Behavioral problems in children and adolescents are a common problem for parents in today's society. Many children act out in anger, yell, imitate negative behaviors, or act out by making people around them angry. Some children damage property belonging to others or destroy things that do not belong to them. They might also purposely hurt other people, get involved in bullying others who are weaker, or mistreat or kill innocent animals. Whatever the behavior, if it gets out of control or endangers others or the children, it is disruptive behavior. Support should be sought to help these children, families, and healthcare providers.
As nurses, it's important to understand why these children exhibit disruptive behavior. Pediatric nurses must be able to understand the children they serve in order to help aide in any early interventions or therapies. It's also important that nurses are aware of these behavior problems so that they may better interact with them.
There are two main types of disruptive behavior in children:
1. Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). ODD is a disorder in which children quickly lose control and act out constantly, disobeying adult rules at home, school, or other settings. To be diagnosed with ODD, children must have their lives or habits affected and disrupting in some way their development or that of others.
2. Conduct disorder (CD). Conduct disorder occurs when children have serious problems with violence or aggression and affect others with their behaviors. Their behavior may often involve breaking the law and causing other people to withdraw from them.
Prevention and Immediate Family Treatment Are Imperative
In both cases of disruptive behaviors, prevention and immediate family treatment play an essential role. It is essential to have a correct evaluation by a mental health professional because, many times, behavioral problems and learning problems can be confused. For example, if a child does not pay attention and disobeys in class, it could be due to a problem with learning, attention, or disruptive behavior, so it is important to be sure before starting treatment. The sooner a diagnosis is made, and multidisciplinary work begins, the sooner something can be done for the future of these children.
How to Take Care of Children with Disruptive Behavior
Disruptive behavior is challenging for all who come into contact with children in this situation. The important thing is to have a lot of patience, compassion, and understanding that help is available to improve the situation and the behaviors affecting the child.
All health professionals need to understand that the first tool for these children is support from family training. Behavior therapy training for parents is a tool for learning how to strengthen family bonds between the child and his or her primary caregivers, who are usually the parents, and provides techniques for responding to situations that may arise as behavioral problems manifest themselves. The therapy includes training parents and primary caregivers to use skills learned during therapy to modify and strengthen bonds with the children. In this way, the children learn what is expected of them, and with lots of affection and love and strong bonds with the adults who relate to them most, they can gradually learn to behave in more desirable ways. Although this therapy takes time because it takes time to learn the necessary skills and because behaviors are modified little by little, it is the therapy that has been shown to work best with disruptive behavior.
Children's Mental Health
Children's mental health is of utmost importance. While it is true that nurses often see many physical problems, the prevention of behavioral problems in children depends on everyone around and in contact with those children. It is important as a health professional to know how to distinguish the different signs of behavioral problems and mental illness so that we can counsel children and their families and help them seek care.
When a nurse, who has constant contact with patients, identifies a behavioral or attention problem, they can let the family know so that a mental health professional and treatment can evaluate it can begin as soon as possible. In this way, healthcare personnel also contribute to improving children's overall mental health, which is important and overlooked when only looking for the physical symptoms of illnesses.
Pediatric Nursing Specialty Is a Great Option For Some - Not For All
Pediatric nursing is not for every nurse. Awareness on treating patients with behavior issues is important if a registered nurse decides to work with pediatric populations.
Read 5 Reasons Why to Become a Pediatric Nurse
Nursa seeks to improve children's mental health through early diagnosis, information available to all, and health professionals informed, present, and ready to raise alerts when they see signs and behaviors that could signify a major problem.
