A few days ago, I posted an infographic that provided twelve tips for avoiding or defusing a power struggle. My goal for this poster was to give parents (and professionals) multiple strategies that they could use if they found themselves entrenched in a power struggle with their child.
Often, I hear people say the best way to avoid a power struggle is to “choose your battles.”
Sure, but how?
Instead, I broke it down, gave more options, provided additional behavioral strategies to try. I found that twelve was the magic number. I even posed the question, “What are your go-to strategies for avoiding a power struggle?” to a group of RBTs that I supervise, and I was amazed to see that they generated an almost identical list.
Likely, many people have used the tips on this graphic both during a power struggle as well as for other situations. My suggestion for where to begin is to highlight the strategies that might work best for your child(ren) and start with those.
Will these strategies work for you 100% of the time?
Not necessarily. Have you ever been in a situation where you don’t have time to offer choices or wait until your child is ready? That’s real life, and it happens to everyone. However, if you use the behavioral strategies from this graphic, and reward the positive behaviors you see, things will get easier over time.
A few additional notes:
One of the biggest questions that I receive after I post a new infographic is:
Can I print or share a copy? The short answer is YES!
When I make an infographic, I post it on my Facebook and Instagram business pages and then provide the free infographic in a printable format in my Resource Library, in the BIAS Behavioral Community, and on TPT. My only request that BIAS is tagged or credited in the share.
This infographic, in particular, has taken me a little longer than usual to blog about. The initial feedback I received was excellent. Until, unfortunately, it got into the wrong hands.
A few groups of people took this image out of context. They interpreted its meaning in ways that were wildly different than their intended purpose.
Initially, I felt upset. I thought, why am I even putting time and effort into making these posters in the first place. But, then I remembered the initial feedback I received and the thanks from parents who like they are out of options when it comes to managing challenging behavior. They are the very reason I started BIAS!
Through it all, I’ve decided NOT to stop disseminating the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), but instead to show others how to apply these concepts using compassion and kindness.
It’s my very own version of defusing a power struggle!
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