Case study of a two and a half year old toddler

Each of our children reached the ‘difficult’ toddler stage at the age of two and a half. A fantastic maternal and child health nurse I had for my first two children used to speak about periods of equilibrium and disequilibrium in children.

Disequilibrium refers to the half-year period before a child’s birthday (in this instance from two and a half to three years of age) when children can be easily confused, emotional and temperamental, and may have difficulty completing tasks they previously accomplished effortlessly. They then move to a phase of equilibrium over the next half year where they seem to have it all together. I think knowing this information makes the periods of disequilibrium easier to cope with as you know there’s an end in sight!