Is the word ‘tantrum’ now inappropriate? Annette Rawstrone speaks to experts on different sides of the debate around this common behaviour
A tantrum: ‘dysregulation’ or should we say the child is feeling overwhelmed?
A tantrum: ‘dysregulation’ or should we say the child is feeling overwhelmed?

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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