Every behavior serves a purpose, and behaviors that may seem disruptive or “difficult” are often children’s attempts to communicate how they are feeling deep inside. Particularly in a difficult social climate ridden with collective fear, your child is likely experiencing some amount of anxiety.

Often times highly intelligent children will end up checking out (disassociating in a way that could even sometimes be misdiagnosed as ADD) when other kids are joking about something they think is childish or silly…or learning something in the classroom that is elementary in comparison to what this child is ready to learn about. As a result, they can feel disconnected from the group and then develop low esteem as a result of feeling like an outsider.

Parents often ask me how to deal with a child who is hitting their siblings (or being physically aggressive towards their siblings or other children). Most of the time, parents intuitively know that it is not helpful to make a child feel ashamed for their natural human impulse to hit, punch, kick, or bite...YET it can be infuriating and ultimately very concerning to experience violence between your children. And SO these situations most often end in more yelling, confusion, and disconnection between all members of the family.