A Gentle, Mindful Approach to your Child's Behaviour

What causes your child to behave the way they do? What are they feeling, what are they trying to achieve by their behaviour, and what can you do about it? How best to help your child? There are several things that can affect your child's behaviour, and many of these can appear, disappear, recur and overlap at different times during your child's childhood and adolescence:

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Developmental stage

Personality and temperament

Self esteem and well-being

Stress and anxiety

Adjusting to changes and transitions

Difficult family circumstances

Health problems

Parenting styles and home environment

Unmet needs

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Generally, challenging behaviour is either a symptom of a particular developmental stage (such as the "terrible twos"), or it is a cry for help, or call for attention. Something is wrong, and the child is showing you this. In certain cases, it may be a sign of needs that are not being met. In other cases, it may simply be that you and your child have become trapped in a negative cycle of argument, punishment, and tears, and something needs to change in order for the cycle to be broken.

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I believe that both innate factors (such as developmental stage) and environmental factors (such as parenting styles) influence a child’s behaviour. If you have more than one child, your children are likely to be very different, and you will probably see very different kinds of behaviour from each child, and they will have very different sets of needs. They will also therefore need very different kinds of support from you. 

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Together we will find out what is the root cause of your child's behaviour, and work together towards a better outcome. I believe that most childhood behavioural issues can be helped with gentle changes to one or more of the following:

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If you are feeling concerned or anxious about any of these issues, or feel that a particular area could do with some attention, get in touch and we will work on it together. Childhood is a time of growth, learning, development and change, and nothing is set in stone. Parenting is very much the same! Together we will take a gentle, mindful approach toward making positive changes in your child's behaviour. Let's take the next step together.

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