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CHILDREN'S DEFENSE MECHANISMS

Consider the 4 year-old who has
Child
Development achieved toilet training, verbal skills,
in Practice and physical skills such as jumping and
climbing. This same child begins to be
exposed to a high a conflict environment due to
parental separation where she is frightened and
disoriented by a combination of parent inaccessibility
and physical and verbal violence between caregivers.
She begins to talk in shorter sentences using baby talk,
crawls on the floor from one room to the other and
starts to regularly wet her pants. This is indicative of a
regressive response. This slip to an earlier stage of
development is meant to call into focus the need for
increased care and attention. It is not conscious, but it
is a calling card to indicate that someone needs to step
in to increase care.
Defenses mask capacity. Capacity is the actual or
potential ability or level of functioning. It is the
maximum one can expect from an individual based on
age, development, stage and individual differences.
The greater the need to self-protect – the more
capacity will be impacted. This is important to
understand when Meeting With Children and youth.