29 Understanding Children’s Behaviour & Habit Formation during Child development

Tania Ruby M Thomas

Children are a ‘Gift from God’. So, the early years of child’s life are very important for his or her health and development.

CHILD DEVELOPMENT refers to the biological, psychological and emotional changes that occur in human beings between birth and the end of adolescence, as the individual progresses from dependency to increasing autonomy. It is a continuous process with a predictable sequence yet having a unique course for every child.

BEHAVIOUR is the aggregate of the responses, reactions or movements made by an individual in any situation.

HABIT FORMATION is the process by which new behaviours become automatic. Old habits are hard to break and new habits are hard to form because the behavioural patterns we repeat are imprinted in our neural pathways, but it is possible to form new habits through repetition.

UNDERSTANDING CHILDREN’S BEHAVIOUR

A child’s behaviour is moulded by the effects of his or her environment they live in, their culture, their contextual and individual influences, and their play associates and so on. Children inhibit certain behaviours without even knowing there meaning or even understands whether it is good or bad for them. Each behaviour is nurtured by their surroundings.

So the fundamental priority is to understand the reasons for their developing behaviours. To know this, it is very essential to consider how frequently the behaviour occurs, what it may be in response to, in which setting it occurs and how extreme it is. These observations need to be recorded and compared critically in order to know whether behavioural guidance for the child is needed or not.

Kids of the present day manage their emotions and conform to the behavioural expectations of the world around them. There are certain strange behaviours shown by the children like passiveness, withdrawal, coyness, cooperativeness, destructiveness, aggressiveness etcetera, to achieve what they want or like; lacking the understanding of knowing their behavioural after effects on others. This nowadays is a normal behavioural pattern of the child’s growth and development.

Hence the key to understand a child’s behaviour is to aim to identify the reasons of their behaviours.

FACTORS INFLUENCING CHLDREN’S BEHAVIOUR

There are a lot of factors that can influence children’s behaviour. Some of them are

ENVIRONMENT

Environment of a child is a place where a child plays learns and grows up. All subtle changes happening here make way to new behaviours. Environment of a child includes their house, family members, culture, tradition, school, playmates, beliefs, religion child rearing routines, lifestyles and etc. Children are exposed to variety of such environmental variables that mend their behaviour. Some behaviour can be socially accepted and some fall to the category of anti-social behaviours.

PARENTS

Parents nowadays are a key to influence child’s behaviour. Everything from the way parents approach their child to what freedom they give a dramatic effect on a child. It has can either be acceptable or not acceptable. Some of the children imitate their parents and inhibit certain behaviours.

MEDIA

Media in this age creates a sharp influence in any child. Children’s certain behaviour is designed by the books and magazines they read, programmes they watch, video games they play and also the characters they watch and go crazy about. For instance, a child who always watches a show which puts out a lot of violence steps into the world of aggression without even knowing and becomes aggressive for simple things. Media takes them to a different level of thinking and also to a fantasy world. It is a key to reach their level of world of enjoyment. These influences their talk, walk, grooming, and selection and so on.

POVERTY

Children reared in an impoverished setting have a chance to be at risk for challenging behaviours. For example, if they live in a setting where there aren’t any good positive roles they tend to get into behaviours which are not acceptable to the society. Wholly they cannot be blamed as certain behaviours are done for their bread and butter for a day. When there are not any good educational or a good family base they get hooked up with low behaviours.

SINGLE PARENT FAMILIES

Single parent families are very common these days. Divorced parents should bring up their kids with a mutual understanding to provide what their child needs if not child can enter the stage of depression, aggression, despair, loneliness, frustration which itself will make them a part of unruly disrespectful behaviours. The needs can also inhibit hatred to a family life.

ADDITION OF A SIBLING

Children should be explained well when a new member is to be arrived in the family. So that children will accept the new member in a happy way instead of getting anxious, tensed, annoyed and lonely.

These are some of the factors influencing a child’s behaviour.

When a child displays such challenging behaviours, it is vital to note the frequency of the behaviour, the situation, the intensity to deal with it when it goes to the next level.

DEVELOPING A BEHAVIOUR GUIDANCE POLICY

When the behaviour of a child changes, it affects the environment around the child. So it’s necessary to come up with some behavioural guidance policy in order to guide the child to mould them into an acceptable behavioural human.

The behavioural guidance policies can differ related to the age of the child, factors bringing up the change and also the environment. So policies should be brought up in such a way that children themselves should try managing their own behaviours with the help of the policies.

So in order to put up the policies children should be observed in all aspects. History should be collected from the teachers, parents, neighbours and peers, child’s interactions, environment and etc.

Guidelines for the behavioural policies should be positive, clear-cut, practical, and appropriate to the behaviour to be modified, should have a focussed goal and should be holistically acceptable to everyone around the child. Apart from this there should be a commitment of on-going and continual assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation.

SOME POINTS FOR THE PARENTS TO ENCOURAGE GOOD BEHAVIOUR IN CHILDREN

Children imitate their parents, so it’s the duty of the parents to see to it that they display good behaviours in front of their kids or else it will be like they themselves teaching their kids bad behaviours indirectly.
If the parent finds a bad behaviour from their child, they need to make their child understand how they feel about it.This can make the child empathetic and can make them feel some things in the parents perspective which can help them change their odd behaviours.
If the parents find the child in a good behaviour give the child positive praises and good feedbacks, so that they are well encouraged to do what their parents think is good.
Parents should always be open for the kids to communicate to them so that they will not feel that they are not given attention. Apart from this parents should get down to their kids level of thinking.
Active listening is very important between the child and the parents and the care takers. Listening actively to the kids talk and repeating what they say will make them cope with their emotions. This can also diffuse many potential temper tantrums.
Parents should always try to keep their promises so that the child will have a good trust and respect to the parents, so that they will listen to their parent’s words.
Clear and simple instructions should be given to children instead of making it complicated and forcing them to obey it. When it is simple they feel easy to accept it.
Parents should always make their child feel that they are important to them. They should try to engage the child with them in their simple activities, so that the child feels that they are a family.

Hence dealing with children’s behaviour is one of the most challenging aspects for the parents. So behaviour of a child should be understood and guided by the parents to help the child behave appropriately. A positive and constructive approach is often a good way to mend and direct the child’s behaviour.

HABIT FORMATION

Habit plays a very important role in the day today life. Everyone acquire different habits depending on the situation of life. Some habits may be good and some bad.

Habit formation is developed physiologically and psychologically.

Physiological basis is related to the nervous system. If an act is repeated n number of times, a nervous connection is formed making a pathway which converts it from sensory action to motor action.

Psychologically habits are acquired dispositions or tendencies. In this anything learned or experienced by a child is retained in the mind of the child. When this experience is repeated, it is firmly retained in the child’s mind. This firm retained experience strengthens and forms into a habit.

Habits at times develop during boredom in children. This creates a recreation for some kids and gives them a soothing effect. They take it as an entertainment. Some children when not given proper heed can continue with the habits they indulge in, some habits disappear as they grow up. So parents and the care takers play a very important role in bringing up a child. Parents when frustrated with their busy life can get annoyed and can react not really wanting to harm their kids so parents should be a bit thoughtful to control their emotions in such situations.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF HABIT FORMATION

Some of the advantages of habit formation are

Good habits provide feeling of respect, stableness and security.
Habits are automatic so higher mental process is not required.
It reduces stress.
Helps in better activities.
Makes the actions simpler, quicker and accurate.
It saves time and energy.
Does not require conscious attention.
Habitual actions cause less effort and less strain.

Some of the disadvantages of habit formation are

There is a danger of becoming slaves to the habit acquired.
There will not be any scope of learning new things.
There will not be any lane for thinking or creativity.
Habits become mechanical.
It can be interference to other activities.
Adjustment and change in routine is quite difficult.
There can be negative physical and psychological effects.

As mentioned above habits can be good or bad. All children at some developmental stage display repetitive behaviours but whether they may be considered disruptive behaviours depend on the frequency and the effect they have on physical, emotional and social functioning. These behaviours arise intentionally, get repetitive in action and incorporate in child’s customary behaviour. And some habits arise by imitating adult behaviours.

Here are some of the habit disorders:

v THUMB SUCKING

Kids suck their thumb as they get a lot of comfort and feel secured and calm. Certain children in their foetal stage itself develop this thumb sucking. In foetal stage thumb sucking is a good sign of foetal development. Whereas, as child grow up thumb sucking is an act performed when the child is scared, get tensed, insecure, bored, trying to adjust to situations, then to fall asleep at bedtime. Thumb sucking in children can have an impact in the alignment of developing teeth which can lead to braces appliance later in life.

v NAIL BITING

This is a common nervous habit like thumb sucking. Children bite nails for n number of reasons like thumb sucking. Some children eventually stop this activity as they grow up but some carry it on. So in order to control it, it’s the duty of the parents and care givers of the child to know the underlying causes of this activity. If the cause is known, help the child to open up and ventilate what is disturbing them or what they are thinking of while engaging in this habit.

v HEAD BANGING AND BODY ROCKING

This is a rhythmic movement disorder which involves the whole body of a child. This habit to a greater extent can lead to further developmental disorders like autism. Children who engage in such activities do not do it to harm themselves but parents should be vigilant enough by seeing to it that the child does not harm themselves while engaging in such activities.

v HAIR PULLING

Children who engage in hair pulling do it at predictable times like when they go to bed, get in the morning, when they get fussy, while fighting, when getting annoyed, while showing anger and so on.Inorder to stop this activity reward system should be brought up which can pull out the child from this activity and make them motivated to the reward.

v BREATH HOLDING

Breath holding spells are when the child holds the breath for few seconds and then loses consciousness. This habit normally stops at the age of five and do not go beyond it.This spell is categorised into two that is cyanotic and pallid. Cyanotic makes the child turn blue and pallid makes the deadly pale. So parents should be watchful to see to it that the child is not harmed.

v TICS

Tics are type of twitches which are repeated frequently and involve the body parts. Tics can involve any body part like there are vocal tics and motor tics. Under these are eye blinking, nose twitching, head jerking, shoulder shrugging.

v TEETH GRINDING

Teeth grinding is also known as bruxism or clenching. This is a normal development in around half of the infants when the teeth erupt. Teeth grinding mainly occur during sleep. Some children carry this activity to their adulthood. When it is carried to the adulthood it causes jaw and dental problems. So for this dentist suggest a mouth guard for kids so that they don’t teeth grind in the night and also can cease tooth problems later in life.

v MASTURBATION

Masturbation is a common habit in children. It is found both in boys and girls. In this habit children of 5 to 6 age groups, play with their genital organs. It is a deliberate self-stimulation of the genital organs which gives them a self-comfort and sexual arousal. The comforts they get from this makes them repeat the act. Parents in a good way should try to bring them out from this act when it goes beyond the limit by distracting them, by improving the parental affection and positive reinforcement techniques.

Hence these are some of the habit disorders found in children.

CONCLUSION

The first 8 years are the most crucial years because it lays foundation for the later development in an individual’s life. Children’s behaviour is moulded by many factors. These factors play an important role in the holistic development of the child. Each development of the child in each age is like a milestone which has to be nurtured cared and developed well by taking off the weeds off it. So, to put it in a nutshell building a positive atmosphere at home and a good family relation will make the child feel loved, cared and secured which itself will make a pathway for good behaviours and habits.

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