I have two issues, the first one is the behavior of my 9 year old son. He is a 4' 10'' and about 100 lbs and is very intelligent, he reads on a high school level, but he acts like a 2 year old. He rolls around on the ground when we visit our 91 year old neighbor and he even does it in public places. My husband think he might be jealous of his 21 month old brother who gets a lot of attention because he is a baby, but my oldest will even act like a baby when the little one is not around. We have shouting battles over homework and he treats me like I don't know anything and his dad knows everything. We have tried everything that we know, we have tried taking things away and reward for good behavior and none of it lasts more than that day.

Second problem, I have a 21 month old son who thinks he is 9 like his big brother and is a real dare devil and hits when he gets mad. We have tried a time out of sorts, removing him from the situation and praise for times when he doesn't hit as well as ignoring the hitting all together. The problem with him is that he doesn't talk. He only uses about 5 or 6 words and if you push him to talk he gets really frustrated and will hit or go through all the words he does know with a very confused face. I don't know what else to do, please help.

The most likely reason the positive behaviour only lasts a day is because your giving up too soon. Keep at the same responses for at least a month and if he gets worse for a while take it as a sign that he is testing you out to see if he can make you change tactics and once he's convinced he can't and will get the same reaction every time he'll stop testing.

Don't force the younger child to talk. When he goes to play school, he will interact with other kids of his age & start talking. My son was 24 months old when I send him to play school & he used to say 5 words. Within a month of playschool he started speaking new words everyday. These days i have a tough time making him talk !!