Disclaimer: The purpose of this information is Awareness only, not diagnostic. As a parent, if you are facing any difficulties it is suggested to observe your child(ren) patiently and connect with a certified Child Psychologist.

   
  • Children are powerhouses of energy and bundle of joy. In their growing years, They start learning and expressing their emotions. Here the important aspect for parents to know is children are very sensitive towards the emotions of people surrounding them and the environment in which they live. They tend to perceive things in a bit different ways than adults do. Feeling every emotion in these growing years is necessary to lead a happy life. However, the skill is considered to be completed when children also learned to respond to these emotions in an acceptable manner.
   
  • Seeing frequent mild mood alternates in children is quite normal because they are in a learning period. For example, if the kid has a fight with a friend or sibling he/she can be sad about the incident, and the moment you offer an outing or favorite eating stuff, he/she bounces back to their jolly state. These types of alternates in mood are acceptable even if they occur 4-5 times in a day and even more.
   
Mood swings is a severe term to use with children. As early as, at the age of 5 or 6 years children can be diagnosed as having mood disorders. As per research, only 1% of children have severe mood swings in this age group however it is comparatively more prevalent even in pre-teens.
   
Mood swings refer to the changes in emotions from manic to depression with frequency-like swings. In children mood swings usually appear with other problems like ADHD. In rare cases, it comes with unexplained violent behavior. Following are the symptoms of mood swings in children :
   
  • 1. Inattentiveness
  • 2. Restlessness
  • 3. Difficult to complete the task
  • 4. Disturb others
  • 5. Too many movements
  • 6. Easy distraction
  • 7. Inability to understand others’ needs.
  Now how to differentiate between mood alternates and mood swings ??
  • The first and formost thing you need to do is to understand the context or environment in which the child is expressing. Next comes the frequency of that behavior, which means noticing the number of times that particular behavior occurs. Another aspect is the intensity of the behavior, which means what all kinds of responses do you see? Shouting, hitting, head banging or throwing objects, no or little eating. Last is the severity of the behavior, how much these changes are hampering the school and home life of the child? After considering these three parameters then only consult to a Child Psychologist or Clinical Psychologist.
   

WARNING !!! Don’t label the child by yourself.