It seems like typical childish behavior, what can be expected when someone misses a nap and gets cranky – whining and crying, throwing tantrums, poking fun, refusing to share.

Some child experts, however, are finding that among those barely potty-trained youngsters, bad behavior is taking over and it’s becoming harder to lay down the law.

At only 4 years old, preschoolers in particular have become overtly defiant, intolerable and offensive to teachers, according to a recent study by Yale University’s Edward Ziegler Center for Child Development and Social Policy, which shows children are not only getting pulled from classrooms or placed on suspension, but kicked out of school at an alarming rate.

The study shows that pre-kindergarten students are expelled at a rate more than three times that of all other children in grades kindergarten through 12. Among preschoolers, 4-year-olds were expelled about 1.5 times more than 3-year-olds.

Local preschool administrators agree that the rate of children coming in with significant behavior problems has grown, though overall the numbers aren’t huge.

“There are an increasing number of kids that come in with behavioral problems,” said Kathy Kerfoot, Associate Director for Child Development Services at Beaver County Head Start. “Kids are being diagnosed with mental and emotional disorders at age 3 to 5.”

If children are prone to acting up they can, as a last resort, be expelled from school. In Pennsylvania preschool expulsion remains fairly low, as 5 percent of pre-kindergarten teachers in the commonwealth reported expulsion of at least one child in the last year. Statewide, the rate is one expulsion for every 286 preschoolers, half the national average, though three times higher than the state’s expulsion rate for pupils in kindergarten through high school. The rate was highest among faith-based and for-profit places.

Experts believe many factors can contribute to child behavior issues. While some place blame on poor socialization or a lack of discipline, serious problems can also be tied to issues at home, such as abuse, or disabilities that arise from birth.

“I find that when children do have serious behavioral problems, usually something is happening in the child’s life – at home usually,” said Debbie Biernesser, Director of the Little Steps Day Care and Learning Center in Potter Township.

Kara McGoey, an assistant professor of school psychology at Duquesne University who specializes in early childhood behavior, said behavior problems at school could also stem from environmental pressures such as poor parenting, poverty, exposure to drugs or environmental toxins, and children easily pick up vulgar language or mimic bad behavior.

McGoey said she also feels the recent attention to the issue may not indicate children’s behavior is getting worse as much as it shows adults are better understanding and identifying problems today.

“Years ago,” McGoey said, “a 4-year-old with an intense behavior problem was just home with mom or dad or grandma until kindergarten. There are more children in the child-care setting. That makes it easier to identify issues earlier, so there are many factors that go into the notion that behavior problems are on the rise.”

And when a program takes in more children from underprivileged families, she said, it adds disproportionately more troubled children.

“There are a lot of kids who have been expelled from private programs because they don’t have to keep them,” Kerfoot said. “We’re here to provide services to kids and the families to make it better for them. We’re servicing the neediest numbers in early intervention and Head Start, so we don’t just pick the cream-of-the-crop kids. Sometimes that’s why our statistics look so low because we get the most needy kids to start with.”

Beaver County Head Start has 656 preschoolers in the 3 to 5 year-old range attending countywide this year. Of the lot, Kerfoot estimates 10 to 12 percent are diagnosed with behavioral problems. Some students already have been diagnosed with issues ranging from learning disabilities and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder to oppositional defiant disorder. Not all preschools, particularly private ones, have access to resources to deal with behavioral problems.

Because Head Start is federally funded, students have access to psychologists, psychiatrists, physicians, special-education services and are given medication maintenance. A mental-health consultant also helps train staff yearly so they better understand how to support students, Kerfoot said.

“Head Start focuses on the whole child. We want them to be socially and emotionally ready, able to sit in class, follow directions from one teacher, better attention span – things they don’t learn at home,” Kerfoot said.

Head Start is also required to enroll at least 10 percent of children with disabilities, though Kerfoot said the program always exceeds that number. Typical delay for an incoming child is 6 months, so if a child comes in at 3, they’re really starting off at a 2