Mistaken Behaviour’ developed by Gartrell (2004)

Gartrell (2004) argues that labeling behavior as misbehavior infer the child willfully behaved in an unacceptable manner and deserves punishment. He argues that regarding the behavior as mistaken behavior instead places behavior in the context of incomplete development of a school skills.to support this idea, Gartrell argues that if a child makes a cognitive or language error, educators will use their professional knowledge and appropriate learning strategies to guide the child towards developing an understanding or skill. For example, you would never consider punishing a child who says his foots are all muddy. It follows that a child who behaves mistakenly in an attempt to solve a problem or conflict should not be punished, but rather guided towards learning appropriate behavior.