People Are Strange

[Zorra]

51. By consistently not providing an "audience", we may be able to help those with personality

disorders who act out, to some degree.

If attention is a reward, then we remove at least some motivation for negative behavior.

This may lead them to reassess their behavior, and take positive steps to learn how to to deal with stress and frustration in a more constructive manner.

"If a tree falls in the forest..."

I'm not sure if expressed compassion is a good response in situations where attention is sought through acting out. Passive compassion, while not responding at all, may be more productive, although thoughtful, well considered compassionate redirection may be an effective means of dealing constructively with personality disordered individuals, (on the internet). In real life, avoidance, to the greatest degree possible may be the wisest course of action to help ensure personal safety from individuals who may be a threat to our physical well being.

Better Students - Attention Seeking

This includes a number of behaviors–making funny noises, rude gestures, faces, talking, interrupting, whining–done primarily to attract people’s attention, gain peer approval, or mask learning problems. Also, some children adopt attention-seeking behaviors, because they do not know any other ways of getting people to look at them or listen to what they are saying. Occasional clowning around is part of being a child, but when it turns into a child’s main way of interacting, it becomes a problem.

-Pay attention to children when they are behaving the right way. This prevents children from resorting to silly behaviors to get your attention, and also promotes their self-confidence.

-Teach children the right ways of getting adult attention and making requests. For instance, if you are talking to another child, children must stand quietly and wait for you to recognize them, and then they can say, “Excuse me,” before starting in on what they have to say. When asking questions children should use a big voice and only ask their question once. Discourage children from whining (using a thin nasally tone of voice), and nagging (asking the same question over and over again).

-Ignore it. Attention-seeking behavior with no audience has little pay-off.

http://better-students.com/attention-seeking/