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Biting Among Toddlers and Twos: Responses to Try

by Karen Stephens
July/August 2008
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Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/biting-among-toddlers-and-twos-responses-to-try/5018201/

One of the most emotionally charged issues for parents with toddlers and twos in
group care is children biting. Whether your child bites others or is the one bitten, it’s a
roller-coaster ride of confounding frustration.

Facing our children’s vulnerability �" or capacity for aggression�" brings out feelings of
protectiveness. And it brings on a lot of guilt, too. You either feel guilty because your child
is biting others or because you’ve put your little one in the position of getting bitten by
other children. From either perspective, biting is traumatic for everyone.

Biting is shocking to adults because we rarely remember chomping a sibling or playmate
during our own childhood. But biting among toddlers and twos is an age-old, common
behavior. And it does pass. It may seem to take forever, but children eventually learn to
control that knee-jerk impulse to bite.

As you grapple with biting issues, consider the unique developmental challenges facing
children. Toddlers and twos are just learning the ropes of a very complex world of
unpredictable social interactions. The number and variety of peer behaviors that they must
learn to interpret and respond to increases greatly in a classroom setting. Most interactions
are smooth sailing; some are not.

Toddlers and twos are just beginning to grasp that people have different perspectives. They
are ...

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