N6 Educational Psychology


Activity 2.7


• What other reasons can there be for her phobia? • Do you have a phobia? Why are you afraid of the specific situation/object? Give possible reasons.


5. 5.1


Habit-forming behaviour Biting


When your child bites someone else, it is easy to feel like the worst parent in the world. Common in the early pre-school years, biting is very rarely intentional or premeditated, nor is it unusual – most children will bite someone, whether it be a parent, caregiver, friend or sibling at least once. This is a small comfort, especially when your child is doing the biting, but it is a behaviour that can be corrected. Here's how.


1 Why children bite


For the majority of children, biting, or any aggressive behaviour for that matter, occurs because they are simply overwhelmed by the situation as it is unfolding in front of them. Biting is the last, most aggressive option and it comes because the child doesn't know what else to do. They could be angry, they may not know what words to say to ask for help, or they could be fearful. Other reasons for a child biting include:


• Stress in a child's life, including a new baby, a death in the family, a new house or parents divorcing or separating.


• A way of showing love and emotion to a caregiver – strange, but sometimes young children have difficulty dealing with the intensive love they feel for someone they care for.


• A speech delay that isn't allowing the child to adequately ask for what they need, causing them to become frustrated.


• The child is simply overstimulated and doesn't know how to behave. • Searching for attention – remember, any attention, even negative, is attention. • Someone bit them first or they feel threatened in some way. • Some children learn that biting is a way to take control of a situation and be in charge.


Certainly, any of these reasons doesn't make biting acceptable, but it may help you to understand why your child is acting this way. And that's a key to stopping a child from biting – stopping the aggressive behaviour by finding the root of the problem so you can help your little one curb it.


2 What to do when a child bites


If you are on the scene when your child bites, your reaction needs to be quick – and level-headed. • Try to stay calm. • Make sure the child or person that has been bitten is OK. Care for them first, offering first aid, a Band Aid, whatever the person needs.


• If your child is the biter, in the heat of the moment you might be tempted to bite your child back. Don't. That will make the situation much worse, because not only are you now modelling the very aggressive behaviour you don't want your child to do, but you are also acting in anger and the lesson here is to teach your child that violence shouldn't beget violence. Instead, try these tactics.


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