In the article we will talk about what to do if a child has a mental disorder. We will find out what types of diseases exist, why they occur in childhood. We will also talk about how to protect children from this or that disease and carry out prevention.
Children with mental disorders
Let's start with the fact that there are indeed certain deviations that manifest themselves precisely in childhood. They do not apply to the future life of a person. Such pathologies most often occur due to a violation of the natural course of development. They are characterized by the fact that they are quite persistent, but there are no fluctuations in the mental state.
Also, there is no dynamics in the manifestation of certain symptoms. With age, some symptoms may change and decrease, but nevertheless they will not completely disappear if they are not worked out with a doctor. According to statistics, mental type deviations are most often found amongboys.
Childhood autism
This disease is also called Kanner's syndrome. This is a pathology that is very rare, but still enough for it to be a problem. Again, boys are 4 times more likely to have autism than girls.
Doctors believe that the first symptoms appear in infancy, but diagnosing autism in this period of life is very difficult. Most often, pathology is detected at the age of 3 years, when the child learns to form social contacts.
Dynamics and signs of mental disorder in children:
- Child shows no desire to communicate.
- Behaves emotionally cold and unable to empathize.
- Has trouble expressing his emotions.
- Incorrectly combines gestures, timbre and voice, facial expressions, etc., to express his thoughts.
- Different in specific speech.
- Tends to repeat some words, use strange turns of speech, speak monotonously or manneredly.
In almost all cases, a child is diagnosed with memory impairment. Stable remains the desire to remain calm, do not change anything. Such children do not like it when something changes, they do not tolerate it well, because it is stressful for their psyche.
Pathological manifestations of mental developmental disorders in children:
- Poor mental development.
- The habit of doing everything according to one algorithm, creating your own rituals.
- Tendency torepetitive stereotyped actions.
- Dangerous actions that can be directed at yourself or others.
The causes of autism are most often hereditary predisposition. Also, the occurrence of this pathology can be influenced by the features of intrauterine development. As the child grows, the symptoms may gradually subside. Indeed, in some cases, with age, the child begins to feel better and adapts to the environment.
Treatment of mental disorders in children is based on special and separate education and medication.
Hyperkinetic Disorder
It is also called attention deficit disorder, which is observed in parallel with the child's hyperactivity. This disorder is much more common, in about 9% of children. Signs of a mental disorder in children:
- Hyperactivity, which can be motor or verbal.
- Impulsive actions, lack of attention.
- Failure.
Pathology is different in that children cannot complete any task. They have normal mental performance, but they lose interest in any task very quickly. Sometimes prone to conflict. It is very difficult for them to concentrate their attention: they ask a lot of questions, but do not have time to listen to the answer, because they are already interested in others. Capable of provoking adults into scandals.
Main causespathology:
- Genetic predisposition.
- Features of the perinatal period.
- Wrong development of the parent-child relationship.
It is the last factor that can exacerbate hyperkinetic disorder. At the same time, if the parents behave correctly, then their communication will allow the child to survive this period and get rid of the disease. Most often, hyperactivity appears at the age of 6-8 years.
Treatment consists of conducting psychological and social activities in parallel with taking certain drugs. Nootropic therapy shows excellent results.
Mental retardation
This disease is manifested by a slight mental retardation and poor development of cognitive activity. If a child has this type of mental disorder, the reasons may be as follows:
- Genetic factor.
- Infection.
- Injuries.
- Intoxication of the body.
All this leads to a violation of the pace of development of the child in a mild form.
Among the social factors that can serve as causes, we must highlight the lack of education, lack of information.
Symptoms of a mental disorder in children:
- Inhibited development of psychophysical functions, such as social adaptation, speech, motor skills.
- Emotional immaturity.
- Uneven development of individual psychological functions.
- Reversible nature of pathologies.
Most often, developmental delay can be detected at primary school age, whenthe child experiences severe difficulties in learning. Mental retardation very often manifests itself in conjunction with diseases such as hyperactivity syndrome, epilepsy, motor alalia.
As you grow older, the symptoms soften, but not in all cases. For treatment, it is necessary to fix mental deviations and work them out separately with a psychologist and a teacher.
Landau-Kleffner Syndrome
In a child, this type of mental disorder is quite rare. It is characterized by the fact that the baby has difficulty with the pronunciation of words, their understanding. It threatens with loss of speech. Features of pathology:
- Speech disorder aged 3-7 years.
- Epileptic seizures.
- Epileptic activity during sleep.
Such a neuropsychiatric disorder in children requires only medical treatment.
Rett Syndrome
This is a genetic disorder that occurs only in girls. It is characterized by the fact that over time the ability to speak is lost and manual skills disappear. In some cases, there is a delay in the physical growth of the head, enuresis, shortness of breath, epileptic seizures.
This is a very dangerous mental disorder. In a child at 2 years old, it manifests itself in all its glory. The stage of the disease, which is manifested by symptoms of autism, is very characteristic. If the child is not treated, it can lead to severe disability.
Gilles De La Tourette Syndrome
The pathology was namedin honor of the French scientist who described the syndrome in 9 of his patients. This is a tic pathology, which is accompanied by the following manifestations:
- Emotional instability, which can manifest as irritability and mood swings.
- Impulsive urges of a child to say something indecent or unpleasant.
- The obsessive desire to hurt a close loved one.
- Autoaggression.
The cause of this pathology is most often a genetic factor. Treatment consists of psychotherapy, taking antidepressants and antipsychotics. To date, the most effective drug therapy.
Schizophrenia
Mental disorders in preschool children are sometimes difficult to identify, which is why it is very important to regularly visit a psychotherapist or at least a psychologist with a child. On the part of parents, it is necessary to observe the behavior of the child and note strange moments.
If you don’t pay enough attention to the baby during this period and don’t notice this or that pathology, then you can greatly disrupt his psychological development.
Children often develop schizophrenia, which is characterized by pathologies of thinking, behavioral reactions, a distorted perception of the world around them, and emotional disorders. This is a severe mental disorder in children and adolescents, so you should pay attention to the child, even if he has already entered adolescence.
Signs of schizophrenia:
- In childrenthere is a decline in activity, indifference to the outside world and those activities that aroused interest.
- The ability to concentrate and make specific judgments is impaired.
- Behavioral deviations that are manifested by aggressiveness and negativism.
- Possible auditory hallucinations.
You need to understand that in any case, the child is unlikely to talk about the symptoms, especially about hallucinations.
Diagnosis occurs after clinical observation and assessment of the child's condition in a hospital. Sometimes it is necessary to carry out differential diagnostics in order to identify mental and behavioral disorders and choose the right treatment tactics.
Symptomatic of schizophrenia is quite simple because it is a stereotypical picture. It begins to seem that children live in some kind of monotonous world and use various objects instead of toys: shoes, household items, wire, kitchen appliances. Also, the circle of interests narrows noticeably, or they become rather primitive.
The behavior of children with a mental disorder of this type is characterized by a lag in psychological development. But there are exceptions. So, in some children against the background of schizophrenia, on the contrary, accelerated development is noted. They learn to read, write, memorize texts faster. Such children usually cause surprise and delight. Toddlers can talk in a very adult way, be interested in adult literature and problems. This indicates the premature development of intelligence. Most often, schizophrenia in childhood is associated withdepersonalization. It is very important to distinguish this pathology from neurosis in order to begin adequate treatment. At the same time, stress and conflicts do not affect the course of the pathology.
Depression
Such mental disorders in preschool children appear most often. The child may begin to complain of constant longing, some fears and problems. In children, depression develops in parallel with disturbances in appetite, sleep, and constipation.
Symptomatics:
- Slow movements and too weak speech.
- Noticeable slowness.
- Pain in the body.
- Increased tearfulness.
- Refusing to play and befriend other children.
- A pronounced sense of worthlessness.
Help for children with this type of mental disorder should come from a professional so as not to make the situation worse.
The most common treatment is medication and mental therapy. At the same time, it is very important to be present at the doctor's appointments together with the child in order to see his reaction to certain actions of the doctor. An inexperienced specialist can start the situation and even harm the child.
Neurosis
This mental disorder in children from the age of 4 occurs very often, but nevertheless, childhood neurosis can manifest itself until the onset of adolescence. It is difficult to diagnose the disease, because the child's psyche is still very immature.
There is a modest list of symptoms that can be classified asmanifestation of a pathological neurotic reaction. You can notice these wrong reactions when you are frightened, strictly forbidden, punishing the child. And yet, with high accuracy, it is almost impossible to determine the presence of such a disease as neurasthenia or hysteria in childhood. This is due to the fact that the earlier the pathology appears in a child, the weaker its dynamics becomes.
In a child, a mental disorder is most often manifested by obsessive fears and anxieties:
- Fear of the dark.
- Fear of certain animals.
- Fear of the heroes of films, fairy tales.
- Fear of parting with your loved ones.
- Fear of studies, competitions.
- Fear of death.
The nature of the child has a great influence on the occurrence of certain phobias. Most often, disorders occur in children who are characterized by anxiety and suspiciousness, along with strong impressionability. Also, children who are suggestible and tend to trust everything they are told are more susceptible to neurosis.
Reasons
We looked at the symptoms of mental disorders in children, talked about treatment and diagnosis. However, one should think about why certain pathologies can occur at such an early age, when a person is still very vulnerable and has practically not encountered the negative aspects of life.
The manifestation of pathology can be associated with a number of factors, among which are psychological, biological and sociopsychological. However, all of them only provoke an aggravation of the pathology, while the main reason ismost often in the characteristics of the development of the child and his relationship with his parents.
Possible causes:
- Genetic predisposition to mental disorders.
- Incompatibility of parents and child in character and temperament.
- Poor intelligence development.
- Having a brain defect that could have been inflicted on the baby at birth.
- Family problems that are very traumatic for the psyche.
- Lack of education or its distorted form.
It is for these reasons that mental disorders most often occur in children 3 years old and even earlier. Pathologies in children of primary school age most often arise due to conflict in the family and divorce of parents. The chance of developing a neurosis is higher in children who grow up in single-parent families or are exposed to constant stress.
The psychological climate in the family has a very great influence on the formation of mental he alth. So, a child can live in an incomplete family, but if they love him, give him a feeling of joy, give warmth and affection, then it is likely that the psyche of this baby will be strong and stable.
But if a child grows up in a complete family, while constantly observing quarrels, conflicts, violence, then he will suffer from neuroses and experience severe suffering. This is important to understand for the simple reason that very often parents try to save the family at all costs for the sake of the child's he alth. Perhaps one of them lived with only one parent and understands that this is difficult. Butyou need to understand that it is better to live with one parent in a calm, joyful atmosphere than in a complete family, experiencing pain, suffering and loneliness.
Common signs
If a child has a mental disorder, it is quite difficult to detect it. Firstly, it is necessary to know exactly the symptoms, and secondly, to take into account the accompanying factors and circumstances. Naturally, it is very difficult for parents to connect all this with each other, so you should not study the symptoms of all mental disorders. It is enough to know the behavioral disorders that are typical for a child of a certain age. If you observe them at a given age, then this indicates the presence of deviations. What type of deviation it is, how it is treated and how to diagnose it, can be identified later. The main thing at this stage is to realize that there is a deviation and it requires treatment.
The disorder in children aged 2 years is characterized by passivity. A kid at this age is usually very active, everything is interesting to him. If you notice that your child behaves insecurely, is afraid of a lot of things and, in principle, avoids the outside world, then you need to contact a specialist.
At the age of 3 years, disorders can be manifested by capriciousness, unwillingness to obey adults, increased vulnerability, fatigue, irritability. At this age, it is very important not to suppress the activity of the child, because this can lead to a lack of emotional experience, which in turn can provoke autism and a speech disorder.
At the age of 4, disorders manifest themselves in stubbornness, protest, psychogenic breakdowns. The child has tension, sensitivity to the emotions of others, which can provoke frustration. If you notice that at this age the child begins to react too sharply and aggressively to something, then you need to consult a specialist.
At the age of 5 years, pathologies are manifested by too rapid mental development, compared with peers and the emergence of interests of a particular orientation. Also, the child may lose skills that he already possessed. He may start playing meaningless games, stop using new words he already knows, give up role-playing games, be sloppy.
At the age of 7 years, pathologies are characterized by sleep disturbances, appetite, increased fatigue, dizziness, decline in performance, a tendency to phobias, and overwork. However, one must understand that at this age the child is a little unstable, because he is preparing for school. Natural nervousness should not be mistaken for some kind of deviation, if it does not go beyond normal limits.
Treatment
Treatment of mental disorders in children most often consists of the use of medications and the passage of therapy from a specific specialist. Parents alone cannot solve such problems, because the specifics of children's pathologies are very unclear. It is much better to trust a specialist who can help your child at an early age and solve his problems.
If a child has a mental disorder, then it is worthprepare for long-term treatment. It is very important to contact a child psychiatrist in time so as not to waste precious time. Note that for the treatment of mental disorders, the same medications are used that are used to treat adults. The only difference is that children take smaller doses. In the fight against childhood pathologies, antidepressants, stimulants and mood stabilizers, anti-anxiety drugs, and antipsychotics have shown themselves to be excellent.
If you have already started treatment, we recommend that you do not change the specialist, because this may adversely affect the child. If he trusted a person and made contact with him, then he may refuse to approach another doctor. This should once again remind you how important it is to choose a good professional from the very beginning.
We do not recommend asking your child about sessions with a doctor. It is better to talk with the specialist himself, because the child may take your interest with hostility and close himself from communication.
Summarizing, we note that it is very important to observe your child. While he is small, try not to educate him, but to be just a detached observer. Then you can better understand him and build a better connection in the future.
