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Behaviour Therapy
Explore explanations, everyday questions and next steps connected with behaviour therapy.
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Therapy & support
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Therapy & support
How can a teacher support a 1-year-old who shows tantrums in class?
Tantrums in a one-year-old are normal and expected, not misbehaviour — a teacher helps best by staying calm, keeping the child safe, naming feelings, offering comfort and using predictable routines to reduce triggers. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerHow can a teacher support a 1-year-old who throws objects in class?
A 1-year-old throwing objects is typically displaying healthy cause-and-effect and grasp-release learning, not misbehaviour. Teachers can support this by offering safe things to throw, redirecting unsafe items gently, narrating and praising alternatives, and arranging the room safely. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerHow can a teacher support a 2-year-old who shows biting in class?
Biting at age two is a common, developmentally normal phase, not bad behaviour. Teachers support it by staying calm, keeping everyone safe, tending the bitten child first, identifying triggers, reducing pressure, and giving the child words and tools to communicate. It usually fades as language grows. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerHow can a teacher support a 2-year-old who shows breath-holding spells in class?
Breath-holding spells in a 2-year-old are an involuntary reflex, not a tantrum or a choice. A teacher supports the child by staying calm, laying them safely on their side, protecting from injury, avoiding any reward or punishment, reducing triggers, logging the event and informing the family to seek a doctor's review — including an iron check. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerHow can a teacher support a clingy 2-year-old in class?
Clinginess in a two-year-old is normal and shows secure attachment. A teacher helps most by being a calm, predictable secure base — consistent greetings, gentle transitions, comfort objects, naming feelings, celebrating small brave steps, and partnering with parents. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerHow can a teacher support a 2-year-old who shows defiance and saying no in class?
Defiance and saying "no" at age two is a normal, healthy sign of a child's growing sense of self, not misbehaviour. Teachers help best by staying calm, offering simple choices, keeping routines predictable, connecting before correcting, and picking their battles. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerHow can a teacher support a 2-year-old who shows difficulty sharing in class?
A 2-year-old who struggles to share is developing normally — sharing depends on social and language skills still forming at this age. Teachers help most through short turn-taking games, duplicate toys, naming feelings, modelling and praising attempts, never forcing or shaming. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerHow a teacher can support a shy 2-year-old
A teacher supports an extremely shy two-year-old by following the child's pace, never forcing participation, building predictable routines and a trusted adult relationship, and using low-pressure invitations like narrating play and side-by-side activities. Shyness at two is usually normal temperament; a check is only needed if reserve comes with communication or social-engagement concerns. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerHow can a teacher support a 2-year-old who shows head-banging in class?
For most 2-year-olds, head-banging is a self-soothing or communication behaviour. A teacher helps by keeping the child safe, staying calm, finding the trigger, meeting the underlying need, offering soothing alternatives and words, and building predictable routines — while suggesting a developmental check if it is frequent, intense or injurious. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerHow a Teacher Can Support a 2-Year-Old Who Hits in Class
At two, hitting is a normal developmental stage driven by big feelings and limited words, not a behaviour problem. A teacher supports best by staying calm, keeping children safe, naming the feeling, lending the words, teaching gentle alternatives and anticipating triggers — consistently and warmly. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerHow a Teacher Can Support a 2-Year-Old With Intense Fears
A teacher supports a 2-year-old with intense fears by staying calm and predictable, never forcing the child towards the trigger, naming the feeling, allowing comfort objects, using gentle gradual exposure, and partnering with parents. At this age such fears are usually normal development. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerHow can a teacher support a 2-year-old who shows limited eye contact in class?
A teacher can support a 2-year-old with limited eye contact by connecting on the child's terms — joining their play, getting to their level, and pairing warm faces with things they enjoy rather than demanding "look at me". Limited eye contact alone is not a diagnosis. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerHow can a teacher support a 2-year-old with low frustration tolerance?
A teacher supports a two-year-old with low frustration tolerance by keeping tasks small and achievable, staying calm to model co-regulation, naming feelings, using predictable routines and simple choices, and building waiting in tiny steps. At this age low frustration tolerance is developmentally normal. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerHow can a teacher support a 2-year-old who shows meltdowns in class?
At two, meltdowns are a normal developmental stage — toddlers feel big emotions without the words or control to manage them. A teacher helps most by staying calm, reducing triggers like hunger, tiredness and overwhelm, keeping routines predictable, and offering comfort and simple choices rather than punishment. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerHow a teacher can support a 2-year-old not playing with other children
At two, parallel play — playing beside rather than with other children — is developmentally typical and a normal step toward cooperative play near age three. Teachers can support by setting up shared low-pressure activities, bridging children together, and modelling turn-taking, while watching the wider picture of eye contact, response to name and gestures. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerHow can a teacher support a 2-year-old who runs off in class?
Running off at age two is common and developmentally typical, driven by curiosity and immature impulse control. Teachers help best through structure, close supervision, predictable transitions, safe boundaries, and teaching a playful "stop and come back" skill in calm moments — not punishment. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerHow a Teacher Can Support a 2-Year-Old With Screen-Time Meltdowns
A 2-year-old's screen-time meltdowns reflect age-typical difficulty with transitions and self-regulation, not misbehaviour. Teachers can help by limiting screen use, warning before transitions with visuals or songs, offering an engaging activity to switch to, staying calm, and aligning with parents. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerHow can a teacher support a 2-year-old with separation anxiety?
Separation anxiety in a 2-year-old is a normal, healthy sign of secure attachment. Teachers help most with a predictable warm routine, a brief confident goodbye ritual, acknowledging the child's feelings, a comfort object and gentle engagement into play. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerHow can a teacher support a 2-year-old who shows tantrums in class?
Tantrums in a 2-year-old are a normal part of development. A teacher helps most by staying calm and co-regulating, naming the feeling, keeping routines predictable, noticing triggers, and offering small choices. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerHow can a teacher support a 2-year-old who throws objects in class?
At two, throwing objects is usually normal toddler behaviour — exploring cause and effect or expressing feelings they cannot yet say. A teacher supports best by keeping everyone safe, redirecting throwing to where it is allowed, naming the underlying need, and praising gentle play. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerHow can a teacher support a 3-year-old who shows biting in class?
A teacher can support a 3-year-old who bites by staying calm, keeping children safe, finding the trigger behind the biting, naming feelings and modelling words, reducing crowding and frustration, meeting oral-sensory needs safely, and praising better choices. Biting is communication, not aggression, and usually fades with consistency. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerHow can a teacher support a 3-year-old who shows clinginess in class?
Clinginess in a 3-year-old is a normal part of building security. A teacher can support it by being a warm, predictable safe base, using gentle goodbye routines, comfort objects and low-pressure invitations to play. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerHow a teacher can support a defiant 3-year-old
A three-year-old saying "no" is showing healthy, developmentally normal autonomy. Teachers support this best with calm consistency, limited choices, warm connection and predictable routines rather than power struggles. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerHow can a teacher support a 3-year-old who shows difficulty sharing in class?
A 3-year-old's difficulty sharing is typical development, not misbehaviour — turn-taking and perspective-taking are only just emerging. Teachers help by teaching turn-taking with timers, providing duplicate materials, modelling and praising sharing, and coaching calmly in the moment. A developmental check is worth considering only if wider social, play or language patterns lag behind peers. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
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