Behavior Is Language

Children communicate with behavior long before they have words for their inner world. The child who suddenly starts wetting the bed after months of being dry is not regressing randomly. The child who hits a sibling after school is not just being mean.

The gap between what children feel and what they can say is enormous. A six-year-old has the full range of human emotions but only a handful of words to label them. Most feelings get compressed into "mad" or "sad," or simply emerge as action instead.