Discuss some emotional problems and challenges during early childhood

Fighting
Fighting is one of the most common behavioral problems of children today. Many children have not learned to settle their misunderstanding other than by physical minas. Fighting may be a way of gaining attention a learned behaviour form parents, peers or other significant others in the children lives or as a way of striking back at a world perceived as cruel and hostile.

Verbal Abusiveness
Verbal abusiveness such as rudeness, sarcasm, impoliteness and came-calling is a cover feelings of inadequacy, a learned behaviour from adults or other models , a call for attentions or a way of striking back at an unfriendly world. When a child becomes verbal abusive, the child needs interactions with adults who are calm rational and consistent and who behave maturely. Adults need to be on guard and not to allow the child’s verbal abusive to provoke the same behavior form them. When adults result to criticism belittling and name calling, they have a chance of changing children’s behaviours.

Physical abusiveness or bullying
Physical abusiveness and bullying can be a compensation for a poor self concept. Children often hide fears and feelings of inadequacy behind acts of bullying. Verville (1968) suggested that bullies generally feel inferior. Children may also be responding to or modeling adult behaviours they have observed. Bullying may be an attempt to strike back at an unfriendly world or to seek power and attention the child cannot gain otherwise. Bullying children need calm, consistent adult/child interactions. However, because bullying behavior usually provokes anger in the adult, the child may receive only criticism
and punishment – increasing feelings of worthlessness and hostility.

Destructiveness
Destructiveness and vandalism are problems of increasing severity in our society. One of the counselor teacher first concerns is to find out what is happening in the child environment to cause such intense feelings and behavior. Is the child so angry at someone or something that there is an intense need to strike out the hurt that person or place, could the destructiveness be caused by frustration, feelings of failure or feelings of revenge because the child feels no one care. A second concern in gaining the child trust in order to change the self defeating behaviour a task that requires time and patience of from all concerned.

Tantrums
Temper tantrums may create feelings of anger frustration and helplessness in parents or other adults. Adults often feel they completely lost control of the child and the situation when children throw tantrums. In some children tantrums are a learned behaviours for neither getting attention nor getting their way. Some children have learned to manipulate adults by throwing tantrums; some seek revenge.

Lying
As part of their normal development, young children often lie because of their inability to distinguish fact from fantasy or because of fear of disapproval and punishment. Habitual lying may be due to feelings of inadequacy, insecurity or pressure from parents or other significant persons in the child’s life. It could be a learned behavior to escape responsibility or punishment.

Shyness and withdrawal
Shyness and withdrawal are attempts to avoid participation in ones surroundings. The child may fear the situation, fear failure or criticism; lack self –confidence or fear embarrassment or humiliation. It is also possible that the child is physically ill. Unfortunately, shy and withdrawn children are usually ignored because they cause little trouble compared to attention-seeking child.

Excessive tension and Anxiety
A little and anxiety may motivate a child, but excessive tension and anxiety interfere with learning and performance. Excessive tension and anxiety may be situational or a chronic condition. The symptoms include continued restlessness and movement nail biting, tics, frequent blinking, rapid breathing, repeated throat clearing and similar somatic complains.
Some children experience school; phobia which grow out of unpleasant or embarrassment experiences in school, failure in school, from the security of separation from the security of home and parents, failure of the unknown or other experiences that may have associated bad feelings with school. Some of the tensions that children experience include; School related tension and anxiety and separation anxiety among others.

Separation anxiety disorder
Separation anxiety disorder is a condition in which a child becomes fearful and nervous when away from home or separated from a loved one - usually a parent or other caregiver headaches or stomachaches, at the thought of being separated. The fear of separation causes great distress to the child and may interfere with the child's normal activities, such
as going to school or playing with other children. Separation anxiety develops after a significant stressful or traumatic event in the child's life, such as a stay in the hospital, the death of a loved one or pet, or a change in environment (such as moving to another house or a change of schools). Children whose parents are over-protective may be more prone to separation anxiety. In fact, it may not necessarily be a disease of the child but a manifestation of parental separation anxiety as well - parent and child can feed the other's anxiety. In addition, the fact that children with separation anxiety often have family members with anxiety or other mental disorders suggests that a vulnerability to the disorder may be inherited.

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francis1897 answered the question on March 17, 2023 at 07:58