Early Intervention Strategies Key in Preventing Unwanted Behaviors in Children

COLUMBUS, Ohio (March 5, 2025) – Children often show strong emotions through their behaviors — aggression, arguments and tantrums. However, these actions do not always indicate a mental health concern.

According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), practicing certain healthy lifestyle behaviors may reduce challenging and disruptive behaviors, and starting prevention strategies early is essential. Experts with The Kids Mental Health Foundation, founded by the behavioral health professionals at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, recommend starting behavior management strategies as early as the toddler years.

“Behavior management allows parents to respond to challenging behaviors in a positive way, which keeps a healthy parent-child relationship as they grow up,” said Ariana Hoet, PhD, executive clinical director of The Kids Mental Health Foundation. “Encouraging positive behavior helps build children’s self-esteem, emotional regulation, and social skills, which is imperative to children’s mental health.”

Dr. Hoet recommends the following strategies to help prevent unwanted behavior and increase positive behaviors in children:

• Set routines. Having a schedule and reviewing expectations is key to behavior management.
• Get enough sleep. Getting the proper amount of sleep will boost a child’s energy levels and improve their mood and behavior.
• Maintain a meal schedule. Hunger can bring out a variety of emotions in kids. Making sure they have a regular meal schedule and are not hungry can have a positive impact on a child’s daily behavior.
• Strengthen relationships. Make sure children are getting enough attention and affection from family members and friends. Kids need to know they are cared for and supported, so acknowledging their good behavior with hugs and compliments will increase the frequency of those behaviors.
• Praise positive behaviors. Focus on the good behaviors and offer praise for specific actions. Attention and praise motivate kids to do that behavior again.

“It takes about five positive comments to balance out one negative comment when it comes to keeping a healthy relationship with your child,” said Dr. Hoet. “So, parents and caregivers need to notice positive actions and praise good behavior often. Children want to be helpful and do well. Letting them know that they are on the right track is key.”

Understanding why kids act out can be an important step in responding to behavior in a healthy way. Parents and caregivers can often yell or argue when a child is throwing a tantrum. Disruptive behavior triggers the fight or flight response in human beings. When adults establish a pattern of negatively responding to unwanted behavior, it is difficult to break the pattern.

For more resources on behavior management, please visit KidsMentalHealthFoundation.org.

The Kids Mental Health Foundation is the leading organization promoting mental health for children in the United States. To achieve its vision to build a world where mental health is a vital part of every child’s upbringing, more than 1,000 mental health professionals and researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, in partnership with other trusted experts, provide real-world knowledge and expertise to power the Foundation’s free educational videos, guides and curriculum. Launched in 2018 as The On Our Sleeves Movement for Children’s Mental Health, the organization recently expanded its mission as The Kids Mental Health Foundation to reflect the belief that emotional and physical wellbeing should be treated the same. To date, more than 24 million people have engaged with the Foundation’s materials, empowering parents, caregivers, educators, coaches and employers as the guiding force for children’s mental health all across the United States.