Why do extremely bright and mature kids suddenly develop problems? Parents and teachers get so frustrated by this because the kid who has been really perfect, will suddenly start acting out, bullying, or withdrawing, getting rude and sullen, using filthy language; it just doesn't make any sense. It actually does. It makes sense because they have a different developmental schedule from other kids. They probably learned too fast when they were young, how to please other adults. They didn't go through the different phases they needed to go through where you learn things like; how much power you feel by being a total brat to your parents or how much social power it gives you to beat up on somebody smaller than you. They need to experience that. Now, of course, if there's a real problem that's going on, and it needs to be checked, that needs to be dealt with. If there's not another problem, what the parent actually should do is encourage the process the kid's going through. Validate the good part of this while encouraging them to move on to improve their behavior and act out these things in better ways. Now the joke is, these kids are smart, they were getting straight A's before. They are going to find out a better way. It's going to be okay.