When it’s time to refer for an autism screening? Autism awareness has increased substantially in recent years. Most parents, school officials, and other adults that work routinely with children are familiar with the diagnosis, even if they do not completely understand it. There are many benefits to this increased awareness– more effort to [...]
To help raise safety awareness, this article will discuss safety topics and concerns as they apply to children and adolescents. Awareness efforts often focus on ways to reduce unintentional injury. These efforts are important for children as well. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), unintentional injury is the leading [...]
What you need to know about PTSD June is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) awareness month. To help raise awareness for PTSD, this article will discuss what PTSD is, associated symptoms, and common evidence-based treatments, with a particular focus on PTSD in children and adolescents. The following symptoms are characteristic of PTSD. Except [...]
What is Depression? And What Does it Look Like in Children? This article will briefly explore one of the more common mental health concerns for children today – depression. According to the CDC, approximately 3.2% (1.9 million) of children aged 3-17 have been diagnosed with depression. That makes depression an important area for [...]
What You Need To Know About Children's Mental Health May is National Mental Health Month, which means that many relevant organizations focus on increasing awareness of various important facets of mental health through media, events, services, etc. The purpose of this article is to embrace National Mental Health Month by attempting to [...]
Parenting Skills- Part 3 Ways to Talk to Kids That Increase Compliance Welcome back! I hope all readers of this series have been trying these skills and finding some improvements in child behavior by providing more positive attention to desirable behaviors and reducing attention given to undesirable behaviors. The first installment discussed [...]
Parenting Skills-Part 2 How to Reduce Unwanted Behaviors by Removing Attention The first installment of this series discussed the benefits of flipping the balance of the attention we provide our children, trying to provide more positive attention for the desirable behaviors they perform and giving them less attention for the undesirable behaviors [...]
Parents of young children get many demands for their attention. Life is busy for parents, trying to manage work responsibilities, home responsibilities, and caring for children. During all of that, children are making constant bids for parents’ attention. Children want parents and adults to play with them, watch them play, etc., and they will do [...]
Recently I read a wise quote online, “Your child is not giving you a hard time, your child is having a hard time.” The slightest difference in wording reframes a child’s behavior and emotions completely. Often as parents, it is challenging to remember that more is going on with our children than meets the [...]
