Can young children be diagnosed with antisocial disorder?

  As my psychology teacher exposed us to an amuzing article, all I could think of was, "These kids are Demon children." It was hard to read all the cruel behaviors these children exhibited. It was like reading about the behaviors of antisocial adults but instead of grown ups being the instigators, it was young children below the age of ten years of age. These children have committed crimes, in one case, a young boy pushed his toddler sibling into a pool, pulled a chair and sat to watch him drown. In another incident, a child would cut pieces of his cat's tail throughout weeks just "to see how the cat reacted." All these children are born with deficiencies inside their brain that block the ability for them to feel remorse or empathy. The children can be very manipulative and plan out strategically to obtain whatever they please. Anne, the mother of Michael who is one of the children discussed in this article, explained that the situation with her son does not bring much pleasure in her life: “...They shouldn’t judge until they’ve walked in my shoes. Because, you know, it takes a toll. There’s not a lot of joy and happiness in raising Michael." This made me wonder if the treatment of the parents toward the children could affect the future of the child. Dr. Lynam explained, "because parents don’t necessarily bond to children who behave cruelly, those children tend to get punished more and nurtured less, creating what he calls “a self-fulfilling prophecy.” So, these kids are naturally born with these tendencies, but depending on the behavior parents have towards them can define if the child will become a criminal, or if the child will learn to overcome this and "grow out of it". Kahn Jennifer, . "Can You Call a 9-Year-Old a Psychopath?." New York Times Magazine. N.p., 2012. Web. 20 May 2012.