Establishing partial limits on children's behavior: Use of strategic,structural, and cognitive-behavioral approaches

Abstract

Playful wrestling, splashing, fidgeting, chair-tilting, and a number of other behaviors by children often result in injuries, tantrums, or conflicts in families. Unlike most behaviors of children which can be specified by parents as acceptable or unacceptable, each of these behaviors is only partially acceptable and the limits of acceptable behavior are impossible to specify in verbal terms; these limits can only be determined by the child after the limits have been exceeded. Exact limits can be established in these instances with an intervention which integrates strategic, structural, and cognitive-behavioral approaches. Two case examples are presented and the ingredients which appear essential to the intervention are discussed.