LISA: Tag Lin Sleboda
The Tendency Toward Leniency
- Guilt about the child’s illness or disability
- History of the child being very medically fragile and therefore not requiring discipline
- Feeling that the child doesn’t understand enough to have discipline
Help the Parent Acknowledge there’s a Problem
- Ask how behaviors affect the child at home
- Talk about how the behaviors affect the child’s ability to make friends, progress in school, and participate in age-appropriate activities
Provide Suggestions and Model Strategies
- Start small, start with just a few rules
- Provide visual aids to help the child remember those rules
- Help the parent set and keep firm consequences for behaviors
- Train the parent on using supports that will prevent behavior problems from occurring in the first place (visual schedules, pre-teaching skills, practicing skills ahead of time, pre-directs, redirects)