I am a social worker who works with children who have been diagnosed as having major Axis I diagnoses. Frequently, these children exhibit behaviors that may be classified, colloquially, as “temper tantrums.” There is no unequivocal definition of a temper tantrum, but over the next few weeks, I will detail what I believe are the stages of the typical temper tantrum and detail methods that residential providers, foster parents, treatment parents, and parents can deploy to manage them.
What is a Temper Tantrum:
My experience leads me to believe that temper tantrums are a child’s “effort” (e.g., screaming, yelling, throwing things, threatening, destroying property, etc.) to maintain control and self-esteem in the face of poor judgment and poor reality testing. Basically, the tantrum is an inefficient means of coping with feelings and reality. As a social worker, my goal is to understand its immediate process sufficiently well to teach the child, and her/his caregivers, alternative coping behavior to survive their crisis.
During my next post, I will enumerate the stages of the typical temper tantrum.
Brian A. Pitt
