18
Jun
One Step Back, Three Steps Forward: Dysregulation and Development
Going through a new developmental stage can cause children to become dysregulated. Sometimes in development we need to take a step back in order to take a few steps forward. I’ve been thinking about dysregulation and developmental “growth spurts? lately, as my 9-month old daughter has had a weeklong stretch of frustrating behavior. Normally she is a very easy baby; content to hang out with us and do whatever. She generally likes to be held, likes to play with toys on the floor, sleeps through the night, etc. Two weeks ago she learned to crawl ?that funny army crawl where babies kind of use their elbow and knee to propel themselves forward as they move across the floor (OT’s in the audience-yes I know the importance of doing a cross-crawl but for now she is doing it this way!). She wants to get everywhere and she is FAST! There is now a lot of time spent telling her “no you can’t go there,?