11/21/2025
Often times parents share that their child struggles with behaviors at daycare, school, or therapy that don't line up with how they behave at home. And that is exactly right!
Let's think of it this way.
📌Home is a comfort place where children know what to expect, how to deal with those who live there, how to get their needs met, and what the routine is.
📌Outside the home is full of unexpected turns. The people who can anticipate what you need are not present. The child must communicate all needs and wants, handle conflict with other children, and learn self regulation when they don't want to do what is expected.
📌 Classrooms, daycares, and therapy offices are full of unexpected situations. Children have to learn what to say, how to behave, and how to deal with other people's behavior.
📌 There are so many different sensory inputs outside the home that are a challenge for children. The humming fluorescent lights, the smells from the lunch room, the talking from other people, the colorful and fully decorated classrooms, the hard seats, the sunlight that reflects off the tile floor, the laundry detergent smell from the teacher's clothes, or the feel of having shoes on all day. Put all these sensory inputs (plus many many more) into a few hours and some children have no other way to communicate that they need a break than by having a meltdown.
📌 Compare how your day would go if you had to go in someplace to work vs working from home. On a work site we are polite, greet others, filter our comments, and treat others with respect. At home we can roll our eyes if we are frustrated, only communicate when we have to, and we are not exposed to other people's words or behavior.
Even adults act differently when we are at home. And considering all the factors that children have to learn how to navigate, I completely understand!!!
