How to Understand Child Psychology

Transcript Gender identity disorder occurs when a child feels their physical gender is very different and in conflict with the desired gender that they would like to have for himself or herself. For example a child who is born a girl may really wish and desire to be a boy. This creates distressing, emotional conflict …

Transcript Sleep disorders in children occur in about 30 percent of the population. What we understand that disruptions in sleep, in rapid eye movement sleep and non-REM sleep do cause and manifest different sleep disorders that are functionally impairing for children, sometimes, as they enter school or follow up on their day-to-day activities. Many of …

Transcript Substance abuse in adolescents and teenagers is occurring at a higher rate than ever before. Substance abuse, really now, is occurring in equal rates among girls and boys. What we are finding is that there’s a common notion that kids are going to experiment. However, this is not necessarily the case. What we’re finding …

Transcript Ticks and Tourette’s disorder are a neurobiological disorder that’s genetically inherited. What you’ll commonly see in children with tick disorders or Tourette’s syndrome is motor ticks or, at least, one vocal tick. Sometimes motor ticks include eye blinking or raising and lowering the shoulders. Sometimes there’s manual or bimanual motor movements that seem a …

Transcript Hi. My name is Dr. Kimberly Williams. I’m a clinical psychologist and a clinical neuropsychologist. I work primarily with children, ages ranging from 3 years old all the way up to 30 years old. I help to decrease symptoms of depression, anxiety, difficult family behaviors such as temper tantrums, bed-wetting. As a clinical neuropsychologist …

Transcript Attachment is the strong bond between a child, an infant, and their caregiver. When this strong bond is broken, a child can have as a result a reactive attachment or an attachment disorder. There are many reasons that this bond can be broken. Sometimes the parent is simply unavailable. The child is not consoled …

Transcript Sometimes learning disabilities in children is not so obvious. We have to also remember that even the brightest children sometimes have some learning difficulties. So if it’s not obvious, here’s some of the things to look for if you suspect your child might have some struggle with aspects of learning. First of all, sometimes …

Transcript No one is a better advocate for their child’s needs than a parent so it’s important to follow a few simple steps. First you want to define the problem and write it down. Any concerns you have be it learning issues or behavioural challenges, it is important to write down the key concerns you …

Transcript Sometimes parents know right away that their child is struggling in some aspect of school and having difficulty learning. Other times, parents aren’t quite sure, but they do know that their child is experiencing trouble in a particular subject or a decline in grade as the school term progresses. If this occurs, it’s really …

Transcript Bullying is an epidemic and it is never okay. There are long term determent to bullying for those that are the victim as well as for children that are doing the bullying what we are finding is that boys who bully tend to be more physical where as girls tend to show more behind …

Transcript It’s not common for a child to express suicidal words or statements or actions. In fact, this should be taken very seriously. Sometimes parents make the mistake of saying, “This was a cry for attention,” or, “My child just wanted to get their way.” One thing I must say is that if a child …

Transcript So we’re used to bullying being considered something that’s physically or verbally aggressive towards another individual. Yes, this does occur, but what we’re now recognizing is that, with technology, there’s now something called cyber bullying. Cyber bullying occurs when children taunt and tease each other through the electronic media, through text messages, instant messages …

Transcript Parents often ask me, “How do I get my child to sleep in their own bed?” This really requires a series of behavioral interventions. If done correctly, your child could be sleeping in their own bed in a matter of a few weeks. If done correctly your child can be sleeping in their own …

Transcript Social Anxiety Disorder is a very common disorder that can start as early as preschool and childhood years and carry on through adolscence and adulthood. Social anxiety disorder really is an intense fear, apprehension, and worry about being in sort of social situations. Children with social anxiety disorder have difficulty going to things they …

Transcript Selective mutism is a unique form of anxiety or social anxiety that typically occurs in childhood. Selective mutism involves a child who does not speak and who will only speak in certain situations for fear of being judged or critic. In many instances children with selective mutism will speak to peers but they won’t …

Transcript Eating phobias in children are very unique. There’s a common misconception to consider an eating phobia to be an eating disorder and this is not the case. A eating phobia actually is a form of anxiety. In these instances children have a food aversion in which the smell, or odor, or texture, or even …

Transcript Obsessive compulsive disorder or OCD is a form of anxiety that is very functionally impairing. OCD occurs in children, adolescent, teenagers and can go on through adulthood. Its irrational fears that manifest in compulsions and repetitive behaviors and rituals. For instance a child with OCD may repeat the same actions over and over again, …

Transcript Anorexia nervosa, or anorexia, is very common in women. 95 percent of individuals diagnosed with anorexia are female. Anorexia is not about dieting or fear of obesity. It may start off that way, but what ends up happening is the woman becomes very focused on losing weight, so much so that there is an …

Transcript Bulimia or bulimia nervosa is an intense cycle of binging and purging behaviours. I’ts an eating disorder which includes taking in high-calorie foods and then purging, perhaps by vomiting or using laxatives to get rid of the food. Bingeing is the act of eating an enormous amount of high carbohydrate foods in a short …

Transcript Childhood schizophrenia, or early-onset schizophrenia, is very difficult to diagnose in children. However, the course of symptoms is very similar to that of adults. What we observe in children with early onset schizophrenia are hallucinations, delusional or paranoid thoughts and unusual or erratic behaviors. This is called psychosis. Childhood early-onset schizophrenia is typically diagnosed …

Transcript A nonverbal learning disorder, or commonly known as NVLD, is sometimes considered a rather controversial learning disability. It’s a disability that impacts children. In which, if you look at their psychological testing, their IQ points show very high verbal skills, but lower performance skills. Children are typically excelling in language and reading, but have …

Transcript So it’s not uncommon for children or teenagers to sometimes overeat. There’s a lot of mindless eating while we’re sitting in front of the TV or if we’re out sharing and enjoying a pizza with friends. However, when eating becomes excessive and compulsive, then the situation is problematic. Compulsive or overeating is emotional eating …

Transcript Because depression in teenagers and children is due to a neurochemical imbalance different types of medication options are available. It’s very important to talk to your medical doctor or your health professional to find out what individual medication may work best for your child. Because we do know that depression has a genetic component, …

Transcript Eating disorders in children and teens have numerous ranges of causes. For instance, children may overeat or restrict their eating based on emotional issues or underlying psychological factors. There’s also a genetic component to children having difficulties with eating and overeating. What we do understand is, sometimes, eating disorders are linked to depression or …

Transcript Bipolar disorder in children and teenagers is very complex to diagnose. What we do know is that it’s a neurochemical disorder that creates a combination of different symptoms that range from manic behaviors to depressive behaviors. Other times, it’s a very unique combination of manic and depressive symptoms. When we think about the manic …

Transcript If you suspect that your child or teenager has signs and symptoms of clinical depression it is important to contact a clinical professional. A clinical professional will sit with you and your family and discuss your child’s developmental history, your child’s academic progress and there may be some testing and evaluations that need to …

Transcript So there are many different treatment options for Childhood Clinical Depression. They come in the form of behavioral therapies, and psychotherapy, as well as medication. Oftentimes it’s important to sit down with a clinical professional. Your child may work individually with the therapist and the family may be included from time to time as …

Transcript Like adults, children who experience childhood clinical depression are also experiencing some type of neurochemical imbalance, perhaps related to their neurotransmitters. What we have to understand is, that there’s a genetic component to childhood clinical depression. We have to recognize that children experiencing depression often have had some type of precursor that causes the …

Transcript So the risk factors for depression in children and teenagers is not well understood. What we do know is that the risk is increased if there is a chemical inbalance in the brain and oftentimes this is hereditary, inherited through the family tree. What we have to understand is the risk factors are often …

Transcript While the symptoms of clinical depression in adults might be quite obvious, it’s very different in children. Children who are depressed are often irritable, grouchy, moody, have difficulty with their peer relationships. They don’t enjoy things that they usually would be very excited about. Sometimes they’ll be isolated and seem to be withdrawn from …

Transcript Social phobia is a very common form of anxiety. Some of the symptoms of social phobia include having difficulty doing things in public. For instance, a child with social phobia may have difficulty speaking to their parent while they’re in a department store. They may have trouble ordering food at a restaurant. They’ll have …

Transcript Separation Anxiety Disorder commonly occurs in children and can start as early as 3 or 4 years old, the preschool age, and move on through adolescence and adult hood. Separation anxiety commonly is when a child becomes extremely upset to leave their care giver or their figure of attachment. Children with Separation Anxiety Disorder …

Transcript So we understand that adults definitely have moments in life where they feel depressed. It’s actually quite shocking that 2 out of 100 children is diagnosed with clinical depression, as well as 8 out of 100 teenagers are diagnosed. What we have to understand is what we commonly consider typical teenage angst, grumpiness, moodiness …

Transcript Generalized anxiety disorder, or GAD, is one of the most common types of anxiety disorders and affects a large amount of the population. General anxiety disorder is common, constant and frequent worry about a wide variety of things that happen in day-to-day life. The worries or the anxieties are often irrational. For children with …

Transcript So Asperger’s disorder, or Asperger syndrome, is one of the clinical disorders under the category of pervasive developmental disorder. Children with Asperger syndrome do have difficulties with social communication and some higher level aspects of language. But typically, they’re considered very bright and intelligent children and do have a great mastery of day-to-day language …

Transcript Rett syndrome is a very rare neurodevelopmental condition that typically affects females. Common signs of Rett disorder are the unique features of the hands and feet, as well as the head, which tend to be very small. There’s a deceleration of growth. Children diagnosed with Rett syndrome also have seizures about 80 percent of …

Transcript Dyslexia is a very common term that I often hear parents use. Dyslexia actually means a reading disorder or a reading disability. Problems include difficulties with reading comprehension and understanding the main idea of what they’re reading. Dyslexia is never a vision problem. It’s just a difficulty with processing and understanding aspects of sound …

Transcript Childhood disintegrative disorder, or sometimes called CDD, is an extremely rare condition that’s seen in children. What typically happens is that children have normal developmental trajectories. Cognitive, physical, and language skills progress normally until the age about two years old. In some children we see between the ages of two and ten years old, …

Transcript So I sometimes sit down with parents and we discuss the child and the diagnosis of autistic disorder. Parents sometime ask the question about the relationship between autism and childhood vaccinations.We do recognize is that some other vaccinations do include mercury or have in the past years. But there has been a good deal …

Transcript There are a lot of different myths that exist regarding autism. So I’d like to talk about three that I hear quite frequently. The first one is that children with autism don’t show affection. The next one is that children with autism can’t learn, and finally that children with autism cannot have successful, independent …

Transcript So I know, sometimes, parents are confused because they’ll hear many different terms, such as autism spectrum, spectrum disorders, PDD. What do all of these terms mean? Well what we should understand is the larger rubric, or the larger category, is that they are all a pervasive developmental disorder where there is a delay …

Transcript So treatment for autism comes in a variety of different ways. It really depends on the individual abilities and capabilities of the child because every child has different strengths and limitations. More common treatments for autism include speech and language therapies to really help the child to develop good receptive, expressive language skills, pragmatic …

Transcript When a child comes to my office, and we’re considering whether the child has a diagnosis of autism, I’m looking at a few different things. First of all, I want to sit down and have a very extensive history with the parents to understand early developmental milestones, such as language, such as social interactions, …

Transcript Well there’s a great deal of active research trying to determine the causes of autistic disorder and other pervasive developmental disorders. What we do know is that autism definitely is linked to abnormalities within the brain. And many different studies have looked at differences between the brains of children with autistic disorder and those …

Transcript Autism is a disorder that falls under the rubric of a pervasive developmental disorder. And all pervasive developmental disorders like autism or autistic disorder have some very key characteristics. These characteristics are impairment in language, impairment in communication and that is social communication or conversational communication. Oftentimes, children have impairments in their abilities to …

Transcript So there are a few misconceptions or myths, if you will, about ADHD. And one of the common ones I hear is that parents say, “How can my child have ADHD, they’re so bright?” Well ADHD has no bearing on a child’s intellectual abilities. Very smart children who make great grades can still have …

Transcript So we understand that there’s a great deal of research looking into the risk factors of autism. But what we also understand is some of the risk factors that have been identified have not been scientifically proven. Oftentimes, I speak with families who have a bit of misinformation, and we’ve discussed some of the …

Transcript There are several different ADHD treatment approaches. And it’s important that in any of the approaches that are used, there’s a partnership between the child, the parents, and teachers, and those adults that work with the child, so you can constantly monitor increases or decreases in behavior. For ADHD treatment, behavior management and medications …

Transcript For many families medication is a necessary option to treat the symptoms of ADHD. In this instance, you would contact your pediatrician, your child’s psychologist or your pediatric neurologist to help abate some of the symptoms of ADHD. It’s really important to sit down with this professional and ask questions about positive outcome, about …

Transcript The prognosis for children diagnosed with ADHD actually is very, very good. What we have to recognize is that children with ADHD, when it’s diagnosed and treated very early, their symptoms can definitely be manageable and be under control. Once a child is educated and recognizes that they sometimes struggle with inattention, time management, …

Transcript When a child has been diagnosed with ADHD, the first course of treatment is to try to change some of the challenging or functionally impairing behaviors for the child. Some of these behaviors include the child drifting off and not paying attention, or maybe a child that can’t sit still long enough to focus …

Transcript The symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, fall into three different categories. There’s inattention, there’s impulsivity, and there is hyperactivity. What we notice about inattention is this is the child who fails to pay close attention to details, who may make minor mistakes on homework and assignments. It’s the child who doesn’t quite …

Transcript Diagnosing ADHD sometimes presents a challenge, because there are many disorders that mimic the signs and symptoms of ADHD. Diagnosing ADHD must be done by a clinical professional. But what you will note is that ADHD requires six different inattention symptoms or six different impulsivity hyperactivity symptoms that occur over a course of six …

Transcript The formal term is attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. But I understand that, sometimes, people say, “Do I have ADD, or ADHD without the hyperactive part?” So I just like to inform my parents that the disorder is attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. However, the way it’s broken down into subtypes helps better delineate the types of symptoms …

Transcript So, parents should understand that if your child is diagnosed with ADHD, it is very treatable. Oftentimes, it’s treatable through behavioral strategies. However, it’s important to recognize that if your child does have ADHD, if their symptoms aren’t prevalent, they can often manage for quite a while. However, if ADHD is untreated, then the …

Transcript We definitely live in an era where children want so many things. I think society, definitely, shows children that they want the biggest and the best of the newest items all the time. But this really can become problematic. I like to use a term called “affluenza,” which describes the epidemic of people attributing …

Transcript There are so many different reasons why a child might need to enter into psychotherapy. And I like people to remember that when a child is having some type of distressing issue, working with the family is the best way to get at that issue and come to some type of resolution. A child …

Transcript So attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, known as ADHD, occurs very frequently in children. And it’s typically not diagnosed until a child is at least 7 years of age and is in school. It includes behaviors of inattention, distractibility and oppositional behavior. Oftentimes, children with ADHD have difficulties in school, they have difficulty maintaining friendships, and …

Transcript So while we don’t completely know what causes ADHD, what we do know is that it has a strong genetic component. Typically when a child is diagnosed with ADHD, there’s someone in the immediate or extended family who also has similar signs or symptoms. ADHD really is a neurological glitch related to frontal lobe …

Transcript So when you’re looking for professional clinical help for your child, you may seek a child psychologist. There are many different types of child psychologists. There are those who have education backgrounds. There are those that have research backgrounds. And there are psychologists that have clinical backgrounds. A good child psychologist is very well-trained …

Transcript When I’m working with families and children, I often like to steer away from the use of rewards in day-to-day situations. However, from time-to-time we know that children need different incentives and motivations to demonstrate positive behaviors. So when we think about rewards, you would like to make sure that the rewards aren’t thought …

Transcript Punishment actually does work to shape different behaviors in children. What you want to use punishment for is to guide your child towards a more positive, acceptable means of behavior. I like to think of punishment and discipline and consequences as something that goes hand-in-hand. Parents often ask me, “What type of punishment should …

Transcript Parents often come to me and they say, “What’s a great time to start giving my child an allowance?” Children, by the age of 8-years old, do understand the concept of money. Giving a child an allowance is a great way to help them understand the meaning and the value of money, to help …

Transcript Violent behavior is never acceptable. What we do know is that children do have a broad range of aggressive or violent behaviors that we do need to recognize. We can see something as common place as pushing and hitting in the playground and carry it forward to children who are significantly getting into trouble …