Interesting and timely!
Is this article here @ Peaceful Parenting: Tackling Distress Tantrums with Brain Research.
I don’t know about anyone else, but Gwen has been full-on tantruming since about 9 mos of age, so although we are getting significantly LESS tantrums now, we definitely have a few meltdowns per day. My gut reaction is always that she’s really in distress - she certainly appears to be in distress - but culturally, it’s expected that she’s tantruming because she’s asserting herself and wants to manipulate the situation.
I feel good knowing that the research suggests that says she’s truly in distress and needs my help to manage her emotions.
Crystle said,
January 15, 2010 @ 12:41 am
Very interesting article! It does make a lot of sense.
However, it doesn’t talk about how to diagnose if your child is having a distress tantrum or not. How do you determine that so that your can respond in the best way possible?
jenny the big sis said,
January 15, 2010 @ 10:52 pm
i was wondering the same thing as Crystle; i think i can tell the difference but what if i’m way off and just making a problem worse instead of better?