Temper Tantrums
Medical Author: John Mersch, MD, FAAP
Medical Editor: William C. Shiel Jr., MD, FACP, FACR
What are temper tantrums?
Temper tantrums are emotional and physical "meltdowns" common among children in the 2- to 4-year-old age range. The toddler may demonstrate a number of characteristic
behaviors, including screaming, kicking, lying on the floor, and occasionally
holding his breath (rarely to the point of passing out). As a child matures,
these manifestations of emotional, developmental, and physical immaturity
gradually extinguish themselves. Studies indicate that 23%-85% of children
between 2 and 4 years of age will commonly have temper tantrums.
What causes temper tantrum in toddlers?
A toddler's view of the world is egocentric; "I want what I want, when I
want it!" This narcissistic view of their world is coupled with an incomplete
and unbalanced development of expressive language skills when compared with
their more complete receptive language skills. The receptive language of a
2-year-old child is numbered in the thousands, while the expressive skill
generally is 150-200 words. Perhaps more frustrating for the toddler is the
receptive ability to understand complex sentence structure while only able to
express his thoughts in two- to three-word phrases.
The toddler world is full of exploration and discovery. Commonly, young
children learn by observation and attempting the same or similar task. This
(from a parental perspective) is fine when it comes to desired behaviors (such
as toilet training). However, playing with the TV remote control is not part of
these desired behaviors, unless you are a toddler and don't discriminate with
regard to goals. When a parent's desire for safety and limiting chaos clashes
with their young child's fierce struggle for autonomy and limited language
capabilities, the temper tantrum is almost inevitable.
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