It seems to always happen at the worst possible time and place— at the grocery store check-out, eating out at a restaurant, during church or an assembly, out at the local park. Your normally sweet and adorable child morphs into a screaming, crying, kicking monster rebelling the only way he knows how. As parents, we dread the meltdowns and often go berserk when it inevitably arrives.

Child behavioral specialist Dr. Jed Baker insists that the parent’s reaction is the first thing that needs to be addressed to stop public tantrums or meltdowns. He urges parents to control their own temper explaining “this is easier when we do not see the child’s behavior as a threat to our own competence, but, rather, as a function of the child’s current inability to cope with frustration.”

Dr. Baker offers strategies on how to prevent these public meltdowns. He offers an individualized approach based on specific triggers and situations. He will help your listeners analyze what makes their child meltdown and how to prevent tantrums in the future.

He will explain:

• Why it’s a mistake to give a one-year-old a “time-out” because she is rocking too much in her chair (and how to tell what is age appropriate behavior for your child).

• Why you cannot ask your child to hang up his clothes when you have never shown him how to do it. Children need visual lessons.

• How to use the “art of distraction” to de-escalate a meltdown.

• When it is best to change your demand rather than force your child to comply.

• How food can keep those tantrums at bay. Never expect a hungry or tired child to behave in public.

• How to help your child behave with a consistent system of reward and punishment.

CREDENTIALS: Dr. Jed Baker has his Ph.D. in clinical psychology and has worked over 20 years with autistic children. He’s worked with several school districts in New Jersey as a behavioral consultant and is the director of the Social Skills Training Project, a program for children with social communication problems. He is a sought after lecturer on social skills training and has been featured on major television programs because of his expertise. His Social Skills Picture Book series are constant best sellers in their field, and he has just written NO MORE MELTDOWNS.

AVAILABILITY: Nationwide by arrangement and via telephone
CONTACT: Lyn Dunsavage Young, 800-489-0727 (TX); lyn@fhautism.com; www.FHautism.com