Social Learning Theory and Child's Challenging Behaviour

“Culturally abnormal behaviour of such intensity, frequency or duration that the physical safety of the person or others is likely to be placed in serious jeopardy, or behaviour which is likely to seriously limit use of, or result in the person being denied access to ordinary community facilities” (Emerson,1995) Challenging behaviour can be demonstrated by an individual or a group by providing no cooperation or posing barriers. Challenging behaviour is abnormal behaviour we as a society don’t class as the ‘norm’. Behaviour is certainly not an arbitrary demonstration it frequently has a purpose however it isn’t always clear.

Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour

Threatening and violent behaviour is when someone demonstrates aggressive behaviour which could be verbal threats, electronically communicated or physical assault. There is always a reason behind someone being aggressive or violent and these should be addressed in the workplace to reduce the possibility of the behaviour reoccurring. Factors that contribute to someone displaying threatening behaviour or being violent could be the person is frustrated/stressed, or they could have an injury/mental illness. Signs of someone becoming aggressive are shouting, clenched fists or being agitated. Dealing with this sort of behaviour could be challenging but as a worker, you should stay calm and be sympathetic. Taking the individual to a separate room where it is quiet and you can talk will help defuse the situation and help you as a worker understand what is triggering the behavior this should be done with another member of staff if the induvial is still showing signs of being aggressive.

Uncooperative behavior is when someone is unwilling to help or assist to make tasks or their life’s easier. Children in a social work setting will mostly be uncooperative but most children don’t mean to be, they don’t understand why someone now wants to help them. You should identify why the child isn’t cooperating, they may be hiding an issue and embarrassed to talk about it or they might not like or enjoy the tasks they aren’t cooperating with so sit with the child, learn their likes and dislikes and involve the child in an activity they will enjoy and be good at to make the child feel better and important.

Self-harm is when someone inflicts pain on themselves, this is normally done as a coping mechanism for the emotional difficulties the person has. The first thing that should be done when you notice someone has been self-harming is to identify why and how. The most common type of self-harm is cutting but there are many others such as overdose, burning, biting, banging your head off walls or pulling your hair out. Factors that contribute to someone self-harming can be loss of a relationship, emotional distress from the past, bullying or experience of abuse. People use self-harm as a sense of relief. Workers who work with children who self-harm should treat them equally and with respect. They should try and find out the trigger of the self-harm. The worker should try and get a strong trusting relationship with the child and offer any help or services available to the child. The worker should suggest other ways of getting relief such as a punching bag, flicking elastic bands off the body or even doing more exercise and relieve an individual of stress and anxiety.

Inappropriate sexual behavior is when someone is displaying distressing behavior. Inappropriate sexual behavior comes in many forms, inappropriate touching, sexual comments, sexual jokes, exposer of private parts. There are many reasons behind this behavior these are, impulsiveness, unawareness, inability to express sexual feelings or communicate well. If a child is showing this behavior staff should investigate why, it may be because they are learning about sex and exploring, not knowing right from wrong. Staff should look into the child’s background they may have seen these behaviours before or been sexually abused and see it as normal. Staff should think about doing a sexual awareness activity to teach the children right from wrong and show they are there to talk to. Children are going to be curious about sex and relationships and need a responsible adult to look up to and get advice from.

Two Psychological Theories

Sigmund Freud believed there were three parts to our personalities these are the id, ego, and superego. The id is referred to as the ‘childlike’, the ego is the ‘adult’ and the superego is the ‘parent’. These three parts of our personality will appear different to each individual, for some people, the id is the most dominant trait and for others, the superego will be their most dominant trait. Freud believed that babies were a package full of id. They look for pleasure with feeding, cuddles, and attention straight away with no understanding of other’s needs. As a child’s ego develop’s they know that their demands don’t need to be met straight away. They realise that others have needs as well. As their superego develop’s they become more aware of what is right and wrong. The superego uses feelings of guilt and self-criticism to enforce rules and stop the individual from following the demands of their id. Freud believed that in this process the individual’s basic personality is formed. Freud believed that experiences from childhood provide an explanation of your behaviour in adulthood. In order to deal with difficulties people face in life, Frued stated that the ego employs a range of defence mechanisms. (Miller, J 2005)

Bandura’s social learning theory focuses on three ways in which socialisation occurs these are imitation and identification, punishments and rewards and social expectations. As a child grows up, they will watch the behaviour of others and copy it. Bandura found that children normally imitated people of higher authority such as teachers, police, fireman or parents. Bandura discovered through his research that the kids would imitate people of the same sex. He believed that children imitating adults helped them learn and grow up. If a child’s behaviour is rewarded it has become obvious that the child will repeat this behaviour whereas if a child is punished, they are less likely to repeat it. The child will also watch others behaviour and how others react to that behaviour if they are rewarded the child will copy this behaviour as a child wants approval.

Internal and External Factors

Challenging Behaviour is caused by many things it is a combination of internal and external factors that contribute to our behaviour. Internal Factors may be our personality and sense of humour. It may also be a way of communicating as the person can have hearing or speech impairments, it can come from an individual's past life experiences or events, the individual might be in pain or discomfort and unable to tell anyone causing them to act out of character. External factors are our environment, it could be too noisy, lonely, crowded, have people they dislike and don’t get on well within the same room or the room temperature may be unbearable.