A family has three young children, ages 4, 5, and 6, who play together frequentl

Question

A family has three young children, ages 4, 5, and 6, who play together frequently. Often when one of the children, Hillary, doesn’t get her way, or if one of the other children is playing with her favorite toy, she engages in tantrum behavior. She cries and demands to get her way or get her toy back and sometimes throws toys. As a result, she gets her way or one of the parents settles the dispute and the children continue to play. Describe the time-out procedure you would teach Hillary’s parents to decrease her tantrum behavior.

Explanation / Answer

Time out procedure can be defined as a negative punishment procedure where in access to positive reinforcement is removed for a brief period of time for decreasing undesirable behaviour. In time out procedure a child is removed from the environment which contains positive reinforces(e. g. Toys, T. V., interaction with siblings, music, etc.) to an environment (generally the corner of a room) where no positive reinforces are available. The time period of the procedure is age specific and should never exceed 15 minutes. In the example above, Hilary is a child who exhibits tantrum behaviour. The time out procedure for the child would be as follows: As soon as the child exhibits tantrum behavior (throws toys, demands to get her way) without any delay start with the time out procedure letting the child know the reason for her time out in a single, short sentence.(Eg.:You are been taken for time out now for throwing toys at your sister.) Take the child away from the place where the undesirable behaviour took place to either a separate room devoid of any positive reinforces or the corner of a room. Instruct the child to sit on the chair provided for time outs. The child might initially scream and shout. Allow the child time to calm down while instructing her calmly that her time out won't start unless she keeps quiet. The time out should not be more than 5 minutes as the child is young and a time limit exceeding more than the preferred time might lead to the child using imagination to escape boredom which clearly won't serve the purpose of the punishment. Be calm but firm with the child. After the specified period of time out explain calmly to the child once again the reason for the time out and the desirable behaviour expected out of her the next time instead of the undesirable one. Be consistent with the time outs everytime the child exhibits tantrum behaviour. Also do not forget to appreciate the child when desirable behavior is practiced by the child.

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