TYPICAL MISBEHAVIOR OF

CHILDREN

AIM
To provide an in-depth exploration of childrens
misbehavior.
To observe social-emotional behavior of children.

INTRODUCTION
Temper tantrums are unpleasant and disruptive
behaviors or emotional outbursts (Kaneshiro,
2013).
As children are still young, they cannot express
their needs or control their emotions when their
needs or desire unmet.
The video is about a girl named Sophia, throwing
tantrum because she lost her stamp that she won
in school.
This include whining, crying, kicking, throwing
and screaming.

HOW THE BEHAVIOR COULD HAVE

BEEN LEARNT
There are several ways that this misbehavior of the
children could be learnt
1.
Personality
2.
Learned behavior
3.
Family relationships
4.
Lack of social interactions

1.

PERSONALITY

"Personality is the dynamic organization within

the individual of those psychophysical systems
that determine his characteristics behavior and
though" (Allport, 1961, p. 28).
Egocentrism refers to the child's inability to see a
situation from another person's point of view.
According to Piaget, the egocentric child assumes
that other people see, hear, and feel exactly the
same as the child does.

From the observation, Sophia might be egocentric. At

her age, she was not able to stand on her mothers
point of view and understand how her mother feels
when she threw tantrum.
When Sophias need is unmet (she lost her hand
stamp), she assumed that her mother can feel her,
and yet her mother did not give any response on that.
That might be one of the reasons that explain
Sophias misbehavior.
Sophia knew that she is wrong and apologized to her
mother. But at her age, she might not fully develop
the ability to control her emotion.

2. LEARNED BEHAVIOR
According to Albert Bandura social learning
theory, he states that behavior is learnt from the
environment (McLeod, 2011)
Through observation, children learn both good
and bad behavior.
They pay attention to some of these behaviors
and encode them.
They will use the behavior that works best.

Sophia might have learnt the throwing tantrum

behavior where she observe other children before.
She might not know how to react when she lost
something thus throw tantrums.
Trial and error where she kicks and throws
things didnt work.
Then, she told the mother that she needs her
mother and said I love you trying some other
way to attract the mothers attention.

3. FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS

4. LACK OF SOCIAL INTERACTIONS

The opportunity for social interactions with
others is very important for the development of
all children. Through social interactions, children
begin to establish a sense of self and to learn
what others expect of them.
Social interactions for young children primarily
occur within family and later, as children grow
and develop, they become more and more
interested in playing and interacting with peers.
The nature of parent-child interactions is related
to a childs development of social skills (Seefeldt,
2010).

In addition, while interacting with their families

and peers, young children learn communication
and cognitive skills.
Children who learn appropriate social skills often
have a higher self-esteem and show a greater
willingness to interact with their environment as
they grow.
Lack of social interaction can leads to misbehavior
in young children. Generally, children misbehavior
takes place when their needs are not met, for
example, their needs to communicate.
Children with profound difficulties in
understanding others and in communicating with
them it is hardly surprising for frustration, anger
and anxiety to build up (Mark Hutten, 2009).

Also, lack of social interaction may affects

children social functioning and their ability to
react and deal with stressful situations.
Sophia demonstrated a number of characteristic
behaviors, including screaming, kicking and
throwing things, crying and lying on floor.
This may due to lack of social interactions where
she was unable to express her emotions and
feelings in a proper way. Instead of speaking in a
proper way and calmly talk to her mother, she
screamed and threw things around the kitchen
and room.

Sophia felt upset when she had lost her hand

stamp which I think it was her favorite and when
her request of speaking to her mother was
rejected and ignored, she was getting even upset
and depressed. This lack of interactions between
Sophias mother and her might lead to her
misbehavior.
Sophia does not develop and acquire proper
communication skills and this might be due to
lack of social interactions with peers in school.
She might be rejected by peers in her school.
Hence, peer rejection leads to her depression,
aggression and feelings of insecurity. Hence, she
tends to seek for attention from her mother.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Adults need to intervene in childrens
misbehavior in order to correct it it may cause
difficulties in the near future.
Adults can help the children to understand the
appropriate rules, to conform to the rules and to
encourage the positive behavior.
The rules or pinpoints need to be explained in an
age appropriate form to children.

Instead of saying You lost it,

The mother can start by calming her down and try
talking to her.
Instead of sending her to her room, sit down and talk
to her as requested by the daughter, I need you, I
want to talk to you.
Can reason with her like get a new stamp if..
Can try to distract her by offering a replacement or
other choices.
Can use empathy (but not give in or lose it) like I
know its very frustrating, I understand you lost it,
but

CONCLUSION
All children have reasons for misbehavior basic
needs (hungry, sleepy, bored), change in routine,
challenging situation.
Adults are encouraged to discover what is
causing their childrens misbehavior and prevent
any unnecessary misbehavior.
To do so, adults can help the children to
understand the rules, show them acceptance and
love, protect them from overstimulation, provide
with a rich learning environment and show
appropriate independence-seeking (UK & KState University, n.d.).

Ignoring the tantrum behavior and helping a

young child learn how to handle and express
anger and frustration are usually effective ways
to deal with the behavior. Also, paying attention
to what triggers tantrums can help you act before
a youngster's emotions escalate beyond the point
where he or she can control them. This is
supposed to identify the cause of the behavior
and prevent blaming the individual (Mark
Hutten, 2009).

REFERENCE
Kaneshiro, N. K. (2013). Temper tantrums:
MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. Retrieved from
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/0
01922.htm
McLeod, S. A. (2011). Bandura - Social Learning
Theory. Retrieved from
http://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html
UK & K-State University,. Why Young Children
Behave and Misbehave. Retrieved from http://
www2.ca.uky.edu/hes/fcs/keys/Why_Young_Childr
en_Behave_and_Misbehave.pdf
http://www.simplypsychology.org/personalitytheories.html

http://
www.simplypsychology.org/preoperational.html

Mark Hutten, M. A. (2009). Tantrums and

Meltdown in Kids with Autism Spectrum
Disorders. Retrieved from
http://
www.myaspergerschild.com/2009/07/temper-tant
rums-and-meltdowns-in.html
Seefeldt, C. (2010). Factors Affecting Social
Development. Retrieved from
http://www.education.com/reference/article/fac
tors-affecting-social-development/

Thank you!