The word ‘tantrum’ is frequently used in parenting advice, research and official early years documentation, but as we continue to understand more about brain development, is this a word that early years professionals should still be using?
DICTIONARY VIEW
Oxford Languages defines the word ‘tantrum’ as ‘an uncontrolled outburst of anger and frustration, typically in a young child’. The Cambridge Dictionary has a very similar definition – ‘a sudden period of uncontrolled anger like a young child’s’ – and gives the examples: ‘Charlie had/threw a tantrum in the shop because I wouldn’t buy him any sweets’ and ‘If she doesn’t get her own way she has temper tantrums’. In these scenarios – despite it saying that the emotion being displayed is ‘uncontrolled’ – the onus put on the child could be perceived as negative because it is implied that they are deliberately misbehaving.
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