Behavioral disorders in children: symptoms and causes

Behavioral Disorders: What is it?

Many parents complain about their children’s behavioral problems. They are aggressive, do not follow existing rules or often have outbursts of anger. But not every abnormality means that your child is showing behavioral problems. Defiance, disobedience, or lack of attention can also be caused by your child’s personality or normal development.

In the case of behavioral disorders, certain behavioral patterns occur to a particularly high degree and over a period of at least six months in several areas of the child’s life. The disorders are therefore not clearly definable, but appear bundled as a multitude of problematic behaviors. This means that if your child is only shy or particularly aggressive at school, for example, but not at home or in a sports club, it is probably not a question of behavioral disorders. However, if certain behaviors are atypical for the child’s age-appropriate development, if they even endanger it or cause other problems in the child’s life, this can also be an indication of behavioral disorders.

These can be different manifestations of behavioral disorders in your child:

• Social Behavior Disorder
• aggressiveness
• Marked defiance
• immaturity
• Social insecurity or severe shyness
• criminal behavior
• attention deficit disorder
• Extreme fears or phobias (anxiety disorders)

behavioral symptoms

You can use these signs to tell if your child may be suffering from behavioral problems. Not all of these behaviors may apply to your child. It is important that the abnormalities occur over a period of at least six months and that your child is unrepentant and unrepentant afterwards. For example, he has a clear intention to harm someone and is not sorry afterwards. These are possible symptoms:

Psychosocial symptoms of behavioral disorders:

• Your child is not following important rules or is violating the rights and freedoms of other people.
• It is unduly aggressive towards those around it.
• It is constantly trying to be the center of attention by any means necessary.
• Your child is extremely shy and reserved.
• Your child tends to lie to those around him.
• Your child behaves criminally, for example, it often steals.
• It often has problems at school or a learning disorder, such as dyscalculia or dyslexia .
• It has problems establishing contact with fellow human beings or isolates itself completely from others.
• Your child quickly loses his composure and is prone to outbursts of anger.
• He is overly anxious and cries frequently.

Physical Symptoms of Conduct Disorders:

• Your child tends to self-harm.
• His eating habits are disturbed.
• Your child has trouble falling asleep or suffers from insomnia.
• He pulls his own hair out or bites his fingernails.
• It often wets itself.

Symptoms Of Behavioral Disorders In Babies:

• Your baby cries beyond normal for hours without any apparent reason.
• It suffers from insomnia.
• Your baby is overly sensitive to touch.
• Problems developing with feeding your baby.

Causes of behavioral disorders

The causes of such behavioral disorders are just as varied as the type of behavioral disorders. Behavioral disorders can be triggered by mistakes in upbringing, as well as psychological factors or certain types of brain damage. The following points may be related to the occurrence of interference:

• Hereditary disorder in the brain
• Early childhood traumatic experiences, such as violence, sexual abuse or neglect
• Injuries at birth or during pregnancy
• Protracted, serious illnesses or lengthy hospital stays of the child
• Conflicts or psychological problems of the parents
• Persistent school failures
• lonliness
• Cramped living conditions
• Too little attention, recognition and emotional affection from caregivers, the child feels unloved
• Expectations that are too high and cannot be met by the child
• Parenting mistakes: neglect, overindulgence, too much punishment, violence, overprotection, parental disagreement about parenting style, inconsistency, etc.

In many cases, behavioral disorders in children are a comprehensible and understandable reaction to a disturbance in their environment. With his behavior, the child tries in his own way to express internal problems and conflicts. Behavioral problems are his own strategy to get attention from others.

ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) can also cause behavioral problems. You can find out more about this in our special on ADHD . There you can find out about the symptoms, causes and treatment of the disease.

Behavioral Disorders – What Can You Do About It?

Because a child’s behavioral problems not only strain the parent-child relationship, but also the child’s social and emotional development, it is important that the affected families seek help. Since behavioral disorders are so different and can be traced back to so many different causes, it is difficult to make general statements about therapy options and success. Basically, behavioral disorders are easier to treat the earlier they are recognized and addressed. It is important that each child is treated individually and tailored to their needs. Depending on the degree of the disorder and the possible consequences, these therapy options can be helpful:

• educational counseling
• family support and family therapy
• Socio-pedagogical care
• Medication
• psychological therapy

You should not react to your child’s behavior with scolding and punishment, as this usually only makes the situation worse. Try to put yourself in your child’s shoes and understand their behavior. Your child doesn’t want to intentionally annoy you with their behavior. In the first place, it harms itself. Therefore, try to treat your child with calmness and respect and to give them what they need most: loving care and attention. You should strive to recognize and nurture their talents so that through success they can regain self-confidence and recognition by themselves and others.