I have a 4, almost 5 year old daughter. She is very strong willed and emotional. She has been rocking since before she was 1. Its almost the same motion, almost like she's doing crunches sitting up. My wife and I have always been very disturbed by it. We've never understood why she does it. She goes in and out of doing it alot, to never doing it at all. She is now in a phase of doing it ANYTIME she is in her car seat. She looks so tense while doing it, and doesn't want us to look at her. We try to keep her attention but as soon as she can, she's doing it again. She also does it almost EVERY night when she lays down to goto bed, she does it so intensely that she sweats. She gets up after about 10 or so minutes and doing it and she's soaking wet and wants us to put her back to bed. Lately we've linked it to stress....we think. She hadn't done it for a long time and two times in a row after getting back from grandmothers house she did it coming home(in her carseat) and for a couple nights(at bedtime) afterwards. Her Grandmother and Grandfather fight all the time, and refuse to quit even infront of her. We are starting to wonder if it is a soothing stress control for her. We are worried something is wrong with her mentally. We've taken her to the doctor when she was young and they said nothing is phyiscally wrong with her. We are desperate because she is 2 months away from turning 5 and she has just started doing it alll the time agian. We even walk into daycare and see her doing it sometimes.
She has been haveing behavioral issues for the last year, with hitting and saying bad words, throwing things, tantrums. Nothing seems to phase her, no punishment even effects her. She seems to have no filter for her action. She has no understanding on consequence. She is not getting to the point that her mother has no control over her at all. We are at the point of taking her to a Child Pyschologist.
Please, you have any information, please help.