Positive Behaviour Support Strategies for Aggressive Behaviour

The emotion ‘anger’ can arise as a result of a human response to real or perceived loss of tangible items, personal space, self-esteem/value or sense of entitlement.

During early development, children may react to such occurrences in a physically aggressive manner. This often ends as the child develops further due to improvements in communication, problem solving and increased emotional regulation. However, there are instances where physical aggression persists, which may lead to a diagnosis of Conduct Disorder (CD).

Conduct Disorder (CD) is defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th edition (DSM-5) as a persistent and long term (chronic) pattern of very problematic behaviour, in which there are serious violations of social norms and rules (American Psychiatric Publishing (APA), 2013). 

Behavioural difficulties which can be associated with a diagnosis of CD are: aggression toward people and/or animals, property destruction, theft, deceitfulness and persistent rule breaking behaviour. In order to meet the diagnostic criteria for CD, those being assessed will need to present with persistently aggressive behaviours, such as those listed, at a higher frequency and across different situational contexts than their peers of the same age.

This type of behaviour must also cause impairment in social, academic or occupational functioning (APA, 2013).

There are 3 sub-types of CD as defined by the DSM-V (APA, 2013):

1. Childhood onset
   • At least one characteristic of CD is present before the age of 10.
2. Adolescent onset 
   • The child showed no CD symptoms before the age of 10.
3. Unspecified onset
   • It is unable to be determined when the first symptom of CD was present.

 

Causes of Conduct Disorder

There is no one known cause of CD, however, diagnosticians agree that there are a number of risk factors which may lead to the clinical emergence of CD.

These are thought to be:

1. Hereditary factors – inherited personality traits
2. Temperamental factors – difficult to manage temperament/aggressive tendencies
3. Environmental factors – factors within the child’s environment which include:
   
   • Lack of adequate supervision
   • Rejection and neglect by caregivers
   • Caregiver discipline is too harsh, relaxed or inconsistent
   • Inconsistent child rearing practices
   • Caregiver criminality
   • Disharmony within the home
   • Lack of adequate monitoring
   • Caregivers with a mental health problem
   • Caregivers with substance abuse problems
   • Parents involved in criminal behaviour
   • Physical or sexual abuse
   • Institutionalised care
   • Frequent changes of caregivers
   • Individual is part of a large family

 

Associated Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties

Those with CD may present with a number of emotional and behavioural difficulties as described in the DSM-V (APA, 2013):

Aggression toward people or animals

• Bullying, threatening or intimidating others
• Initiating physical altercations
• Using weapons which may injure others
• Being physically cruel to people or animals
• Stealing while confronting a victim e.g. mugging, extortion, armed robbery
• Forcing others into sexual activity

Destruction of property

• Any deliberate act of fire setting with intent to cause harm or damage
• Deliberate destruction of the property of others 

Deceitfulness/theft

• Breaking into someone’s car, house or other property
• Lying to obtain goods or favours
• Lying to avoid obligations
• Stealing non-trivial items without confronting a victim e.g. shoplifting, forgery

Serious violation of rules

• Staying out at night without parental permission
• Running away from caregivers home overnight on two occasions or on one occasion if the time spent away from home is prolonged
• School truancy

Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) strategies for Children and Adolescents with Aggressive Behaviours is a comprehensive online course which will provide you with a toolkit of practical, evidence-based strategies to reduce aggressive behaviour in your child, whether or not they have a diagnosis of CD.

You will be taught a range of behaviour management strategies to respond effectively to challenging behaviour and also to develop a behaviour support plan to support the individual develop positive ways of managing their emotions and behaving.

 

Course Outcomes

Following completion of this course, you will be equipped with:

• A toolkit of practical strategies to assess, manage and prevent aggressive behaviour
• Guidance to develop a behaviour support plan
• Free copy of ebook ‘Positive Behaviour Support for Students with Aggressive Behaviours’
• A certificate of participation of 5 hours CPD
• Completion of an accredited Teacher Quality Institute of ACT.

 

What you’ll learn

This online, self-paced course is divided into three modules:

Module 1 - Introduction to aggression

• Defining Aggressive Behaviours
• Forms of Aggressive Behaviours
• Prevalence of Aggressive Behaviours
• Causes of Aggressive Behaviours

 

Module 2 - Positive Behaviour Support

• Learn about data collection (frequency, duration and intensity)
• Complete a functional behaviour assessment
• Identify triggers and functions of challenging behaviours
• Develop a customised behaviour support plan
• Learn and identify safe and appropriate de-escalation management strategies
• Learn and identify appropriate minimisation and prevention strategies

 

Module 3 - Positive Behaviour Support and Aggression

• Assess – manage – prevent aggressive behaviour
• Anger management skills
• Growing a positive sense of self
• Guide challenging and changing unhelpful thinking
• Relationship rights and responsibilities
• Empathy skills
• Speaking assertively
• Social problem-solving skills
• Interaction skills
• Objective understanding of behavioural consequences
• New ways of interpreting communications, actions and attitudes of others
  

How to enrol and receive your resources

 

Teachable – Click on START THIS COURSE to begin the course through Teachable, where you’ll be required to pay the course fee of $165 via credit card.

If you would prefer an invoice or have multiple participants please email dolly@behaviourhelp.com

Once enrolled, you will receive a Welcome email with all the course information.

Confirm the email address you would like the Amazon voucher to be sent to so you can download a free copy of the coursebook Positive Behaviour Support Strategies for Students with Aggressive Behaviours: A step by step guide to assessing, preventing and managing emotional and behavioural difficulties on Amazon Kindle.

Course tasks to complete and send via email to dolly@behaviourhelp.com