Many children tend to have aggressive or challenging behaviors to a greater or lesser extent during childhood, but in other cases, these types of behaviors seem to persist over time, worrying parents and teachers. When these behaviors are maintained over time, they can be a sign of a disorder that is somewhat more complex than a simple rebellion of age and respond, for example, to the so-called Oppositional Defiant Disorder or Negative Defiant Disorder.
But, how do you know if a child who has a challenging behavior has a bigger problem and his behavior lies within it? The truth is that this can be difficult, and the only way to be vigilant is by observing the child who has such behavior and doing it among all the people who represent his closest authority figures: parents, grandparents and teachers.
Common symptoms in children with Negative Defiant Disorder
- They do not handle the skill of patience well.
- They have tantrums on a fairly regular basis.
- They defy the rules imposed by their parents or teachers.
- They tend to lie and not keep their promises.
- They often have trouble with grades or academic behavior.
- They enjoy teasing people around them.
- They may use language inappropriate for their age.
- They do not assume errors and always seek responsibility for them in third parties.
At the moment the exact reasons for this type of disorder are still unknown, which is believed to affect around 2 or 15% of the population, but it may be related to other better known ones, such as Attention Deficit Disorder o ADHD , anxiety disorders, mood or learning disabilities.
In order to consider whether a child is suffering from this type of disorder, specialists say that his hostile and oppositional behavior should have remained stable over time for at least six months with angry and vindictive attitudes, continuous tantrums and challenges.
This type of behavior, misdiagnosed, could lead to problems in the long run and of greater severity to the child, quite likely suffering from bad social relationships or even severe problems in the mood , such as depression.
That is why it is so important that we know all the possible problems that a child can go through, since ignorance about them, when they really take place, leads to erroneous educational and affective methods or difficult to apply in these cases, eliminating the Possibilities of the child who suffers from it to insert himself in an appropriate and positive way in his environment and in society.
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