If you are about to hit me, raise your voice and slap a table or your own knee instead. Take a deep breath, and then use a more appropriate form of behavior management. Extinction and time-out are the two best ways to stop an undesired behavior. To use extinction, you ignore my undesired behavior, allowing the behavior to continue until I grow tired of it. Ignoring the behavior works if your attention is what I want.
Extinction works very well for decreasing tantrums.
Extinction doesn't work if I receive additional reinforcement for the behavior. If you smile or laugh while you are trying to ignore me, you will reinforce the behavior. I may also receive additional reinforcement from other people in the room. You may do an excellent job of ignoring me, but if someone else laughs, I am likely to continue the behavior. When you use extinction, remember that the behavior usually gets worse before it gets better.