new experiences
A child with a _____ will have some difficulty coping with
new experiences, but will eventually manage after
repeated exposures
slow-to-settle
temperament
A child with an easy temperament will _____
cope easily with new experiences and will have a
calm nature.
______ is the view you have of the world based on
your own experiences; it is the ‘soup in your head
Schema
The three main ways in which attachment can go wrong are: 1 2 3
Carer not responding
Carer responding inconsistently
Carer responding inappropriately
Implications if Carer not responding
People who are
raised in this way can even develop what is called
‘learnt unresponsiveness’ and be emotionally
barren.
Implications if Carer responding inconsistently
this can lead to
uncertainty and anxiety in the child
Implications if carer responding inappropriately—such as
with aggression or anger
It creates a terrible and unsolvable paradox for children,
where the person on whom they are completely
reliant to teach them how to relate to the world is
also a threat.
The most effective forms of discipline are actually
____ and _______
praise and encouragement—of wanted behaviours
Consequences work only with children _____years of
age, and should be used solely in response to a small
fraction of a child’s behaviour, regardless of the child’s
temperament.
> 3
There are three types of consequences that work
(in decreasing order of usefulness):
Natural consequences:
Related consequences:
Losing a privilege:
________where there is a natural
flow from the misdemeanour to the consequence.
For example, if a child refuses to have dinner, he
or she goes to bed hungry
Natural consequences:
_________ where there is some link
between the unwanted behaviour and the
result. This is also sometimes called a ‘logical
consequence’. For example, if a child makes
a mess, he or she must clean it up
Related consequences:
__________ This can be a very powerful
technique as it focuses the child’s attention
but is more punitive than natural and related
consequences
Losing a privilege:
_______ are useful from 2–3 years of
age, and can take the heat out of a situation, for both
the parent and child.
It should be consistent, enforced promptly and calmly, even with empathy, and short—a good rule of thumb is a minute per year of age
Time-outs
Responses that don’t work when disciplining
children include:
screaming, constantly explaining,
repeatedly warning, threatening, pleading, arguing,
bribing and giving in, as well as smacking.
__________ are when we lose control of our feelings and
behaviour.
Tantrums
Tantrums
They are more common in toddlers (particularly
between________) because
they have not learned any or many other emotional
responses to challenging situations, such as ignoring,
negotiating, reconsidering or reframing a situation
18 months and 3 years of age
_________ from predictable tantrum
triggers, ‘scaffolding’ (giving necessary support) to
handle the event (e.g. a 5-minute warning), distraction
or active listening in the build-up to a tantrum can be
useful strategies to employ
Diverting a child
T or F
Skill-building toddlers in how to handle emotionally challenging situations (i.e. expanding their repertoire beyond tantrums) is best done either before or after (‘What else could you have done?’).
T
________ is common (around 5% of children do
so at some stage), and occurs between 6 months and
6 years (peak at age 2). While frightening to watch,
such attacks are harmless, and no treatment or action
is required.
Breath-holding
There are two types of breath holding spells:
• ______ (more common)—these happen in
response to being upset or angry. The child cries
loudly then holds his or her breath at the end of
expiration
•_______—these happen in response to pain or
a fright
blue spells
pale spells
In Mx of breath holding
T or F
They can last from 10–60 seconds, and can cause
the child to faint or, rarely, fit. They cause no harm,
and parents should be reassured. Approaches to
discipline should not change because of them
T
Head banging
They are more frequent in children with _____and ______where these behaviours may be more
pervasive through the day.
developmental disability and autism,
What are the features of head-banging
• Usually starts after 8–9 months, and is rare after
2 years of age
• Usually prior to going to sleep
• Child usually not distressed and rarely selfinjurious
_______ usually begins at age 2–4 years, as
children start to use more words and longer sentences
Stuttering
Up to 12% of children will stutter by the age ______
of 4.
Forms of stuttering
Stutters can be repetitions (of a sound, word or
phrase), prolongations of a sound (e.g. ‘aaaand’), a
block (where no sounds comes out) or combinations
of these.
