Biting
‘Biting’ here means children aged three or more who have the habit of suddenly, without any prior warning, biting, pinching, or hitting other nearby children, or of attacking adults caring for them in the same way. This behaviour is perplexing as there is no obvious reason for the attacks and the habit is not apparently associated with anger or disappointment.
The gentle hitting game
Many years ago I listened to a child psychology expert explain that a child’s biting problem can be quickly solved by playing a game that itself involves biting. In this, whenever a child is caught biting, the parent or caregiver says “Ok, I see, you want to play the biting game. Let’s go!” The game involves the adult biting the child’s arm very gently and asking them to bite back in a similar manner. The cycle is repeated again and again, with the biting by both adult and child becoming a little bit harder step-by-step. As the game progresses, the biting begins to hurt more and more until, quite soon, it hurts so much that the child wants to stop. The idea is to help them realise, without any scolding, that biting is not fun.
Even though the author claims the method is very effective, many parents are reluctant to use it for fear of provoking their child to bite more.
Nobody has worked out why some children have this odd habit. I think it is best to assume that biting is some sort of primitive form of making contact with others. To help a child overcome the habit, encourage them to learn other ways of making contact such as giving a high–five, shaking hands, giving a clap on the shoulder or hugging.
Better ways of making contact
Nobody has worked out why some children have this odd habit. I think it is best to assume that biting is some sort of primitive form of making contact with others. To help a child overcome the habit, encourage him to learn other ways of making contact such as giving a high–five, shaking hands, giving a clap on the shoulder or hugging. Use the Kids’Skills steps when helping your child learn these more agreeable ways of greeting people.
Skill suggestions
- the skill of giving a high five to someone you want to play with
- the skill of giving others a clap on the shoulder when you want to greet them
- the skill of giving a hug to someone you want to be with
- the skill of asking someone to play with you rather than biting them
- the skill of saying “Sorry” if you hurt someone
- the skill of biting yourself rather than biting others
This article is owned by: Kids’Skills https://www.kidsskills.org/WP-fin/http://www.kidsskillsapp.com/
