With these tag points we can de-escalate a tantrum safely, effectively, and in a way that is gentle for the child.

Joan: Sorry, I just want to ask you a question before we go on that I’m sure people are wondering about. What happens if you tag during a tantrum but the child is too upset to take the reinforcer. How do you handle that?

Martha: Oh, well that really doesn’t matter. What I did with Douglas was if he was so upset that he couldn’t accept the reinforcer I just piled them up on a table, and he would have a little stack of goodies accumulating there and he would go and get them afterwards. It doesn’t matter if they don’t accept the reinforcer. They’re getting that signal. Especially if they’ve had a little bit of experience with TAGteach, they know that it means you’re doing the right thing and the reward is coming. So it really works very well, and you don’t have to worry about on-time delivery of reinforcement, they’ll get to it. And actually, seeing the reinforcer piled up on a table can even be a better motivator for getting the child to calm down because hey, there’s something great over there that he can get to.

The very first time I used TAGteach I had Douglas erupt into a tantrum and in twelve minutes I had him calmly sitting on the sofa and enjoying a little reinforcer, and he had had no experience with the tag and he learned it instantly in that twelve minutes of tantrum.

Joan: OK, thank you.

The real goal though, is to prevent tantrums

They are totally unnecessary.

They are deeply disturbing to the child and disruptive to a productive routine, whether in home or at school.

And it can be done!

Here are the principles of Tantrum Prevention that we will cover today.

• Tantrums should be rare
• Set up an environment to deliver success
• Monitor balance of failure and success
• Monitor demands – Make sure they are not TOO HARD, TOO MUCH, TOO LONG!
• Measure and keep track of time
• Bonus suggestions from Douglas