Behaviour & Feelings Check
How is your child managing feelings, behaviour and getting along with others?
Have a think about how your child copes with feelings, calms back down and plays with the children around them. A few quick questions and you’ll have a friendly read and a sensible next step.
It’s a supportive guide built around familiar milestones, not a diagnosis. Every child has big-feelings days, so take the result as a gentle nudge rather than the last word.
How old is your child?
Just pick the closest age — that way we can ask the right questions.
If your child does this sometimes, or has ever done it, go with “Sometimes” rather than “Not yet”. “Not yet” simply means it’s still on its way. There are no wrong answers here, and a couple of “not yet”s is completely normal.
Signs it’s worth getting a little help
- Your child often hurts themselves or others and it is hard to keep everyone safe
- Your child’s behaviour has changed suddenly for no clear reason
- Your child was using social or emotional skills and has lost them
- Your child is in extreme or almost constant distress through the day
- Your child rarely settles even when you comfort and hold them
Get help straight away if your child has lost skills they used to have, or doesn’t seem to hear you or respond to sounds (ask your doctor for a hearing test — don’t wait). And if your child is ever in immediate danger or has hurt themselves, call your local emergency number or go to your nearest emergency department now.
✓ Saved on this device — your result and progress stay private, and they’ll be right here whenever you come back.
Based on: CDC “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” developmental milestones (public domain) · ASHA developmental milestones · Our evidence base. A supportive guide, not a diagnosis.
Why Behaviour & Feelings matters
Here’s why this matters: behaviour is communication too. A meltdown, a hit, a refusal — these are usually a young child saying "this feeling is bigger than I can handle right now." Learning to notice a feeling, name it, and come back down from it is one of the hardest jobs of the early years, and it doesn’t come built-in. It’s a skill that grows, with a grown-up borrowing their calm to your child again and again until they can find it themselves.
In our clinic we see how much this underpins everything else. A child who can wait a moment, recover from a "no", and get along in a group finds nursery kinder, friendships easier, and learning far less of a battle. And it works the other way round too — when the big feelings settle, the child underneath gets to shine. This is never about a "good" or "bad" child. It’s about giving your little one the tools to feel steadier, so more of their day feels good.