Final answer:
The nurse should advise the mother to use the time-out technique, which can effectively address temper tantrums by removing the child from the enjoyable activity without reinforcing the behavior with attention. Time-out should last for three minutes for a 3-year-old and should be conducted in a calm and controlled manner, followed by a positive gesture once completed.
Step-by-step explanation:
Addressing a 3-year-old's temper tantrums can be challenging for parents. It's important to understand that toddlers are at a stage of developing autonomy and may often throw temper tantrums as a way of expressing emotions they can't verbalize and testing boundaries. The best advice would be neither to ignore the child completely nor give in to their demands or reward the undesirable behavior with new toys. Instead, utilizing a technique such as 'time-out' can be effective. The time-out technique involves removing the child from a desirable activity and placing them in a less desirable location for a short period of time, using the rule of one minute per year of age, so in this case, three minutes. This method provides an opportunity for the child to calm down and understand that their behavior has led to a less enjoyable consequence, without reinforcing the tantrum through attention or rewards.
Moreover, it's crucial for the caregiver to stay calm during the process of directing the child to time-out, to ignore the child while they are in time-out (so as not to reinforce misbehavior with attention), and to offer a gesture of reconciliation, like a hug or kind words, once the time-out period has ended. This approach to behavior modification respects the child's growing sense of independence while setting clear boundaries for acceptable behavior.