Psychopaths Essay

Melanie Lukic English 10 5/22/14 About 1.6% or so of the US population can be described as potentially psychopathic. Some people cut to the conclusion and determine that misunderstood kids are potentially psychopaths. Identifying a child as a psychopath is not developmentally appropriate. The label “psychopath” cannot be placed on a child who is developing emotionally, mentally, or physically. Children who have mental disorders are often interpreted as psychopaths and awful people but they are not, they’re just misconceived. A reason that children should not be considered psychopaths is because of child development. “These weren’t ordinary toddler’s fits. “It wasn’t i’m frustrated[or tired]...His behavior was really out there...it would happen for hours and hours each day, no matter what we did.” (Kahn) This child is acting like this because he is developing and is starting to act older than he really is to prove his point. When kids argue with adults they don't really take them seriously and this child feels the need to act out. This is not because he is a psychopath, he is just trying to be understood. He is learning how to express himself at this age. How do you deal with a noisy and energetic child? By screaming and telling him/her to be quiet or to calm down? I really hope not. “Emotional skills are the same. A teacher might say, ‘Calm down!’ — but how exactly do you calm down when you’re feeling anxious? Where do you learn the skills to manage those feelings?” (Kahn) A developing child can not calm down on command because they would not understand what it means to ‘calm down’. Children get really excited when they are with one another and when an adult would scream and tell them to be quiet they don’t think mu... ... middle of paper ... ... and they want to make them proud. If the parents don't know how to control their own emotions, they cannot teach their children. Why should the children be have the disadvantage of not understanding how to control their emotions because their parents can not teach them? The definition of a psychopath is a person suffering from chronic mental disorder with abnormal or violent social behavior. The label “psychopath” cannot be placed on a child who is developing emotionally, mentally, or physically. A child’s brain is finished developing way past their teenage years. Most of the time when a child would be considered a psychopath is parents did not teach their children proper respect and they lacked parenting skills. The child just repeated what they saw and knew and continued to do wrong things throughout their life because they didn’t know until it was too late.