What Do You Do When Children's Behaviors Are Interfering With Personal Relationships?

Assess the Behavior̵7;s Impact

• Observe your child and your family to discern problematic behaviors you see in your child. These misbehaviors could involve physical or verbal abuse of others, anti-social behaviors such as lying and stealing and a general refusal to cooperate or yield to adults in authority. Talk to your partner or other principal adults in your child̵7;s life to share concerns and gain agreement about the seriousness of the difficulties and the need for intervention. To facilitate change, adults need to agree about the behavior problems and to a plan for resolving them, counsels the Erie County Department of Social Services.

First Steps

• Contact your child̵7;s pediatrician, a school psychologist or a guidance counselor to begin the first steps toward professional help, advises the PACER Center, a Minnesota Parent Training and Information Center. A physician may examine your youngster to eliminate the possibility of a physical health issue. Receive a referral to a service that will evaluate your child and then provide a recommendation for treatment.

Treatment

• Recommended treatment may include various types of therapy. The youngster may need behavioral or cognitive therapy to help him learn more appropriate ways to cope with emotions and feelings. As parents, you may benefit from parenting classes to learn more effective parenting techniques. Family therapy can enable everyone to interact with each other more positively, according to the GoodTherapy.org website. Even marital therapy might help -- especially if you and your partner have been struggling due to stress and demands from the child. Your child might also receive a recommendation for medications that could help improve behavior.

Healthy Support

• As you navigate through the process of helping your child learn better behavior habits and interacting more positively as a family, strive to provide healthy support for your child, advise experts at the Mayo Clinic. Feelings of anger and frustration are typical in families struggling with serious behavioral problems. By focusing on your interactions with your child and reactions to negative behaviors, you might make positive changes that will help your child choose better behaviors and actions.