We have a really really sweet 3 yr old dcg, but for awhile now she has been beginning to get down right mean. The worst behavior is biting (at least 6 months now everyday she tries to bite). No matter what we do, her first response is to bite someone when she's mad. She's bitten me a couple or 3 times (hard), and has tried numerous times but have been able to move my hand, arm, leg, etc before she sinks her teeth in. The other children often go home with a story of how x bit them. I know removing her from the situation before she has a chance to is what everyone will say, but with her, since it's so quick and her very first response we usually can't get to her in time. Besides that, if I have to physically pick her up and move her (since she gets so focused and refuses to move), she'll try to bite me. Her parents are really good with her and not afraid to disipline, but they are having trouble with her behavior also recently. Some of the other behavior issues are: She'll step on someone's foot, just to do it. If someone lays down on the floor for a minute to play or whatever, she might just step on them on purpose. She'll throw toys all over the room, and if we get after her, she'll throw them all the more, and then becomes focused on just throwing any toy within reach. Wait til she's calm and try to have her clean up, she'll ignore us until we go right up to her, then she starts throwing them again. If we tell her to clean up and then we leave the area, she never does clean them up. Just goes to another area and dumps all those toys out and throw THEM around. She's also mean to animals. Steps on them, kicks them, teases them to no end, throws rocks at them... We used to have a 3 yr old boy who did this type of thing (but he was autistic, we're almost positive). Got to where we couldn't care for him anymore and they had to move on. But several months after he has been gone, this dcg has began acting like him. If he was still here I'd think that was why (repeating the behavior that she sees), but he's been gone long enough now that I don't think that would be the cause of it. None of the other children act like this. They KNOW they'd be in big trouble, but nothing works for this little girl, and she used to be just so sweet and mature for her age, and SO SMART! But now...it's like an evil twin sister took her spot Besides the biting, her other behaviors are just random. She's not mad or anything like that. Even smiles while she does it!
Terming is not an option we want to consider. She was one of our favorites! Just so sweet. But now we dread when she's going to be here (part time, 3-4 days/week). How can a little girl change so much? We love her to pieces, but this behavior... What are your thoughts?

Reply