Is there a typical time period for separation anxiety (SA)?


There isn't a particular time when SA can occur. Similarly there is no specific end. Neither does SA build in a predictable, recognizable manner although the symptoms are typical at various ages. But separation anxiety seems to follow similar themes and doesn't differ very much from child to child. Parents will be shocked to notice how the shift in behavior of their child from being confident to becoming anxious and vice versa during the growing up years can get.






There are peaks and valleys during the SA phase - there are good days and bad days, good weeks followed by bad ones and bad years with good weeks trailing close behind. But again, this unpredictable behavior is quite normal; it is a sign that your child is developing important attachments! Her intellectual maturity is teaching her to make her concerns known instead of passively accepting her situation. What she will learn (at her own pace) with time and maturity is that when you leave you will always come back for her and when you are not around there are other capable hands through whom her needs can be taken care of.