Helping Children with Emotional and Developmental Challenges ($1) Introduction By the end of this article, you should be able to: Describe how to identify and refer children with, emotional and ...

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Helping Children with Emotional and Developmental Challenges ($1)
Introduction
By the end of this article, you should be able to:
Describe how to identify and refer children with, emotional and developmental challenges.
Explain the behaviours portrayed by children with emotional and developmental challenges.
Children with emotional and environmental challenges have been noted to portray various behaviours characterized by among others, aggression, bullying withdrawal, thumb sucking and hyperactivity.
Aggression
Aggression refers to behaviour that is intended to cause harm or pain. Aggression can be physical, mental or verbal. However, behaviour that accidentally causes harm or pain is not classified as aggression. Aggression is usually characterized by maladaptive behaviour such as whining, teasing, bullying, frequent fighting, use of inappropriate and indecent language, and disrespect for authority.
Some pre-school children often whine or tease their parents to get their attention. For example some refuse to eat until they are promised a favour. Children who intimidate others or become offensive so as to get their way may be an indication that they have some emotional inadequacy or poor self-development.
Fighting, quarrelling and name-calling which are common among childrenshould be discouraged. Children should be taught how to resolve their conflict amicably.
Other ways of discouraging antisocial aggressive behaviours includes:
Teaching children to respect others,
Allowing children express their feelings and desires in a socially acceptable manner.
Avoiding circumstances that may frustrate children,
Exposing children to non-aggressive models, and
Avoiding punishing children for trivial mistakes.
When dealing with an angry or troubled child, it is better to stay calm, keep the voice lose squat down to the child's level and look directly into the child's eyes. When a teacher is not able to help and aggressive child, she should refer him to a professional counsellor.
Parents should endeavour to discourage physical and verbal aggression in children right from their infancy. They need to be taught how to express their anger and frustrations in socially acceptable ways and how to resolve conflicts.
Make it clear you care for the child and you are not rejecting him. Remind the child the limits he has overstepped and suggest alternative activities or languages. Give children an opportunity to express their feelings in an acceptable manner.
Bullying
Bullying is the act of intentionally harming others through verbal harassment, physical assault or other methods of coercion such, as manipulation. It is often aimed at a weaker person. Bullying is physically and psychologically damaging to both the victim and the bully Victims end up horrified and traumatized whereas the bully maybe disliked and ostracized by peers and punished by adults.
A bully dominates and fights young and feeble members of die group. Quite often, bullying