Scenario: 3-year-old child hitting 1-year-old sibling
Considerations:
- Possible causes for 3-year-old’s behaviour
- Possible changes to 1-year-old’s behaviour
- Is this a new behaviour?
- Is this an old behaviour that the parent has only just decided to talk about?
- Has something changed in the home?
- Ill health
- Not eating properly
- Not sleeping enough
- Daily activities changed
- Attending afternoon session at early childhood education centre
- Moved into a bed
- Has younger sibling sharing bedroom
- Having nightmares
- Not relaxing properly
- Frustration
- Having trouble saying what they want or need
- Having trouble doing what they want to do
— Intellectual development
— Social–emotional development
— Physical development
— Vision/hearing
- Stress
- Younger sibling getting into everything
- Younger sibling crying a lot
- Younger sibling getting most of parents’ attention
- Mum and dad having problems
- Jealousy
- No special time with mum and dad
- No place to play without interruption
- Has learned that hitting is okay
- Family situation has changed
- Awake more
- Now mobile — crawling, walking or climbing
- No place to play without interruption
- No special time with mum and dad
- Has learned that crying gets attention from mum and dad