Tv Show Review

Tv Show Review

Carmie Cantu

Lone-Star College Montgomery

Behavior Modification and Cognitive Disorder

CMSW 1341

Glen Killian

September 21, 2014

T.V. Show Review

For this assignment I chose to watch Nanny 911, on Netflix. The episode was about the Dickson family, which included a recently widowed mother who was raising a 8yr old girl named Jacqueline and a 7yr old boy named Collin. The father had died almost exactly one year ago and the family had not yet been able to deal with the emotions, grief and sadness from his sudden passing. The nannies were called upon because the mother was having a really hard time parenting the children, and they were ruling the household.

The children’s behaviors were extremely aggressive towards each-other and also towards the mother. Jacqueline and Collin would call each-other names, kick, hit, bite, choke, scream and fight constantly. Jacqueline the 8yr old had become so angry that she was taking her extreme aggression out on her mother, to the point that she was physically assaulting her on a regular basis. She was punching, kicking, biting and literally beating her mother and had become so aggressive that the mother was scared of her.

The father was always the disciplinarian so after he died, the mother never was able to step into that role. Her behavior was that she was passive to the point that it was inhibiting her ability to parent. The mother would not discipline the children or take control, instead she would non-assertively ask the children to stop hitting her and she would retreat and cry. So the nannie was called in to help the children’s out of control behaviors by helping the mother learn how to take control.

After observing for one day, the nanny picked the things that were the biggest problems and she set some rules. Rule #1. Respect each-others privacy; Rule #2. Use your words, Not your fists. Rule #3. Mom is the only parent in the house. Rule #4. No name calling. After the nanny set down the rules, she starts trying to get to know Jacqueline and understand why she behaves that way. Jacqueline opened up to the nanny and told her that she felt sad and she missed her dad.  She also felt like her mom didn’t understand her and love her like her dad did, and because children do not always know how to express their feelings, especially feelings of hurt, pain, and sadness, so often children express these feelings the only way they know how, through anger. So the children’s sadness and the mother not taking control is the antecedent which in turn causes the B-behavior which is aggression, and they then receive the consequence, which in this case is positive reinforcement by making the mother cry, or making her try to calm them down and also to just have someone to take their anger out on.