Question

How to deal with a child who always has to be right?

Answer 1

To deal with a child that always has to be right, you should pick your battles and validate your child's feelings without agreeing to the child's premise.

Dealing with a child that always has to be right also involves fostering a growth mindset in which mistakes are okay.

When you have a child that always has to be right, you should also stay calm and avoid any power struggles, but avoiding using phrases like "lets agree to disagree" and "maybe you're right" and praise your child's effort over accuracy.

A child that always has to be right is often a result of a need for control, anxiety and even a developmental stage like between the ages of 6 to 9 years of age, in which the child overstates their knowledge.

The behavior of a child always having to be right acts as a coping mechanism for a child's sensitive ego, a desire for predictability or a high sense of justice.

Strategies for dealing with a child that always has to be right include setting firm boundaries on arguing, limiting of ver explanation and validating your child's feelings.

The key reasons for the always has to be right behavior include the developmental stage, anxiety and control, deep sense of justice, high intelligence and persistence and defensive mechanism.

The behavior of always having to be right can be learned as a trait and used to handle anxiety or a way to protect the child's fragile ego.

The child may also be gifted, highly persistent and determined, which can also translate into relentless argumentation.

And children that always has to be right often have a strong, black and white view of fairness and if the child feels something is wrong, the child will fight for what they believe is right.

The child that feels a need to feel safe and in control, especially when dealing with uncertainty, can manifest as a need to be right in children.

And children between the ages of 6 to 9 years old, often also go through a know it all phase, which is the Dunning Kruger effect, in which limited knowledge leads the child to overestimate their abilities.