Hi, I do not know if this is the right category for this type of question but I hope someone out there can help me. My 18 month old nephew is adorable. However, he is a little wild. Lots of energy and is constantly on the move. If you look away for half a second he is climbing something. I can understand he is just a boy and this is what boys do. But what worries me is his violent behavior. He is the product of 2 loving parents who are never violent, so I don't know where he gets this from but sometimes out of the blue he will just hit you. (Either slap you, pinch you or just hit you with his little fists). Sometimes he does it out of the blue and sometimes when he is told he can't do something. I don't think this is normal and would like to correct this, yet no matter the punishment (time-outs for example) he keeps at it. Is there someone we can take him to, like say a child psychologist or something like it that can help us correct this unacceptable behavior? Or is there something we can do to correct it? What could be causing this? Thanks.

<moved from Early Education to Children>

This is perfectly normal. It sounds as though he is reaching his developmental milestones at the right time.

While I say it is normal, it is certainly NOT acceptable. He is attempting to assert his newfound independence and trying to assert authority (if that's the right word). Boundaries need to be set by the parents, rules need to be made and not broken. Discipline needs to prevail here. Parents must have discipline that fits the consequences and the parents need to be consistent with the discipline in order for the chaos to stop.

Saying NO... time out... redirection... etc is what needs to be done here.

Unless he is a sociopath, and I've never met an 18 month old sociopath so far in my 44 years of life, this too shall pass. He will grow out of it with firm love, guidance, consistency.

Someone needs to tell him 'no' so he gets that is's not right to act violent towards people. He could be trying to express himself or may be trying to get attention- keep him occupied and he may stop