In early childhood intervention, similar parent management
strategies are often used to manage apparently dissimilar
problems (e.g., infant feeding or sleeping problems, preschool
disruptive behavior). That similar intervention strategies are
used to treat these various problem behaviors should not be
surprising, as self-regulation skills develop rapidly during
this age period. Self-regulation involves the ability to control
impulses and expressions of emotion; thus, children with
difficulties in self-regulation might show a range of problems,
including higher rates of tantrums, irritable mood and oppositionality, and disturbances in sleep, eating, activity or attention. Despite the range of symptoms, there may be common
maintaining mechanisms. All of these problems might elicit
similar levels of frustration in parents, their responses leading
to a worsening of child symptoms, in a cycle of coercive interaction (Patterson, 1982; Shaw & Bell, 1993).