Get in the zone with your child

Parents can help to turn around the troubled behaviour of their son or daughter by creating a safe, love-bombing experience.

CHILD clinical psychologist Oliver James has good news for parents. Whether your 10-year-old’s having temper tantrums or your seven-year-old’s clingy, the problem is rarely your fault.

“Because of one misfortune or another … the child’s basic brain chemistry is in need of adjustment, usually only a small one. Rather than a pill being the only way to achieve this, it’s far more effective to give the child a new experience and to alter the way the parents relate to him,” says James, author of Love Bombing, Reset Your Child’s Emotional Thermostat.