Teaching Problem Children

The first thing I would do as a psychologist is explain what shyness is and how common it is to have children that are shy. The definition of shyness is a psychological state that causes a person to feel discomfort in social situations in ways that interfere with enjoyment or that cause avoidance of social contacts altogether. Shyness could be mild feeling of being uncomfortable in public to anxiety depending upon the child. According to the (National Co-morbidity Survey, 1994) approximately 40 percent of Americans since the early 1970s say that they are shy to the extent of considering it a problem in their lives. Some of the other problems might be a problem for shy children is depression and how to find out if the child is depressed is to ask the parents if the child is sad at home as well. Shy children are usually happy and confident at home. If the child is not speaking to the other children then maybe they are having speech problems and should be tested. If all of this is ruled out, then we will work on the techniques to overcome shyness.

There are three strategies that can be taken to help children with her shyness. Peer involvement, teacher intervention and psychologists interventions. A technique to use in peer involvement is to involve the child in a cross-age tutoring program which would help them to play in pairs with younger children. This would then give them the opportunity to be involved in smaller groups and maybe would bring out the shy child. The most response that teachers have gotten out of shy students is have teacher intervention by change the social environment. By seating a shy child with a friendly child or place the shy child in small groups would cause the student to feel comfortable with other students. A psychologist intervention is to make sure to involve the shy child in activities. The teacher could call that student  more often being careful not to embarrass then or make them feel uncomfortable.  A shy student can be a member of the class with the help of her teacher. 

Three year old tantrums could be a problem and how I would help the parents is to first explain to the parents that most three year olds have tantrums and usually decline by the age of four. I would explain to the parents that there are many causes for tantrums such as it might be an indicator of family problems, inconsistence discipline or maybe even having problems with their speech. Children that have tantrums usually have other problems such as thumb sucking, bed wetting or problem sleeping.  There is a pattern among children know as a three step process

1. The child is attacked, criticized, or yelled at by an exasperated parent, brother or sister;
2. The child responds aggressively.
3. The child’s aggression is rewarded when the attacker withdraws and the child learns to use tactics such as whining, yelling and temper tantrums.

The solution to this problem is to stop yelling, scolding or spanking. Now I would then teach the parent how to stop the tantrums. First step is to have the parent learn to deal with their own anger problems. When we are calm then we have shown the child effective anger and conflict management. Redirect or distract the child so that the child could get their mind off of why they are throwing the tantrum. Another technique is to remove the child from the room and isolate the child for two or three minutes. This will allow you to get control of yourself and then you can be calm to deal with the situation. Sometimes try finding the reason that the child is having the tantrum even though this could be difficult. Some of the reason may be to get attention, someone to listen or fear of abandonment. If you notice the child’s good behavior and reward the child more often than that could help in having fewer tantrums. Tantrums are a tough thing to overcome and take a lot of patience and understanding. It does just come to you one day but takes lots of practice from the parents. If one technique doesn’t work then try another because one thing might not work it might take a couple of different techniques.