Dr. Robert Needlman
Specialist in pediatric behavior and development.
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 Ask Dr. Needlman
New Bad Behavior in a Good 10-Year-Old | | | QUESTION | | | Dear Dr. Needlman,
My 10-year-old son has been a good student and all-around pretty good kid up until about two months ago. He has been doing poorly this marking period and also getting into trouble at school. Is this a phase that he's going through, and if so is punishment the way to deal with it? He seems so angry all the time that it worries me.— Confused Mom in Barnegat, NJ USA | | | ANSWER |
April 10, 2001 | | | Dear Confused Mom,
When a child who has been a good student and a good kid all of a sudden shows changes in behavior and mood (dropping grades, trouble in school, angry all the time), there is something other than just misbehavior going on. Among the more likely possibilities is depression, which often appears as irritability (easily angered by little things). Other possibilities are hormone problems (hyperthyroidism, for example), substance abuse, other psychiatric problems, or a severe source of stress (for example, death of a dear friend or psychological trauma.)
Without knowing your son, I can't say which if any of these is the case, and of course it may be something else entirely. The point is you need to figure out the cause before you go about trying to correct the outward behavior. If the problem is a psychiatric disorder such as depression, punishment will only make matters worse. Your child's doctor or nurse practitioner would be a good first place to go for help; you also may end up consulting other professionals.
It's important to take action, and not wait. Two months is already long enough for a minor issue to have gone away on its own. But with prompt treatment, chances are good that the cause of your son's behavior can be treated.— by Robert Needlman, M.D., F.A.A.P. |
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