Transgender is a broad term that generally refers to someone whose gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth and whose behaviours do not fit our culturally defined typical behaviours for a given sex/gender.
The terms Gender Variant or Gender Diversity indicate that there are a range of experiences that individuals have regarding their sex/gender. Gender variance is an accepted aspect of human expression, documented across cultures and recorded history. Non-binary gender diversity has always existed throughout the world.
Gender dysphoric means that one is distressed about their social and/or bodily sex/gender.
It is therefore possible that your gender atypical child or teen will not fall into a neat category and may not move into adulthood as transgender.
What we do know is that by the time children reach adolescence, if they have a gender identity that is different from their sex assigned at birth, that it is very likely that they will continue on to have that gender identity.
Cottesloe Counselling Centre provides comprehensive counselling and support services to the transgender/gender diverse community.
We provide services to children, adolescents, and their parents as well as to the adult transgender community.