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I have an almost 6 year old (about 2 months shy) who for the most part is a sweet, amazing child, but when angry, will hit, kick, throw, scream, run.  It started surfacing when he was about 3.5 years old.  We went through a number of preschools and finally settled on a part time parent participation preschool with a nanny present at all times.  We took him to a developmental pediatrician and it ended up more about ruling things out (autism, ADHD) than knowing the root cause. He's now in kindergarten and officially on an IEP, and in a specialized class with onsite behavior specialists and therapists, and on a shortened day.  As a part of the IEP, we're about to get in-home services with a therapist as well.  As a part of my search for answers, I stumbled upon your articles on anger overload, which is the first time I felt like someone was describing my son.  My husband and I have learned to change how we interact with him (our developmental pediatrician reco...

Hi Dr. Dave, Unfortunately, our 12 year old son has had a disappointment trigger for several years which causes intense rage. When he was younger (around 5 to 8 years old), it was tied to arcade claw games. When a prize wasn't grabbed and won, he'd throw a huge tantrum. He's conquered that situation now that he's older, but now it occurs while playing a video game and something unexpected happens - usually tied to his perception of fairness (i.e. someone is thought to be cheating, loses when a win appears imminent, spends a great deal of time collecting materials within the game but is lost, etc). Rage is almost instantaneous, not appropriate in terms of severity of the situation and can last for an hour or two if we don't distract him with something else. He often tries to break items around the house and appears to be unable to think rationally during these episodes. His mother is bi-polar, but he doesn't display the same symptoms as her - except for the actio...

When it comes to homeschooling teens, I�ve come to think it�s the same as riding a bicycle. However, I don�t mean that in terms of never forgetting how to do it.  Instead, it�s like those pivotal moments in a child�s life at 6 or 7 or 8 when the training wheels come off but the rider is still unsteady.  Do you hold on? Do you let go? Sometimes, I just don�t know. What should I do??? I�ve been homeschooling four children for nearly thirteen years, but it�s just now that I realize that homeschooling teenagers is hard. I don�t mean hard because the level of work is hard. After all, I�m an experienced secondary teacher, so I�ve educated teenagers before. I�ve run more than four different youth groups in the past twenty years, so I�ve mentored teens before. I mean, for goodness� sake, I even WAS a teenager, once upon a time! I know they can be hormonal and fickle, over-tired and grumpy. So why am I finding it so hard as my own daughter creeps toward 16 1/2 years old? Because...