How to Recognize if My Child’s Anger Issues are Age-Appropriate or if it’s Something More

This article provides helpful information regarding anger and how it may impact a child with learning challenges. Integrated Learning Strategies (ILS) is a learning and academic center. As a reminder, ILS is not a health care provider and none of our materials or services provide a diagnosis or treatment of a specific condition or learning challenge you may see in your child or student. If you seek a diagnosis or treatment for your child or student, please contact a trained professional who can provide an evaluation of the child.

Anger is not unusual or unfamiliar for most parents. As children grow older, they explore their emotions and develop a sense of emotional intelligence as they cope with tough issues at school, at home and with friends.

However, when anger issues become a reoccurring problem that lead to what seems like “bad” behavior, do we know when emotional reactions are age-appropriate or when they are associated with a learning challenge?

Kids often express their anger and emotions in a few of the following ways:

• Meltdowns or tantrums
• Harming themselves or others
• Acting out at home or at school
• Is unconsolable for hours
• Can’t self-regulate on their own

How do we know the difference?

When a child experiences anger and frustration on a regular basis, it can be hard to know the difference. The first priority is to recognize the signs and symptoms so parents or therapists can find the right strategies to help the child navigate through those emotions.

By knowing the differences, parents and therapists can not only understand how to better handle anger issues at home, they can also learn to prevent meltdowns and anxiety from happening in the child’s environment. It’s also important to know the differences because younger children are prone to more anger and tantrums due to their age and development stage.

However, children past the age of seven years old should begin to understand how to self-regulate their emotions better and anger trouble should start to subside after this age. Now we all get angry (even as adults), but this type of anger is when it becomes consistent and frequent without ways to console the child.

Children with learning challenges often struggle with anger and frustration on a daily or weekly basis. Kids with a number of the following diagnoses may have trouble regulating their bodies and emotions because of disconnections in the brain:

• Sensory Processing Disorders (SPD)
• ADHD
• Dyslexia
• Autism
• Dysgraphia

As parents and therapists, our approach should be much different when helping a child with learning challenges who also struggle with anger issues. For severe behavioral issues, parents should consider professional help from a behavioral psychologist or behavioral neurologist.

How to recognize the signs

Here is a helpful chart to help you determine whether your child is experiencing anger issues that are age-appropriate or if they are trying to cope with anger issues associated with a learning challenge. As a reminder, many of these recommendations may overlap or work for both types of children.

To download a copy of this chart, complete the form at the bottom of the page and check your email inbox.

Signs of Anger Chart

To grab your copy of the chart above, complete the form below and check your email inbox for the download link. If you do not see the link, check your junk/spam folder in your email inbox and email info@ilslearning.com if the download has not come through.

Integrated Learning Strategies is a Utah-based center dedicated to helping mainstream children and children with learning challenges achieve academic success. Our services provide kids with non-traditional tutoring programs within the Davis County, Kaysville, Layton, Syracuse, Farmington, and Centerville areas. Areas to find Integrated Learning Strategies include: Reading tutors in Kaysville, Math tutors in Kaysville, Common Core Tutors in Kaysville, Tutors in Utah, Utah Tutoring Programs