How to support children to respond truthfully, or accurately, to us?
[ Recap Part 1 ]
Children lie to avoid punishment or responsibility, seeking attention from others, or to protect another person. Often, these behaviours happen after children find themselves in a conflicted situation or after they misbehave. While some lies can be simple (such as denials), others can be more complex. Although lying is part of children’s development milestone, this socially undesired behaviour may still be worrying for some parents. I’ve described below some of the ways we can support children to respond truthfully, or accurately, to us.
1. Knowing What Your Child Can or Cannot Do
While lies are intentional, mistakes may not. Asking a child questions related to events that happened earlier would require advance language skills and cognitive abilities. In order to distinguish mistakes from lies, we have to identify the skills and abilities that your child has. This would also help to set your child up for success.
2. Choosing the Right Time and Setting
As parents, we are eager to find out what our children did for the day. However, picking a wrong time or setting may affect the child’s response. Ideally, pick a time whereby the child is not distracted from his environment or when the child is not engaged in a preferred activity.
3. Setting Your Child for Success
(a) First, help your child to establish or understand the consequences for being truthful. Let your child participate or witness a clear and simple event and ask him/her a “yes/no” question or giving your child choices to choose from. If your child responds accurately, praise/reward your child.
(b) When your child is increasingly aware of the consequences, you may present the child with complex questions around a clear and simple event. These questions may involve the child to answer WH questions or describing the event he/she experienced in a few steps. It will be best to ask questions that you already know the answer to and providing immediate consequences to your child.
(c) You may increase the complexity of the event once your child is more successful in accurately answering your questions. Again, it is important to deliver immediate consequence to the child. The longer the delay, the less likely your child will learn the appropriate behaviour.
4. Parent’s Reaction
While these procedures may help you to establish more truth-telling behaviours in your child, how parents react when the child gave a wrong answer (or engaging in lying) can also increased or maintained the behaviour.
When your child engages in truth-telling behaviours, praise him/her for doing the “right” thing and provide reinforcement to strengthen the behaviour. When your child responds incorrectly, or lie, let your child know that he/she has given you the wrong answer and provide some choices to help your child answer correctly. One of the reasons that children avoid telling the truth is to avoid being reprimanded or punished after making a mistake. Therefore, how parents react to their child’s wrong-doing or false statements would also increase or decrease the likelihood of lying.
Children can engage in false statements because they do not have the skill to answer correctly or they are trying to deceive the listener to avoid consequence on him/her. Therefore, before concluding that the child is lying, we have to distinguish the child’s language and cognitive skills to implement an effective strategy. Children may engage in a few lies, however, how a parent react to these situations may determine the likelihood of future behaviours. Although lying is part of the developmental process, excessive or persistent lying behaviour would still require the attention of a behaviour consultant.
Information provide by:
Renee Pang, Autism Partnership Senior Case Supervisor (Bsc.)
Renee Pang holds a Bachelor of Science and Graduate Certificate in Education Studies from Monash University, Australia. She joined Autism Partnership, Singapore, in 2010 and worked with children on both one-on-one and group settings and provided shadow-aide support in mainstream schools. In 2013, Renee became a Program Supervisor where she worked on designing and tailoring curriculum for the child’s needs under the supervision of the consultants. Additionally, she also ran social groups in mainstream schools and collaborated with teachers and principals to devise integration plans. Renee also provides staff and parent training sessions locally and overseas. She is also fluent in English, Mandarin and Cantonese. Since 2019, Renee currently works with Autism Partnership, Hong Kong, to provide consultation, parent training, and staff training for clients in Shanghai.
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如何支持孩子如實或準確地對我們做出回應？
[ 重溫上篇文章 ]
小孩撒謊是為了逃避懲罰或責任，尋求他人的注意，或保護身邊的人如朋友。通常，這些行為發生在小孩發現自己處於沖突狀態或行為不端之後。雖然有些謊言可能很簡單（如拒絕），但其他謊言可能更為複雜。雖然撒謊是兒童發展裡程碑的一部分，但這行為可能仍然令一些家長感到擔憂。我在下面描述了一些我們可以支持孩子如實或準確地對我們做出回應的方法。
1. 了解您的孩子的能力
雖然謊言是故意的，但錯誤不是故意的。詢問小孩之前發生的事需要高級的語言技能和認知能力。為了區分錯誤和謊言，我們必須確定孩子擁有的技能和能力。這也將助於孩子的成功幾率。
2. 選擇恰當時間和設置
作為父母，我們渴望了解我們的孩子一天做了什麼。但是，選擇錯誤的時間或設置可能會影響孩子的能力准確回應。在理想的情況下，選擇一個無干擾的環境，或小孩不分心的時候。
3. 幫助孩子的成功機率
(a)首先，幫助您的孩子確定或理解誠實的後果。讓您的孩子參與或見證一個清晰和簡單的事件，並問他/她一個「是/不是」 或 「有/沒有」的問題，或給你的孩子選擇的選擇。如果您的孩子反應準確，表揚/獎勵他。
(b)當您的孩子能夠意識到後果，你可以展示一個清晰而簡單的事件向孩子提出複雜的問題，例如不同問句或描述幾個步驟。孩子應該得到立即的後果。家長都需要知道問題的真實情況或答案。
(c)一旦您的孩子更成功地準確地回答您的問題，家長可以增加事件的複雜性。同樣，必須立即給小孩展現後果。時間延遲越長，您的孩子學習適當行為的可能性就越小。
4. 家長的反應
雖然這些程序可以幫助您的孩子建立更多的說真話的行為，但當孩子給出錯誤的答案（或撒謊）時，父母的反應也會增加或維持這種行為。
當您的孩子分享真話的時候，表揚他做了「正確」的事情，並利用強化物加強行為。當孩子反應錯誤或撒謊時，讓您的孩子知道他給了錯誤的答案，並提供一些選擇來幫助您的孩子正確回答。兒童避免說出真相的原因之一是避免在犯錯後受到訓斥或懲罰。因此，父母對孩子做錯事或虛假答案的反應也會增加或減少說謊的可能性。
兒童可以進行虛假答案因為他們沒有技能，或他們試圖欺騙聽眾以避免後果。因此，在斷定孩子在撒謊之前，我們必須區分孩子的語言和認知技能，以實施有效的策略。孩子偶爾可能會撒謊，但是，父母對這些情況的反應能決定未來行為的可能性。雖然說謊是發育過程的一部分，但過度或持續撒謊的行為仍然需要行為顧問的注意。
資訊提供:
彭嘉恩 Renee Pang, 高級行為分析治療課程監督(理學學士)
彭嘉恩在澳大利亞蒙納士大學獲得教育研究學士學位和研究生證書。在2010年，嘉恩加入 Autism Partnership 新加坡中心，擔任 ABA 行為治療師。除了一對一和小組干預，她也到幼兒園和小學當了影子老師。2013年嘉恩開始出任行為分析治療主任, 在顧問的指導下, 負責設計課程。此外，她也到學校裡組織社交小組團隊，並與教師和校長合作制定融合計劃。嘉恩也在當地和海外提供員工和家長培訓課程。她能用英語、普通話和粵語交流。2019 年起，嘉恩與香港 Autism Partnership 合作，為上海家庭提供咨詢、家長培訓和員工培訓。
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