Destructive behaviors are one way that children attempt to cope with their feelings. Make sure you talk with them in an informal setting about other coping mechanisms they could employ instead.
While healthy children may occasionally display destructive behavior, any pattern of this nature could be indicative of more serious emotional difficulties, possibly ADHD or depression.
1. Emotional Needs
Children often resort to destructive behaviors when they cannot find another outlet for expressing their emotions. Instead of talking through it calmly or talking it out with friends and family members, children may act out by breaking things and attacking others – this kind of behaviour is both disturbing and potentially dangerous for the child; thus it’s crucial for parents to understand why their toddler behaves this way so they can put an end to it swiftly.
Adults often find it easy to identify children’s physical needs, such as food, sleep and activities as well as medical attention when necessary. Unfortunately, however, emotional needs can be harder for adults to identify; those whose emotional development is healthy have positive attitudes about life and high self-esteem while those whose needs are unmet may struggle learning new skills, make friends easily or form insecure attachments to caregivers.
Children may act out in order to get what they need; for instance, toddlers who constantly break toys belonging to other classmates could be trying to attract attention or punishing themselves through destruction of items around the home. Studies have demonstrated that meeting children’s emotional needs can reduce aggressive and destructive behaviors.
2. Lack of Self-Control
Small children often engage in destructive play – known as destructive play- to see what will happen, learning about cause and effect in an experimentation-type fashion. Sometimes these children appear to be doing it just to get attention or try and gain their parents’ approval; but often these actions may just be an outlet for their emotions, diverting away from any issues at hand.
Toddlers who exhibit aggressive behaviors are at an increased risk for clinical psychiatric disorders later on in life, so if your child displays these traits it’s wise to seek professional assistance for managing them.
Fire-starting, cruelty to animals and bed wetting behaviors are often telltale signs of mental issues in children. Sometimes there may be an organic reason for their aggressive outbursts such as frontal lobe damage or various types of epilepsy that might contribute to aggressive outbursts.
If your toddler regularly destroys property, speaking with their pediatrician or mental health provider about it is advised. If their destructiveness continues, making a police report may also help teach your child that there will be consequences for damaging another’s property and that their actions won’t be tolerated outside the home.
3. Physical Needs
Many parents feel exasperated when their toddlers destroy property, prompting anger in response. Instead of reacting negatively, it’s important to keep in mind that your toddler’s poor coping skills may be behind his destructive actions; keeping this in mind could help you respond more effectively and avoid power struggles between yourself and him that could ultimately backfire on both of you.
Understand that destructive toddler behaviors may simply be their way of communicating that they require physical needs to be met. It isn’t unusual for toddlers to hit, bite, fall down on the floor and cry their frustration without words to express how they feel. Children may also struggle with transitions such as when parents announce it’s time to clean up and prepare dinner.
Noteworthy is also that the root causes of toddler destructive behavior are varied and interlinked, including the environment, health issues, temperament differences and maternal responses to their child’s actions. Birth complications and premature deliveries may contribute to problem behavior later on, while parents who exert excessive control over their children run the risk of encouraging aggressive tendencies in them. Research suggests that temperament and maternal behavior together are major predictors of externalizing problems in early childhood (Cicchetti & Rogosch, 1996); therefore it’s crucial that all these aspects be taken into consideration when dealing with destructive toddler behaviors.
4. Social Needs
Children may use destructive behavior to try and gain control over situations which make them unhappy, such as parents doing something they dislike, or attending an event they wouldn’t otherwise attend. Unfortunately, such actions often result in lack of respect between individuals resulting in damaged relationships and potentially irreparable loss for both sides.
Children may play with toys and break things, but it should never be done in an aggressive or destructive manner that harms other people or property. If your toddler displays this kind of behavior regularly, you should seek assistance immediately.
Disruptive behaviors like aggression and tantrums typically peak early toddlerhood and begin to decline by school entry; however, some children don’t adhere to this expected trajectory. Researchers used latent profile analysis to examine how frustration reactivity, physiological emotion regulation, maternal controlling behaviors and frustration regulation relate to whether disruptive behaviors persist throughout childhood.
Whenever your child displays aggressive behaviors during tantrums, this should be taken as a telltale sign that there may be some underlying issues to address. They could possibly be suffering from mood disorders or developmental psychiatric disorders; should this behavior continue, their risk for clinical psychiatric disorders in adolescence and adulthood increases significantly.
