child behaviour

[yash10]

My 4 1/2 year old nephew is beating up his peers at school.  Children are terrified of him.  He has recently started  doing this.  He has always been a withdrawn child with very little communication with others children as well as adults.  He was alright at his previous school although he used to keep to himself and not mix with other kids but never indulged in beating etc.  Could you help,What could be the possible reason to this change of behaviour.  What actions can be taken to calm him down.  

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Sure. The child is made to sit in a chair for a prescribed period of time. Your nephew should be made to sit (quietly) for five minutes. A timer should be used to track the time, and the timer should be started only when he is seated and quiet. If he makes any noise during the five minutes, the timer should be restarted. He should not be permitted to play with anything while seated. The time is deliberately designed to be boring and unattractive. For the same reason, the chair should not be positioned where he can view television or any other entertainment. He should not be isolated, however. That can be very scary for such a young child.

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

When children display very sudden changes in their behavior, particularly dramatic changes from their baseline, it is generally due to changes in their environment or to feeling vulnerable (scared). When young children feel vulnerable their behavioral controls disintegrate and they often vecome aggressive. From a behavior management point of view, the approach is fairly simple - he should be placed in time out each and every time he displays any aggressive behavior. But he shouls also be evaluated in order to figure out what is prompting such a dramatic change in his behavior.

[yash10]

Thank you.  but could you tell me what time out is.