“O.U.C.H!” – Observe,
Understand, Change, Help:
Responding to Children with Challenging Behaviors
by Kirsten Haugen
for the World Forum on Early Care and Education, Montreal, Canada, 2005.
Across our wonderful diversity of cultures, communities, schools
and families, most children misbehave some of the time. Most
children also respond to our rules and expectations most of the
time – sooner or later, more or less as we hope – to
an assortment of instructions, reminders, modeling, stories,
distraction, praise, rewards, encouragement, reasoning, consequences,
even threats or punishments. Some children, however, exhibit
more challenging behavior.
A behavior is challenging when it is:
- persistent or chronic
- disruptive for the child and others
- possibly threatening or hurtful
- not responsive to conventional strategies.
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