We are going to talk now about creating a successful tantrum-free, or at least a tantrum-rare, environment for your child or student.

We recommend that you start by running through the Status Of The Child Checklist.  Is your child or student:

• Hungry?
• Thirsty?
• Hot?
• Cold?
• Happy?
• Angry?
• Tired or sick?
• Constipated?

After you run through the Status Of The Child Checklist, review your plan for the day:

• Assess child’s skill levels
• Assess task demands
• Does the child have the skills to perform the task?
• Does the child value the reinforcers?

Ask yourself, does the child have the skills to perform the tasks he will be expected to perform?

Remember the video of Lear learning to ask permission before opening the refrigerator. He had to be taught this skill explicitly, and practice it.

I think with Shubata’s son and the sofa, this would be something you could set up so he could learn a nicer way to share the sofa.

After you run through the Status Of The Child Checklist and Plan For The Day, decide whether changes or modifications may be helpful:

• Break the tasks down to the child’s skill level
• Tag and reinforce correct responses
• Give breaks
• Reinforce child for productive behaviors during break

All of these are hard for us to do. When we work with our children we have an agenda and goals in mind. We want to help that child and we want to push the child.

We may also have time limits or schedules, and we as adults, feel pressure to achieve something during that time period. We discussed the problems of the “therapy hour” in the first part of this course.

However, as hard as it may be, we have to go by the child’s clock. It is hard, in the beginning, to let the child “stop work” and wander about. But, when you consistently reinforce the child, you help the child feel “safe.” When she feels safe, and knows that she can leave the “work” setting whenever she feels overwhelmed, she is more likely to return to it – she’s not returning to a prison!