Aggressive behaviour in children

By the counsellor Safaa Al-Nujaili. What is aggressive behaviour? Aggressive behaviour is a negative act that comes from a child towards others and appears in the form of physical or verbal violence or in the form of gestures and expressions unacceptable to others. Among the causes of aggressive behaviour appearing in children: First: the child's imitation of someone he sees as his role model, which may be a family member, a friend, or the cartoon characters he watches and becomes attached to. Second: the child's feeling that he is socially rejected by his family, his friends or his teachers as a result of negative behaviours on his part that have not been handled correctly. Third: encouragement and reinforcement by the family for aggressive behaviour as being self-defence. Fourth: the child's feeling of inadequacy as a result of a congenital defect in speech, hearing or any other organ of his body, or as a result of repeatedly hearing others describe him with negative labels such as stupid or lazy or other crude descriptions. Fifth: the child's inability to express the feelings inside him and his inability to communicate for reasons that may be psychological, such as withdrawal, or linguistic, as when the child speaks a different language from those he deals with during his time at school. Sixth: the child's feeling of frustration and failure as a result of his inability to complete certain tasks or his delay in them, which makes him express it through aggression. Seventh: the suppression of the energy latent in the child's body by the family or the school, which drives the child to release this energy aggressively on others. Eighth: the child himself being subjected to oppression and aggression by others. Manifestations of aggressive behaviour: aggressive behaviour begins with an episode accompanied by anger and frustration, accompanied by feelings of shame and fear. Episodes of aggressive behaviour increase as a result of continuous or repeated psychological pressures in the environment. Assaulting peers in revenge or with the aim of causing disturbance, using the hands, the nails or the head. Assaulting others' property, keeping it or hiding it for a period of time with the aim of causing disturbance. Being marked in daily life by excessive movement and by not taking precautions against the possibility of harm. An inability to accept correction. Provoking others, not complying with instructions, not cooperating, being watchful and wary, and verbal and non-verbal threats. Quickness to anger and agitation, and much noise, resentment and anger. Destroying others' property, such as tearing notebooks and books, breaking pens, damaging seats and writing on walls. Directing insults and foul words. Forms of aggression: human aggression appears in several forms, among them: Physical aggression, in which a person acts physically against another, examples of which are hitting, kicking, pushing and fighting with weapons. Verbal aggression, which stops at the limits of words, examples of which are insults and slander, and a person's mouth is the first tool he uses for aggression, even while he is still very young. Symbolic aggression, in which we engage in behaviour that symbolises contempt for others or leads to drawing attention to an insult directed at them. Types of aggression: there are many types of aggressive behaviour: Concealed aggression, such as a child's aggression when a younger sibling arrives. Displaced aggression, which results from the parents' interference and depriving the child of self-determination, and is treated by involving him in some matters of the home, such as his opinion about his clothes or about meals or otherwise. Imaginary aggression, which arises from the conflict between the child's aggressive feelings and the controlling standards, and is treated by explaining that a person's feeling of anger is natural and blameless if the child is left to master his problems freely. Individual aggression, where the individual seeks to harm other individuals, groups or things. It may be collective, where a group seeks to harm other groups and individuals. Rational aggression, which rests on rational justifications in a particular situation. As for the second type in terms of the level of rational justification, it involves few rational justifications and is dominated by an internal emotional, impulsive stance that pushes the individual towards aggression without his having a clear, conscious assessment of it and of all its circumstances. Therapeutic means for aggressive behaviour: these are some of the ways that help reduce aggressive behaviour: First: ceasing to deal with children in a strict and harsh manner, such as hitting or constant scolding. Second: keeping the child away from the bad examples he deals with, such as friends or some television programmes. Third: keeping the child away from witnessing family disputes. Fourth: strengthening the child's feeling of happiness and self-confidence. Fifth: releasing the child's physical energy through engaging in some physical activities such as running, cycling and others. Sixth: talking with the child and guiding him in how to express himself through movements, drawing or writing some words on a piece of paper showing his anger. Seventh: making the child feel the importance of what he does and encouraging him and not confusing him with tasks he cannot perform. Eighth: making use of suitable opportunities to pass a hidden message to the child showing the rejection of this behaviour, through a situation shown before the child or by telling a story without embarrassing him. Ninth: not discussing the child's problems with others in his presence, for this leads either to the child feeling victorious because of his family's inability to solve them or to his feeling embarrassed, which leads to the problem increasing in both cases. Tenth: using rewards and reinforcement. Eleventh: muscular release: encouraging the child to release his anger and his violent behaviour towards others by engaging in physical activities such as running, swimming, playing football or basketball, or hitting a punchbag to ease his tension. Twelfth: depriving the aggressive child of the gain he obtained as a result of his violence towards others, so that violence is not linked in his mind with positive results. Changing the environmental circumstances that led to the aggression and giving him a sound model for dealing with others. That the parents or the teacher should not use aggressive behaviour with the child's aggressive behaviour. The teacher should work to stop the aggressive behaviour and not overlook the child's behaviour and violence. Teaching the individual how to bear frustration, at least to the degree that makes him not harmed by the frustrations that occur in daily life. Thirteenth: self-talk: by which the individual is trained to talk to himself to rid himself of his tension and his feeling of anger. Fourteenth: holding the child: a child may completely lose control of himself, so that he needs to be prevented from moving or taken away from the place to preserve his safety and prevent him from harming himself or others. Fifteenth: developing insight: after the episode of anger has completely passed, the incident is discussed in order to develop his understanding of the problem, so that the discussion includes a description of your feelings and the individual's feelings during the problem, the reasons that led to the anger, and the alternative ways of solving such a problem in the future. Sixteenth: simple punishment: so that the individual understands that episodes of anger and violence will not be in his interest, isolation is imposed on him for 2 to 5 minutes in a special room, and whenever he decides to act he is isolated, so that there must be firmness and realism within the rule: do not show any sympathy or anger. Seventeenth: the paradoxical task: these are the tasks that appear contradictory to the child because they impose an outwardly contradictory nature, such as asking children to continue their episodes of anger rather than stop them. This in fact reduces the behaviour because he resists being told what to do.