Trouble Behaving

The front part of the brain is in charge of being polite and knowing how to behave in public places like school, where you go to pray, or a store. When FTD is in this part of the brain, it changes how a person acts. This type of FTD is called

Someone with this type of FTD may: 

  • Stop doing things at home or stop going to work; they may play with you less, or even sit around and do nothing for a lot of the day
  • Do embarrassing things like wanting to play with your toys or wanting to watch cartoons with you and your friends
  • Say rude or mean things they never said before
  • Get careless about safety – like not looking before crossing the street
  • Start talking to strangers unexpectedly
  • Not remember things you like to do or play
  • No longer seem to care about your feelings or show the wrong emotion at the wrong time – like laughing in the middle of a sad movie
  • Get angry or sad more often
  • Do or say the same thing over and over

What you can do: 

  • Make a list of things your family can do differently so that you can still have fun and include the person with FTD. For example, if eating at a busy restaurant makes the person with FTD feel nervous, have dinner out a little early before the restaurant gets crowded.
  • Talk with your healthy parent about the symptoms and behaviors that are embarrassing for you. Maybe you both will decide the person with FTD should no longer go to your school activities or sports games. Or when friends come over to play, maybe you can play in a different part of the house where the person with FTD does not go.
  • Try to do quieter things around the person with FTD. Save your really lively playing for outside or for another room.
  • Try to be patient.  They may not understand the question you are asking them or what they are supposed to do.
  • Don’t argue with them. Do your best to find a way around the problem. Someone with FTD can’t change their behavior.
  • No one should yell at you, make you feel badly about yourself, or be physically rough with you. Talk with a grown up you trust if you feel scared or hurt by something the person with FTD says or does.

Feeling embarrassed  

One of the most difficult parts of this type of FTD is that a lot of embarrassing things can happen when the person with FTD is around. Feeling embarrassed when these things happen is totally normal. It takes a lot of courage to speak up and talk about these feelings. There’s information about handling your feelings here.

Your healthy parent can help you better when you speak up. It is easier to work through the challenges together as a family. With some creative thinking and teamwork, you can find ways to handle many of the behavior changes.

Share your ideas

If you and your family have come up with a great solution to a challenge FTD has created, we’d love to hear about it. You can write, draw a picture or share a poem about it in the Kids Like Me section.

4

At first Connor and I didn’t know what was wrong with Dad but we could tell that he was different. He stopped reading to us every night like he used to. Then one day Dad took us to the ice cream shop wearing his pajama pants! We both giggled because we thought Dad was trying to be funny but he didn’t understand why we were laughing.

 

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The most common form of FTD that causes changes in a person’s personality, behavior and thinking. Specific symptoms and the rate of change can be very different from person to person.