Liza Rivas

Parenting has its wonders, but sometimes it is so hard to follow through challenging moments.  Have you ever lost your patience, piece of mind or control?  Our children go through different stages themselves. They go through a process of transition.  Some examples would be: the arrival of a new sibling, moving to another country, school or neighborhood.  What shakes a child’s life and emotions maybe a simple or an insignificant change in an adult’s life. 

When a child’s behavior changes drastically in a short period of time there is usually a reason behind it.  Children react to situations not necessarily work through it.  Depending on the age it is hard to work through a problem that they can not identify or understand.

What to do?  How to help?

It is always good that someone external to the family environment observes the child in school and receives feedback from family members of their daily routine.  A school counselor, teacher or child specialist may help in this process.  The first step to understanding a behavior is identifying the feeling behind that behavior.  What is causing that child to react, or feel inadequate or unhappy? 

Some parents want to deal with the behavior itself and that is understandable and definitely the child needs to understand what is incorrect and unacceptable, but the real solution underlies in the reason behind an inadequate conduct.

Sometimes families need to rearrange their environment or how they handle situations.  Many times the child is the symptom of a family issue or present circumstance.

Other times accommodations need to be taken into consideration at home and at school.

The specialist needs to identify where and when these behaviors are taking place to identify the trigger and eventually the reason behind the outbursts.

What I want to clarify today is that it is important to take the time to concentrate in a change of behavior and not overlook the situation as simply part of growing up.  Many children cry for help through behavior changes.