"The sign of great parenting is not the child's behavior.
The sign of truly great parenting is the parent's behavior."
- Andy Smithson
One of the biggest challenges caregivers face is managing difficult or defiant behavior on the part of the children in their care. Whether the child is refusing to put on their shoes, or throwing full-blown tantrums, it's easy to find yourself at a loss for an effective way to respond.
For caregivers struggling to manage behaviors, implementing some simple, behavioral management techniques at home can provide a roadmap to calmer, more consistent ways to manage problem behaviors and offers a chance to help children gain the developmental skills they need to regulate their own behaviors.
To understand and respond effectively to undesirable behaviors, we have to consider what came before the behavior, as well as what comes after it. There are 3 important aspects to any given behavior:
Antecedents (aka "triggers")
Preceding factors that make a behavior more or less likely to occur. Learning, understanding, and anticipating antecedents is an extremely helpful tool in preventing undesirable behaviors
Behaviors
The specific actions you are trying to encourage or discourage
Consequences
The results that follow a behavior. Consequences, positive or negative, affect the likelihood that a behavior will re-occur.