Dallas CBT’s therapists provide specialized treatment to help manage behavioral problems in young children, including individual therapy for the child and behavioral parent training for the parents. No child behaves perfectly 100% of the time, however, some children develop a tendency to engage in disruptive or noncompliant behaviors more than average.
Struggling with a child who will not follow directions, throws frequent tantrums, becomes aggressive either verbally or physically, or behaves defiantly towards their caregiver (e.g. “No! I don’t wanna!”) creates a significant amount of stress within a household. When these behavioral problems are persistent and severe, it may result in a diagnosis of Oppositional Defiant Disorder. These symptoms can significantly interfere with a child’s functioning, and may result in poor school performance, poor peer and family relationships, or trouble with authority figures generally. Parents dealing with these types of challenging behaviors may feel overwhelmed, stressed, or even depressed, and may feel that even completing everyday tasks with their child (e.g., getting ready for school, having dinner) is a struggle.
Potential Signs of Behavioral Problems
- Frequent loss of temper or tantruming
- Often angry or easily annoyed
- Frequently arguing with parents or other authority figures
- Refusal to follow directions / defiance
- The feeling that the child is running the household
Behavioral Therapy For Kids
Our treatment options for behavioral problems include individual treatment with the child, supportive consultation or training with the parent, or interventions involving both parent and child. We believe that the parent is crucial in the therapy process and would like them to be as hands-on as possible.
Child Behavioral Therapist
Our team can approach child behavioral problems through individual therapy with your child, through parenting consultation, or some combination of the two. Each avenue offers advantages, as behavioral problems are just as often maintained (or caused by!) ineffective parenting strategies as they are by processes within the child themselves.
Our Therapist’s Approach
We offer CBT-based individual treatments for kids and adolescents. Our process is largely influenced by our trainings in evidence-based treatments such as Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) and the work of Russell Barkely, and can be tailored to each child’s presenting problems. Our goal is to help them learn and implement skills to help manage aggressive and/or impulsive behaviors, regulate their emotions more effectively, and improve their relationships with others. Generally, an individualized program of this nature may last 12 to 20 sessions, though more limited treatment goals can be addressed in a briefer form of therapy.
The goal of parent training or consultation is to help parents get out of the ineffective cycle that they are so often stuck in with their children. This often means simply setting up an environment that effectively limits reinforcement for your child’s negative behaviors, and gives more effective reinforcement of the positive behaviors you want to see more of. At times, that may mean working with a parent on the way they handle the stresses of parenting.