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You’ve got two things left on the shopping list (sorry kid, we?re not getting cake). You?re rocking this grocery run?until the foot stamp. Then a scowl, followed by tears and screams. Oh, the screams. That?s what a tantrum looks like on the outside. Inside, it all begins in the brain. But how exactly does your kid turn into a seething ball of rage in seconds"
Clench your fist. Imagine this is the regulatory core, the emotional brain. Now wrap your other hand around it like a protective shell. That?s the cortex, the rational brain. During a tantrum, the logical part checks out; it?s all raw fight-or-flight emotion. ?When the cortical layer disengages, it?s like a volcano,? says Vanessa Lapointe, a Vancouver-based psychologist and author of Discipline Without Damage. ?Feelings come spewing out with nothing to regulate them.? For preschoolers, an occasional flipped lid is normal, she says, because their brains aren?t fully developed. ?They can?t control impulses and they can?t reason, so things escalate quickly.? As your kid grows, she?ll still have these feelings, but she?ll know how to handle them?because her brain will mature, and you will teach her. Julie McCann finally got there with her son, Casey. Now nine, he knows to step away when he?s overwhelmed?but life wasn?t always so peaceful. When he was five, it was hard to convince him to have quiet time; overstimulated, he?d start screaming, stomping and chucking books. ?When I saw it comi...