When children behave better, their relationships improve, they feel better about themselves, and they are happier. But the solution rests on a bit of effort from parents and other caregivers until the changes take hold. This predictability is even more important when life becomes unpredictable or consfusion to children because they have had a serious illness or experienced significant changes. Therefore, parents should work to increase daily routines and establish clear consequences for good and bad behavior. It is important to ignore undesirable behavior whenever possible.
Children are happier when parents find something to reward than when they find something to punish.
Special time with parents can sometimes be used to reward which puts positive time into the relationship. Once improvement has been seen in one problem behavior, parents are ready to move on to a second target one, and so on. Families of children who have undergone treatment for brain tumors have already been through a lot of stress. I recommend that parents have a low threshold for seeking advice or consultation from a professional to help with anything that troubles them, and behavior problems are no exception. Consultation may help parents set realistic expectations, develop a program of consequences which is effective, or explore whether children have emotional concerns.