The child’s problems are often multi-factorial and the way in which they are expressed may be influenced by a range of factors including developmental stage, temperament, coping and adaptive abilities of family, and the nature and the duration of stress. In general, chronic stressors are more difficult to deal with than isolated stressful events.

Personality and nature of a child is developed in initial 8 to 10 years of life. Mind of a child works like a sponge and absorbs whatever negative/positive he/she experiences and that programmes the personality and nature of the child.

Quality parenting helps in the all-round development of the child and helps in preventing habit and behavioural problems in children.

Children do not always display their reactions to events immediately, although they may emerge later. Children should be allowed to express their true fears and anxieties about impending events.

Behaviours that are appreciated or rewarded may make the children repeat them again and again and the behaviors that are ignored or warrant punitive actions are normally dropped off. It is the consistency of the parents that helps the child to decide, whether to continue a behavior or not. Rewarding a behavior at one time and punishing the child for it on another, may just confuse the child and your child may develop behavior problem. Sometimes, we may have to decide whether the behavior is not a problem depending on the child’s age and stage of development. Ignoring unwanted or ‘bad’ behavior is the best way to stop it in the long term as some children just repeat the actions as they crave for your attention, whether it is positive or negative.

The silver line is that everything is not lost even if there are problems in a child. Expert’s parenting guidance will always help in overcoming issues with patience.