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Behaviour Therapy
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At home
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At home
How can I help a young child with defiance and saying no?
Defiance and saying "no" in young children is usually a healthy sign of growing independence. Help by staying calm, offering small choices, keeping routines predictable, and naming feelings. Seek a developmental check if defiance is extreme, dangerous, persists past age 5, or comes with speech, social or learning concerns.
Read the answer AnswerHow can I help a young child with difficulty sharing?
Difficulty sharing is normal between ages 2 and 5 — true sharing develops gradually as patience and empathy grow. Help at home with turn-taking games, naming feelings, praising small acts of generosity, modelling sharing yourself, and setting up easy wins, while keeping expectations age-appropriate.
Read the answer AnswerHow can I help a young child with extreme shyness?
Extreme shyness in young children is usually temperament, not disorder, and softens with warm, patient support: honour warm-up time, narrate instead of pushing, practise in low-stakes settings, and never label your child shy. Seek a developmental check if shyness causes real distress, silences your child outside home, or shrinks their world.
Read the answer AnswerHow can I help a young child with head-banging?
Head-banging in children aged roughly 6 months to 3 years is usually a harmless rhythmic self-soothing habit. Help by keeping the cot safe, staying calm, meeting the need behind it (sleep, comfort, movement), and offering soothing alternatives. Seek a developmental check if it causes injury, happens by day, comes with delays, or continues past age 3.
Read the answer AnswerHow can I help a young child with hitting others?
Hitting in children aged 1–5 is common and developmental, not a sign of a bad child — their impulse control is still developing and words for big feelings aren't there yet. Help by staying calm, keeping everyone safe, naming feelings, and patiently teaching gentle hands and better words. Seek a friendly developmental check if it stays frequent and intense, comes with limited speech or big sensory reactions, or causes injury.
Read the answer AnswerHow can I help a young child with intense or unusual fears?
Intense or unusual fears in young children are usually a normal part of their developing imagination and ease with calm, patient home support — staying steady, naming feelings, never forcing contact, and building tiny brave steps. Seek a developmental check if a fear lasts many months, causes hard-to-settle panic, or disrupts sleep, play and daily life.
Read the answer AnswerHow can I help a young child with limited eye contact?
Support limited eye contact at home by getting to your child's level, weaving connection into play they love, and rewarding any glance warmly — never forcing it. Eye contact varies widely between children, so treat it as one thread of social connection. If it sits alongside other social-communication differences across settings, book a developmental check.
Read the answer AnswerHow can I help a young child with low frustration tolerance?
Low frustration tolerance is normal in young children whose self-regulation is still developing. Help by staying calm, naming the feeling, breaking tasks into smaller wins, and teaching coping skills in calm moments rather than mid-meltdown. Look a little closer if meltdowns are very intense, long or paired with other delays.
Read the answer AnswerHow can I help a young child with meltdowns?
Young children melt down when feelings or sensory load outpace their developing self-regulation — normal from about 18 months to 7 years. The strongest help is calm co-regulation: stay steady, keep them safe, reduce the load, and name the feeling before teaching. Prevent triggers through sleep, routine and early signals, and seek a developmental check if meltdowns are very frequent, intense, or paired with delays.
Read the answer AnswerHow to Help a Child with Nightmares and Night Terrors
Most nightmares and night terrors in children aged 2–7 are normal and ease with steady sleep routines and calm reassurance. During a night terror, keep your child safe and let it pass rather than waking them; for a nightmare, comfort and reassure. Seek a check if episodes are very frequent, violent, involve breathing pauses, or affect daytime mood or development.
Read the answer AnswerHow can I help a young child with not playing with other children?
Playing alongside rather than with other children is normal in the early years. Help by being your child's first play partner, building turn-taking, then bridging to one calm playmate and side-by-side activities. If peer avoidance persists across settings, a friendly developmental check clarifies whether extra support would help.
Read the answer AnswerHow can I help a young child with running off in public?
Running off in young children (18 months–5 years) usually reflects developing danger-awareness and a strong drive to move, not misbehaviour. Help by combining prevention (routines, hand-holding, safe physical safeguards), teaching a reliable "stop" and "stay near me" through play, and meeting the underlying need — energy or escape from sensory overwhelm. Seek a developmental check if bolting is frequent, switches off danger-awareness, or pairs with speech, social or learning concerns.
Read the answer AnswerHow can I help a young child with screen-time meltdowns?
Screen-time meltdowns are a normal sign of a developing brain that can't yet switch off intense reward calmly. Reduce them with a decided limit, clear visual time warnings, naming the feeling while holding the limit, and replacing the screen with a ready next activity — given a consistent 1–2 weeks.
Read the answer AnswerHow can I help a young child with separation anxiety?
Separation anxiety in young children is a normal, healthy sign of secure attachment. Help by keeping goodbyes short, warm and consistent, practising small separations through games like peekaboo, naming feelings, staying calm, and keeping routines predictable. It eases with age — seek a developmental check only if distress is severe, persistent, or disrupts eating, sleep and play.
Read the answer AnswerHow can I help a young child with tantrums?
Tantrums in children aged one to four are normal — feelings outgrow words. Help by staying calm, keeping your child safe, naming the feeling, and comforting once calm. Predictable routines, warnings before transitions and small choices prevent many tantrums. Seek a friendly check if they're very intense, persist past four, or come with speech or social concerns.
Read the answer AnswerHow can I help a young child with throwing objects?
Throwing is normal exploration and emotion-release in children aged 1–4. Help by teaching what and where they may throw, giving safe throwing outlets, redirecting calmly and keeping rules short. Look closer only if it pairs with language, regulation or sensory concerns.
Read the answer AnswerHow can I help my child learn aggression control at home?
Aggression in a 3–7 year old usually means big feelings have outrun the words and self-control to manage them. Build it at home by staying calm, naming feelings, keeping warm consistent limits, teaching a calmer replacement, and praising the calm moments more than you react to the storms.
Read the answer AnswerHow can I help my child learn attention to others at home?
Help your 3–7 year old attend to others by making people rewarding — face-to-face play, following their lead, turn-taking games, naming feelings, and pausing so they look to you. Build it in short, joyful, everyday moments and celebrate every glance.
Read the answer AnswerHelping Your Child Learn Behaviour Patterns at Home
For children aged 3–7, behaviour patterns grow best through predictable routines, calm and consistent responses, and specific praise for desired behaviour — teaching skills rather than only stopping problems. Pinnacle supports this with clinician-led guidance.
Read the answer AnswerHow can I help my child learn behavioural regulation at home?
Help your 3–7-year-old build behavioural regulation by being a calm anchor: co-regulate first, name feelings, keep routines predictable, create a calm-down corner, and praise effort. The skill is still maturing at this age, so warmth and repetition matter more than discipline.
Read the answer AnswerHow can I help my child cope with change at home?
Help your 3–7 year old handle change by making transitions predictable with picture schedules and advance warnings, practising tiny planned changes when calm, and warmly praising flexible moments. Distress at change is a manageable skill, not defiance.
Read the answer AnswerHow can I help my child learn cohesion at home?
Cohesion — linking ideas, words and actions so they make sense — grows at home between ages 3 and 7 through storytelling, daily routines and warm, unhurried conversation. Retell the day in order, use story bridges, model connector words like 'and', 'then' and 'because', and let your child reach for words. No special materials needed.
Read the answer AnswerHow can I help my child learn decision-making skills at home?
Young children learn decision-making through small, real, everyday choices with calm guidance — offer two options, model your own thinking out loud, teach a 'stop, think, choose' pause, and let safe natural results teach. This grows the emerging brain function (ICF b152) behind choosing well and managing impulsivity.
Read the answer AnswerHow Can I Help My Child With Echolalia at Home?
Echolalia is meaningful communication and a normal bridge in language learning. At home, treat each repetition as intent, model the short words your child actually needs, pause for turns, and use comments and songs rather than questions to help them move from echoed scripts to flexible speech.
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