Top 5 Behavioral Signs That You Should Seek Child Therapy
Children go through several mental, emotional, and physical developmental stages on the road to adulthood. Sometimes, the changes are subtle while at other times the changes leave parents confused as to what is happening to their loved one. The more dramatic changes in your child might prompt you to ask, “Is it time to take my kid to child?”
The answer to the question is not as easy as it seems. Children change for many reasons, from coping with a traumatic experience to simply reaching a milestone in the early life developmental process. Regardless of the reason for a noticeable change in your child, the change is important to determine whether your child needs to attend therapy sessions.
For adults raising a child, it is important to recognize the five behavioral signs that their child might need therapy.
Defiance
A vast majority of kids eventually move into a life stage when they start to question everything said by an adult, whether the adult is an authority figure inside or outside the home. One day, you might notice your child starting to argue, complain, and even become defensive at instructions that the child has accepted throughout the early stages of life. The question is not whether your child starts questioning your authority, but instead, the question should be how often and how vehement your kid has become at challenging your parenting decisions.
Pay close attention to the input provided by other adults, especially teachers and other parents that interact with your child on a daily basis.
Regressions
Children naturally regress in behavior because of a significant life change, such as the birth of a sibling or a shift in the relationship between parents. Nonetheless, if you detect a major regression in your kid’s behavior for apparently no reason, the time has come to consider child therapy. The most common types of regressive behavior include bedwetting, temper tantrums, exce, and frequent bouts of reverting to baby talk.
Sudden Habit Shifts
Sudden habit shifts, such as changes in your child’s slee, might indicate an underlying troublesome behavioral development. Children occasionally change habits to accommodate mental, emotional, and physical development stages, but when the shift in a habit turns into more than a passing trend, the time has come to take notice and consider enrolling your kid in child therapy sessions. Another habit to pay attention to is any changes in your child’s eating pattern.
Sudden habit shifts that last for more than a week demonstrate your child might be dealing with an intense emotional stressor.
Social Isolation
Although noticing a change in your child’s behavior is relatively easy to do when it involves sudden temper tantrums, the same cannot be said if your kid starts to isolate from other children. Withdrawing socially represents an automatic emotional response among children that feel acutely sad and/or anxious about a major life event. Isolating socially is a common reaction for children changing schools or having to deal with a change in parenting status.
If your normally social child starts to do things alone, you should consider giving the combination of child and family th a chance to heal what ails your kid.
Acts of Self-Harm
Although most of the behaviors children develop that indicate the need for child therapy are not easy to notice, the same cannot be said if your child starts to commit acts of self-harm. Although acts of self-harm represent an obvious sign of severe teenage angst, the acts also can be signs of a behavioral issue in a young child. The types of self-harm acts that are easy to detect include digging nails into the skin and banging the head against another object.