Question

Jeremy is 2.5 years old. His mother states that she is having a difficult time with him. She says that he has frequent temper tantrums. The last one happened when she took him with her to the store. After a few minutes of being at the store, Jeremy asked for a new toy. When his mother told him that she couldn’t buy the new truck today, Jeremy started to protest, cry, and kick his feet. Jeremy’s mother states that she was so embarrassed she “could have died.” 1. What information can you give Jeremy’s mother to help her understand the cause of temper tantrums? 2. How would you advise Jeremy’s mother to handle Jeremy when he gets out of control? 3. At which stage of cognitive development is Jeremy? 4. How would you teach Jeremy right from wrong?

Answer 1

1.The mother has to be explained about the following

• throwing tantrums at this stage is normal .The develops in cognition.
• Make her understand she is an adult ,dealing with a child
• The child can be convinced

2.Some of the ways to handle Jeremy are

• To stay calm until the child understand and comes to normal
• To hug the child,this can calm down the child as well as provide an emotional balance to the mother
• Offer the child dome snacks carried along
• stay cools rather than getting anger thinking that it is her child

3.The child is in preoperational cognitive development.In this stage the child usually tends to pretend by play.They are egocentric and cannot understand others point of view. They often think in concrete way which is the cause for tantrums

4.The child can be taught in the following ways

• When the child settles down, explain in simple term about his behaviour and insist this is wrong
• Give the child a understanding that if the parents refuse something, it is not good
• At some point the chold can also be given mild punishments by the parents to correct them.