How to Discourage Temper Tantrums

Video Transcript

"Hello I'm Dr. Debra Wheeler. I'm the Vice President of Academic Affairs at Argosy University on the Salt Lake City campus and I'm also a Clinical Psychologist. My topic today, how to deal with temper tantrums. This is a common one that parents deal with often. One of the first things you can do is to try to ignore it. This is a challenge because you may be in a public place and find it difficult to ignore that child's behavior but you do want to try and ignore it. If you don't respond to it, it extinguishes itself and there is less interest for the child. However, if you do not continue to ignore it you run the risk of ultimately reinforcing that behavior. It is kind of like having someone who is pulling the slot machine at the casino. They get reinforced eventually. If you choose to ignore your child you have to go the full distance. Don't reward them at the very end. That simply teaches them that they might as well keep up with it until the next time. If you do ignore it you will find that the behavior decreases over time and ultimately catch your child being good, don't just catch your child being bad, catch your child being good in ways that approximate what you want them to do. Any time you see them being on their best behavior in any situation make sure you reinforce that, acknowledge it and reward it. If you need any assistance with any parenting topics such as this you can get more information at Argosy.edu."