You may find it helpful to complete this activity if you need assistance with understanding and reflecting on the sexual development and behavior of children and youth in your care.

Think about a child’s sexual development-physical changes, knowledge and beliefs, and behaviors and record the information in the table.

Physical Changes
  • Typical for 11-year-old
Knowledge & Beliefs
  • Advanced knowledge of sexual language and sex acts
  • Believes threatening and physical behavior is a way to get what he wants and resolve conflict with others
Behaviors
  • Uses threats of a violent and sexual nature to respond to conflict with children, even those that are much younger
  • Forcefully touched another child’s private parts

Record your thoughts on the following factors to reflect on a child's sexual behavior.

Culture & Family Norms
  • It has been difficult for program staff to collaborate with Vanessa and Chris, Cameron’s parents. They have a very authoritarian, no-tolerance parenting style. Sheila has provided information to the family on social-emotional development and positive guidance. When Sheila hears of Cameron doing good things in the program, she always shares this with Vanessa and Chris.
Development
  • Cameron has a history of challenging behavior. He received special education in preschool due to delayed social-emotional development, though he no longer qualifies for services at his kindergarten transition. Last school year, he went through the evaluation process at school and the evaluation team recommended he qualify as a student with an emotional disturbance. Vanessa and Chris disagreed with this and would not consent to an IEP. They feel the problem is with the school, not their son.
Function of the Behavior
  • Cameron threatens using violent and sexual language to get what he wants. He couldn’t really state why he touched Makayla but did say that he gets “mad over stupid stuff” and that she was “going to get it.”
Frequency & Participation
  • This is the first time staff observed Cameron inappropriately touching another child, but he has a history of using profanity and violent language with other children.
  • Cameron will participate in a wide range of activities, but several of the other children in the program don’t want to be around him.
Environment
  • Staff don’t feel there is a particular environment or activity where these behaviors occur more often, but peer collaboration activities are most challenging for Cameron.
Effect on Others
  • Cameron’s behavior upset and violated Makayla. Different children exposed to single incidents react in various ways, so we don’t know what future support she will need, if any.
  • Cameron’s behavior is creating an environment where other children don’t want to be around him. Makayla is not the only child staff have heard refer to him as a bully. Other children may have observed the incident and will need support in understanding what they saw is not an appropriate way to handle conflict.
Redirection
  • Staff have been providing targeted supports Tier 2 of the Pyramid Model for about a month. They have been trying to build Cameron’s self-esteem by pointing out the good things he does and providing mini rewards for his good behavior, but this has not been very effective. Cameron initiates confrontation and threatens on a daily basis. Learn more about the Pyramid Model and targeted supports in the Focused Topics course支持ing Children with Challenging Behaviors.