Our 10-year old DD is still having tantrums and does display defiant/aggressive behaviour. It is not always obvious to either my DH or I what has triggered one of her tantrums and we try to stop the situation from escalating. However, our DD seems to ?shut down?, she wont communicate! If pressed to talk, her behaviour can escalate into aggressive behaviour and she has lashed out at both my DH and I on more than one occasion. These tantrums happen when our DH is asked to do something/go somewhere that she may not want to. When she is doing what she wants (playing with friends, going horse riding, swimming), she appears to be a very happy child.
She says she enjoys school, and while struggling to make friends when she first started school has a good small circle of friends. She is also doing well in her subjects but does have a very short attention span and struggles to concentrate unless supervised. While her school have reported back about her lack of concentration they have never raised this as being a concern.
Unfortunately, I don?t have close enough friends who have children of the same/similar age to discuss this with and when I speak to my Mum or Sister they just put this down to ?normal behaviour for a girl of this age?!
These tantrums are a very regular occurrence (several times a week) and create a horrible atmosphere in the house. These tantrums do not come between me and my DH and we stick together as a united team.
This behaviour has been going on since our DD was 5-years old. In the early days we put it down to ?normal childish tantrums/growing up? but we are now 5-years down the line and when do you say ?enough is enough?!
I have seen a couple of programmes of TV and read a couple of articles on children with ADD (ADHD without the hyperactivity) and while our DD appears to display all of the typical behaviour associated with this disorder, I don?t know if this is part of growing up and something that she will grow out of or if there is a medical problem?