A child’s good behavior should not make their unspoken needs easier to overlook.

Attention flows toward whatever makes noise. A child who is easy takes up less of the day, and that ease becomes the reason nobody checks on them. It is arithmetic more than neglect, and it can still leave a child concluding that being no trouble is what keeps them wanted.

Ask the easy one something specific this week, at a moment when they are neither in trouble nor being praised. Not how school was, but what the hardest part of Tuesday was. Then wait longer than feels natural for the answer.