The growth period from birth to 5 years is characterized by significant cognitive, emotional social, behavioral and physical development. Socio-emotional development is indicative of the prevailing mental health. Children may start showing deviant behaviors from the expected emotional, social and behavioral elements from an early age. A child with such behaviors is at a higher risk of having future emotional, academic and relationship problems including depression, delinquency, academic failure and violent behavior among others (Shepard & Dickstein, 2009).
Issues, Statistics, and Strategies pertinent to Children with Special Needs (Birth - 5 Years old)
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Williams et al. (2010) concur that many times, children may demonstrate challenging behaviors both at home as well as in the classroom. These behaviors negatively affect normal childhood development, academic performance and how they relate to other people. It has increasingly become a serious obstacle to socio-emotional development and an impediment to adjustment to school and adult life. Throughout the age from birth to 5 years, children are developing self-regulation whereby they learn how to calm themselves when they are upset, and as a result, it becomes a challenge to them. Challenging behaviors include many elements such as difficulties in sleeping, issues with feeding, aggressive behavior, toilet training, non-compliance, sibling rivalry and temper tantrums among other challenges. Such behaviors may become pronounced and affect a person throughout their lives if proper intervention is not done.
Zucker and Hainline (2010) further explain that special needs children may also exhibit challenging behaviors early in life affecting them in the course of their lifetime. A study that was conducted in 13 boys with developmental disabilities such as the Down syndrome, Williams syndrome, and Fragile X indicated that these behaviors became unchanged throughout three years of the study. Children between the ages of two -5 years having delayed development or developmental disabilities may portray challenging behaviors such as aggression, extreme temper tantrums, destructive to property, self-injurious behavior among others. In a study that featured 58 children who visited a mental hospital for various aberrant behaviors, 77% had a developmental disability (Zucker & Hainline, 2010). In cases like autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability, children often exhibit challenging behaviors related to sleep problems and other behavioral problems that are highly prevalent. Among the disabilities where children score highly on challenging behaviors to include seizures as compared to cerebral palsy and Down syndrome. As such, it is evident that different developmental disabilities assign different levels of challenging behaviors among children.
Reflection
It is a big challenge for parents and guardians alike to raise children with special needs, coupled with the fact that most of them may exhibit challenging behaviors according to some studies. Other studies, however, indicate that special needs children do not have more significant challenging behaviors as compared to normal children. Parents need to help their children develop self-esteem at this early age so as to curb aberrant behaviors. The caretakers need special training on how to manage such children so as to help them in their development. Challenging behaviors may have profound negative effects on them and in turn, affects their parenting of these children in a negative way. The caretakers may also significantly contribute to the advent of such behavior through their parenting practices even for those children with no developmental disabilities.
Grantham-Caston and Tolentino (2017) add that certain practices like corporal punishment expose children to mental problems, increased aggression, antisocial behavior as well as delinquency. Parents of children living with a disability may thus be required to exercise greater caution when choosing discipline measures for their children as this may increase the already present aberrant behavior, adding that, corporal punishment leads to the affected adults being aggressive, involved in criminal activities and may even become abusive to their children and spouses. If parents could manage behaviors that expose their children to challenging behaviors, there is a high likelihood that the behaviors may decrease and become less prevalent.
The way parents respond to challenging behaviors may increase or decrease them. Positive parenting is thus an intervention strategy that can curb down such behaviors. Children need to trust their parents for them to be compliant. For parents to foster such trust, they need to avoid being coercive to their children in their disciplinary measures and instead get their children to comply through more voluntary ways and avoid verbal discipline. Such parents may feel the urge to control their children thinking that it is for their own good but what they need to do is to encourage their children through creative play (Shepard & Dickstein, 2009).
Conclusion
The age from birth to 5 years is important as it marks the early years of growth and development and children are developing their primary cognitive, social, emotional, behavioral as well as physical skills. At this stage, they may start to exhibit challenging behaviors that are not typical of their peers. For special needs children, the problem may be more serious as they require specialized intervention. While some studies propose that such children portray more aberrant behaviors, others disagree, proposing that the prevalence of such behaviors is not related to disability.
References
Grantham-Caston, M. & Tolentino, C. (2017). Building Self-Esteem in Young
Children. Association for Childhood Education International, 5(2), 1-6. Retrieved from https://static1.squarespace.com/static/572284eec2ea513dc4d683df/t/5a380444e2c4836296d20ae7/1513620550757/EYBWinter2017pdf.pdf
Shepard, S.A. & Dickstein, S. (2010). Preventive Intervention for Early Childhood Behavioral
Problems: An Ecological Perspective. US National Library of Medicine, 18(3), 687-706. doi: 10.1016/j.chc.2009.03.002
Williams, J. L., Armstrong, K. H., Agazzi, H., & Bradley-Klug, K. L. (2010). Helping our
toddlers, developing our children’s skill (HOT DOCS): A parenting intervention to prevent and address challenging behavior in young children. Journal of Early Childhood and Infant Psychology Developmental Disabilities: The Council for Exceptional Children, 45(1), 1-165. Retrieved from: http://www.cec.sped.org/ScriptContent/orders/ProductDetail.cfm?pc=D5890
Zucker, S.H. & Hainline, H.H. (2010). Education and Training in Autism and Developmental
Disabilities. The Journal of the Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 50( 4).
