My son exhibited this type of behavior when he was less than 2 (before he could talk very well). It prompted me to look more closely at his day care provider and I found out that she was mistreating him. I removed him from her care, filed a complaint that was substantiated by the state and put him in the care of a close friend. It took a few weeks, but he was soon back to the happy, playful child he had been prior.

I would look closely at any changes in her life in the past few months. She may not be able to articulate her feelings very well, so she is acting on them. Does she have a new teacher? New day care? babysitter? move recently? I think you are probably better able to pinpoint the source of her stress than you may think. Once you have, you can work toward helping her. It may take some time, but the answers are there somewhere.

Good luck.

I remember reading an article describing similar behaviors that were traced to food allergies. It's worth checking out.

My 6 yr old grandson lives with us and has a hard time at school (in 1st grade) not wanting to do his work and disrupting the class. All I can say is keep in contact with the teacher, the cousellor and get a child therapist! I'm hoping to get to the bottom of his troubles quickly as he is so special to me as I'm sure your granddaughter is to you!