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If it was your child, you would know. If there is a child throwing tantrums on the train/plane and you want to know whether or nor you can request a mom to shut it up, you can do this safely. You aren't obligated to know his diagnosis in order to have some comfort.
Not always. It can take years to realize your challenging child has a real problem and to get a diagnosis.
You need to have your child evaluated. First for something physical. Of that is negative, your pediatrician will be able to refer you to a mental health professional.
Some kids require more attention than others. These are the same kids who also need parents to set borders for their behavior. That doesn't seem to be happening in the US.
There were comments and discussions stating that the child might be mentally ill, but I see no indication that neither of these children suffer from such, and look like their parents aren't doing their jobs and not disciplining them more effectively. So at this point there's no way to tell if the child is normal, or has a real problem.
As an observer of other people's kids you don't know. If you're the parent of an out of control kid you start with the child's pediatrician and work up (psychologists, psychiatrists) from there.
My two older kids have adhd. They are actually pretty well behaved. Their major issues in public (I the past, mostly, now that they're a bit older it's not as much an issue) were being too loud/talkative and grabby -so we had to constantly redirect them from touching things and shushing them so they used indoor voices. My non-adhd child is more "bratty" in the sense that she has a very strong personality and her verbal skills aren't very developed yet, so she does tend to pout or fuss - but she's two, and I'm confident that she'll grow out of it. In the meantime she stays out of situations in public she can't habfle yet. We don't take her out to eat, for example.
As far as other (stranger or friends') kids go, I assume they're challenged in some way unless I know otherwise for a fact. Can't really go wrong with compassion over judgment.
Personality "disorders" (I call them variants) and outright psychoses are two different things. One good way to establish what the case is, is to watch how they interact with their peers (other kids). Tells you a lot.
I think the first step is to observe the child very closely. Take care of him/her always. Also look out every steps he/she is taking what he/she has done before and doing right now.
Has anyone ever noticed that all that energy has to go someplace? If you re-direct the energy you often have a behaved kid on you hands. It seems to me the faster the physical growth the more active the kid will be.
I sponsored an aquarium for years inside a really professional daycare, where 1/3 of the kids had "labels". And yet at this daycare there seemed to be none of the issues found at home. I reserve the right as a parent and adult to not agree with this whole labeling idea if it's used as an excuse.
How do you know if a child has a real problem or if he just needs to be set straight by a parent?
This is a great question.
My 4yo grandson is a handful and he does have some sensory issues, like loud noises. He throws tantrums, bites, kicks, etc. He's got a hearing problem and he doesn't talk very well, so we are wondering if this means he's autistic. But as far as disciplining, that baby minds me just fine.
My daughter came over to get them once and we were sitting there watching a movie. My grandson tried to climb my grandmother's chair which is very flimsy and could topple him over if he isn't careful, and it's a no-no for him to get on it, always has been. First time he did it and wouldn't stop, I popped him once on the butt, and he didn't get on it again that day. Since then, he will still try me, and all I have to do is say I will spank, and he leaves it alone. His mother saw me just say, "Xavier, spank!" and he got off and got in my lap. She was like, "How did you do that?" LOL
So yeah, we don't know whether he's autistic, or just a brat with hearing problems
Perhaps OP is not meddling, judging, or dealing with OP's own children. Maybe OP just finds it an interesting psychology or sociology topic. I do, too, and I'm pretty disappointed at the level of discussion in this thread. Maybe posting in "Great Debates" or "Psychology" forums would invite a higher level of discussion.
I agree. I see a lot of defensiveness here.
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