Dealing with child misbehavior is a struggle, for many, if not most parents, teachers, and child care providers. Behavior is the number one reason children are referred for services in educational settings and the number one reason children are expelled or not allowed into child care programs. Behavior management problems in the classroom are the number one reason teachers leave the field of teaching and the number one reason administrators deny tenor to new teachers. It is estimated today that over twenty percent of school age children have behavioral issues and that one in every twenty preschoolers will grow up to commit a serious crime against another human in their lifetime, causing them to be incarcerated.

     Serious misbehavior in early life can threaten a child's educational placement and academic achievement, thereby influencing career development, financial attainment, and job satisfaction in later life.  If, as some experts suggest, 80% of those incarcerated for committing a serious against another had behavior management issues in early childhood years, then, what caused the child to have those problems? Can we identify the issues in early life and correct them to avoid later life criminal behavior?

     The answer to those questions is ‘Yes!” The factors that influence a child to have life-long behavioral problems are identifiable at an early age.  Another advantage is that behavior problems are much easier to correct in a young child than they are in an older child or an adult. The older the child becomes, the more costly the intervention becomes and the longer it takes to correct the problem. According to studies, every $1 spent on intervention strategies at the early childhood age saves $7 in later remedial services.

     Yet, too often parents, teachers, child care providers, and administrators wait, thinking the problem behavior in the child will go away as the child outgrows the behavior. And, to be quite fair, sometimes that is exactly what happens. And, some misbehavior in young children is actually a normal and expected part of development. How do you know which behaviors are normal and which behaviors are indicators of something more serious? But many times, the child does not outgrow the misbehavior and the problem does not go away. Then, parents often wait until the problem has become major or someone forces the parent to do something about the behavior, such as if the child’s behavior causes him or her to be expelled from school or a child care setting.

     How do you know which behaviors are normal and which ones indicate a more serious problem? How do these more serious behaviors become set patterns that persist over time? And, once you have identified problem behaviors, what can you do to correct them while the child is still young to avoid lengthy and costly interventions in the future? That is what ‘When Time-Out & Stickers Don’t Work’ is all about.

     I have worked with young children with behavior problems for over twenty-five years and continue to consult and provide therapy for children of all ages in my clinical practice today. I am constantly dismayed when I hear parents, educators, and the like say they want to wait to address problem behavior in a child because I know how much harder that behavior will be to correct the longer the child continues to misbehave.

     This book was written to inspire those working with young children to do what they can to correct problem behavior in the early years of life. Chapter one of this book addresses common factors that contribute to problem behavior in young children. In chapter two, I discuss how behavioral patterns are established and retained and how these patterns are “hard-wired” into the brain, serving as a base for all future behavior.