Separation anxiety
25 articles
Age-Related Features of Daycare Adaptation: What to Expect at Each Stage (US)
A child starting at 10 months is having a different experience to one starting at 2 or 3 — different cognitive tools, different social capacity, diffe...
Age-Related Features of Daycare Adaptation: What to Expect at Each Stage (UK)
A child starting at 10 months is having a different experience to one starting at 2 or 3 — different cognitive tools, different social capacity, diffe...
Age-Related Features of Daycare Adaptation: What to Expect at Each Stage (Global)
A child starting at 10 months is having a different experience to one starting at 2 or 3 — different cognitive tools, different social capacity, diffe...
Starting Daycare: A Complete Parent's Guide to Choosing, Preparing, and Adapting
Starting daycare is one of the bigger transitions of early childhood, and the parts that surprise most parents aren't the obvious ones. The first day...
Why Sleep May Worsen After the First Birthday
The first birthday gets sold as a turning point, and for some families it is. For plenty of others, the weeks just after 12 months are the worst sleep...
Why Toddlers Resist Bedtime
The "five more minutes, one more book, I need water, my sock is wrong" routine is so universal that paediatricians joke about it being a developmental...
Sleep Regression at 6–8 Months
The 6-to-8-month window is one of the densest periods of infant development outside the newborn weeks. Motor skills, cognition, social awareness, and...
Sleep in Children Aged 18–24 Months
By 18 months, most children have transitioned to a single midday nap and a more predictable overnight sleep pattern. But this period brings its own sl...
Sleep in Children Aged 12–18 Months: Key Changes
The period from 12 to 18 months is one of the most complex for sleep, combining a major nap transition with a developmental regression and the emergen...
Separation Anxiety at Nursery Drop-Off: What It Is and How to Help
The weeping face at the nursery gate is one of the most emotionally difficult experiences of early parenthood. The parent walks away to the sound of t...
The Psychology of Returning to Work After Parental Leave
The first morning back at work after parental leave is one of the strangest days of an adult life. You drop off a small person who fundamentally chang...
Emotional Reactions in Children Aged 6–12 Months
The stretch from six to twelve months is one of the most emotionally crowded in early development. The relatively simple distress-or-calm spectrum of...
Emotional Development at 12 to 18 Months
The shift from 8 months to 14 months is one of the most dramatic in child development. The placid baby who accepted being put down now arches their ba...
Why Prolonged Goodbyes Make Daycare Adaptation Harder
The instinct to stay longer when your child is upset at drop-off is completely natural. It feels like the kindest thing you can do. But the research o...
Why Children Cry During Separation
When your child cries at drop-off, it's hard to feel anything but heartbroken. But that crying is actually evidence of healthy development — a brain t...
Skill Regression During Daycare Adaptation: Why It Happens and What to Do
The same Monday a child starts daycare, the toilet skill they had nailed for four months goes wobbly. The night sleep that had finally settled gets br...
Separation From Parents and Its Effect on Behavior
The disconnect surprises every new daycare parent: the teachers say she had a great day, and 20 minutes later she's having a 45-minute meltdown about...
How to Reduce a Child's Anxiety Before Starting Daycare
Worry about starting daycare is normal. The whole thing is genuinely new — different building, different smell, different adults, a long stretch witho...
How to Reduce a Child's Anxiety Before Starting Daycare
Your child is anxious about starting daycare, and now you're anxious about their anxiety. That feedback loop is the first thing worth interrupting. At...
Normal Child Reactions During Daycare Adaptation
Most parents brace themselves for tears at drop-off. What surprises them is everything else — the clingy evenings, the toddler who suddenly wets the b...
Child Adaptation During the First Weeks of Daycare
The first weeks of daycare are bumpy for most families. A child who breezed through the trial visits may cry on day one. A child who started calmly ma...
Age-Related Features of Daycare Adaptation: What to Expect at Each Stage
A child starting at 10 months is having a different experience to one starting at 2 or 3 — different cognitive tools, different social capacity, diffe...
Starting Primary School: Helping Your Child Through the Transition
Starting school is the first time most children spend a sustained, daily chunk of time outside the family. For most kids it is a mix of excitement and...
School Refusal: When Anxiety Makes the School Run a Battle
School refusal sits in uncomfortable territory between health and education, and families often spend weeks or months being passed between GP, school,...