Time series monitoring and intervention of aggressive behaviour in children.

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Topic: Time series monitoring and intervention of aggressive behaviour in children.

Aggression in children is a common behavioural concept found in children that requires adult intervention before it grows worse as the child is growing up. Behavioural intervention is required in order to prevent the aggressive behaviour from progressing to chronic stages which would be harmful and inappropriate for the child. The most essential step in behaviour intervention, for example in our case Kaya an elementary school child with aggressive behaviour and inability to maintain eye contact with class work; analysis and recording of the child’s behaviour and progress towards intervention is an essential step towards improving their behaviour.

ABC(antecedent, behaviour, consequences), is a time series design used to monitor the response of a child towards certain behaviour intervention therapy and collect data for analysis and to provide information to the practitioner (Christensen, 2007). This method is usually used by Function Behaviour Assessment often school based; the three steps help determine what causes the child to behave as they are and what are the consequences of the behaviour. The method is also used in behaviour intervention so as to measure over time how the child is responding to the management treatment. By the embracing of technology, an application used by iPhones and iPads, the practitioner can set different time intervals, during class and recess during the day and use a Behaviour Tracker Pro to collect data about the child’s behaviour and response to the therapy. In conjunction with applied behaviour analysis behaviour therapist, practitioners are able to monitor and collect data, behaviour frequency in percentage against interval time. Within this scope you are able to collect data and analyze it. The type of data collected is in video form.

In our case behaviour intervention would involve helping lower physical aggression, verbal aggression and off task behaviour across an interval of time during classes and recess. Through representation of the information in a graph analysis is easier.

From the graph above and analysis of the collected data, aggressive language is the least common bad behaviour as compared to the rest, this shows an improvement in the language behaviour of kaya. On two occasions off task and aggressive language were at the same level. But on Monday there was no case or sign of violence seen in Kaya. Generally from the graphical representation of data collected, both off task and series of aggressive language were seen in the child.

Several reasons are usually developed in order to explain the case of aggression in children; some of the stated reasons include mental illness. When a child’s mind is mentally unstable cases of change in moods or inability to control their anger leads to aggressive behaviour. Disruptive disorders in children and inability to make decisions can be termed to a certain level as aggressiveness (Stahr, 2006). Conduct disorder is an illness with aggressiveness as a symptom; children with this are usually malicious. Inability to concentrate mostly in class is as a result of poor listening skills in class and the lack for need to learn. Problems with cognition could also lead to poor eye contact in class. Aggressive language is a result of poor family and parental care from the guardian and use of aggressive language, the child grows and develops with the same behaviour as the parent.

Aggression in children is harmful to the child and should be eliminated before it develops to other stages. Through monitoring analysis and intervention people can save and protect the future of their children.

References:

Christensen, L., Young, K. R., & Marchant, M. (2007). Behavioral Intervention Planning: Increasing Appropriate Behavior Of A Socially Withdrawn Student. Education and Treatment of Children, 30(4), 81-103.

Stahr, B., Cushing, D., Lane, K., & Fox, J. (2006). Efficacy Of A Function-Based Intervention In Decreasing Off-Task Behavior Exhibited By A Student With ADHD. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 8(4), 201-211.