Speech disorders in children. How not to miss a mental disorder in a child and what to do in these cases Mental illness in children 4 years old

Mental health is a very vulnerable topic. Clinical manifestations depend on the age of the child and the influence of some factors. Often, due to fear for the upcoming changes in their own alignment of life, parents do not want to notice some problems with the psyche of their child.

Many are afraid to catch the sidelong glances of neighbors on themselves, to feel the pity of friends, to change the usual order of life. But the child has the right to qualified timely help from a doctor, which will help alleviate his condition, and early stages some diseases are cured of one spectrum or another.

One of the most complex mental illnesses is children's. This disease is understood as an acute condition of a baby or already a teenager, which manifests itself in his incorrect perception of reality, his inability to distinguish the present from the fictional, the inability for them to really understand what is happening.

Features of childhood psychoses

And children are not diagnosed as often as adults and. Mental disorders are of different types and forms, but no matter how the disorder manifests itself, no matter what the symptoms of the disease are, psychosis significantly complicates the life of the child and his parents, interferes with thinking correctly, controlling actions, and building adequate parallels with respect to established social norms.

Children's psychotic disorders are characterized by:

Childhood psychosis has different forms and manifestations, therefore it is difficult to diagnose and treat.

Why are children prone to mental health problems?

Multiple causes contribute to the development of mental disorders in babies. Psychiatrists distinguish whole groups of factors:

• genetic;
• biological;
• sociopsychic;
• psychological.

The most important provoking factor is a genetic predisposition to. Other reasons include:

• problems with intelligence (and (others like) with it);
• incompatibility of the temperament of the baby and the parent;
• family discord;
• conflicts between parents;
• events that left psychological trauma;
• drugs that can cause a psychotic state;
• high fever, which can cause or;

Today all possible reasons are not fully understood, but studies have confirmed that children with schizophrenia almost always have signs of organic brain abnormalities, and patients with autism are often diagnosed as having hereditary causes or trauma during childbirth.

Psychoses in young children can occur due to the divorce of parents.

At-risk groups

Thus, children are at risk:

• one of the parents has or has a mental disorder;
• who are brought up in a family where conflicts constantly arise between parents;
• transferred;
• have suffered psychological trauma;
• in whom blood relatives have mental illness, and the closer the degree of relationship, the greater the risk of the disease.

Types of psychotic disorders among children

Diseases of the child's psyche are divided according to some criteria. Depending on age, there are:

• early psychosis;
• late psychosis.

The first type includes patients with infants (up to one year), preschool (from 2 to 6 years) and early school age (from 6-8). The second type includes pre-adolescent (8-11) and adolescent (12-15) patients.

Depending on the cause of the development of the disease, psychosis can be:

• exogenous - disorders caused by external factors;
• - violations provoked by the internal characteristics of the body.

Depending on the type of course, psychosis can be:

• that arose as a result of prolonged psychotraumas;
• - that arose instantly and unexpectedly.

A kind of psychotic disorder is. Depending on the nature of the course and symptoms of affect disorders, there are:

Symptoms depending on the form of failure

Different symptoms of mental illness are justified by different forms of the disease. Common symptoms of the disease are:

• - the baby sees, hears, feels what is not really there;
• - a person sees the existing situation in his wrong interpretation;
• passivity, not initiative;
• aggressiveness, rudeness;
• compulsion syndrome.
• deviations associated with thinking.

Psychogenic shock often occurs in children and adolescents. Reactive psychosis occurs as a result of the transferred psychological trauma.

This form of psychosis has signs and symptoms that distinguish it from other mental spectrum disorders in children:

• the reason for it is a deep emotional shock;
• reversibility - symptoms weaken by the preceding time;
• symptoms depend on the nature of the injury.

Early age

At an early age, mental health problems are manifested in. The kid does not smile, in any way does not show joy on his face. Up to a year, the disorder is detected in the absence of humming, babbling, clapping hands. The crumb does not react to objects, people, parents.

Age crises, during which children are most susceptible to mental disorders from 3 to 4 years old, from 5 to 7, from 12 to 18 years.

Early mental disorders are manifested in:

• frustrations;
• capriciousness, disobedience;
• increased fatigue;
• irritation;
• lack of communication;
• lack of emotional contact.

Later years up to adolescence

Mental problems in a 5-year-old child should disturb the parents if the baby loses the already acquired skills, communicates little, does not want to play role-playing games, and does not monitor his appearance.

At the age of 7, the child becomes unstable in the psyche, he has an appetite disorder, unnecessary fears appear, efficiency decreases, and rapid overwork appears.

At the age of 12-18, parents need to pay attention to a teenager if he has:

• sudden mood swings;
• melancholy;
• aggressiveness, conflict;
• , inconsistency;
• a combination of the incompatible: irritability with acute shyness, sensitivity with callousness, the desire for complete independence with the desire to be always close to mom;
• schizoid;
• rejection of the accepted rules;
• a penchant for philosophy and extreme positions;
• intolerance to guardianship.

More painful signs of psychosis in older children are manifested in:

Diagnostic criteria and methods

Despite the proposed list of signs of psychosis, no parent can surely and accurately diagnose it on their own. First of all, parents should show their child to a psychotherapist. But even after the first appointment with a professional, it is too early to talk about mental personality disorders. A small patient should be examined by the following doctors:

• neuropathologist;
• speech therapist;
• psychiatrist;
• a doctor who specializes in developmental diseases.

Sometimes the patient is admitted to a hospital for examination and the necessary procedures and tests.

Providing professional assistance

Short-term seizures of psychosis in a child disappear immediately after the disappearance of their cause. More severe diseases require long-term therapy, often in an inpatient hospital setting. Specialists for the treatment of childhood psychoses use the same drugs as for adults, only in suitable doses.

Treatment of psychoses and psychotic spectrum disorders in children involves:

If the parents were able to identify the failure of the psyche in their child in time, then to improve the condition, several consultations with a psychiatrist, psychologist are usually enough. But there are cases that require long-term treatment and stay under the supervision of doctors.

Psychological failure in a child, which is associated with his physical condition, is cured immediately after the disappearance of the underlying disease. If the disease was provoked by an experienced stressful situation, then even after the condition improves, the baby requires special treatment and consultations from a psychotherapist.

In extreme cases, with manifestations of strong aggression, the baby can be prescribed. But for the treatment of children, the use of heavy psychotropic drugs is used only in extreme cases.

In most cases, childhood psychoses do not return to adulthood in the absence of provoking situations. Parents of recovering children must fully comply with the daily regimen, do not forget about daily walks, balanced nutrition and, if necessary, take care of taking medications in a timely manner.

The kid cannot be left unattended. At the slightest disturbance in his mental state, it is necessary to seek help from a specialist who will help to cope with the problem that has arisen.

To treat and avoid consequences for the psyche of the child in the future, it is necessary to follow all the recommendations of specialists.

Every parent who is concerned about their child's mental health should remember:

Love and care is what any person needs, especially a small and defenseless person.

In childhood, the most various diseases - neuroses, schizophrenia, epilepsy, exogenous brain damage. Although the main signs of these diseases, most important for diagnosis, appear at any age, the symptoms in children are somewhat different from those observed in adults. However, there are a number of disorders specific to childhood, although some of them may persist throughout a person's life. These disorders reflect disturbances in the natural course of the body's development, they are relatively stable, significant fluctuations in the child's state (remission) are usually not observed, as well as a sharp increase in symptoms. As development progresses, some of the anomalies can be compensated for or disappear altogether. Most of the disorders described below are more common in boys.

Childhood autism

Childhood autism (Kanner's syndrome) occurs with a frequency of 0.02-0.05%. In boys, it is observed 3-5 times more often than in girls. Although developmental anomalies can be detected as early as infancy, the disease is usually diagnosed at the age of 2 to 5 years, when social skills are formed. The classic description of this disorder [Kanner L., 1943] includes extreme isolation, a desire for loneliness, difficulties in emotional communication with others, inadequate use of gestures, intonation and facial expressions when expressing emotions, deviations in the development of speech with a tendency to repetition, echolalia, incorrect use of pronouns ("you" instead of "I"), monotonous repetition of noise and words, decreased spontaneous activity, stereotypy, mannerism. These disorders are combined with excellent mechanical memory and an obsessive desire to maintain everything unchanged, fear of changes, the desire to achieve completion in any action, the preference for communication with objects of communication with people. The danger is the tendency of these patients to self-harm (biting, pulling out hair, hitting the head). In senior school age, epileptic seizures often join. Concomitant mental retardation is observed in 2/3 of patients. It is noted that often the disorder occurs after intrauterine infection (rubella). These facts support the organic nature of the disease. A similar syndrome, but without intellectual disabilities, was described by H. Asperger (1944), who considered it as a hereditary disease (concordance in identical twinsin up to 35%). Di this disorder has to be differentiated from oligophrenia and childhood schizophrenia. The prognosis depends on the severity of the organic defect. Most patients show some improvement in behavior with age. For treatment, special training methods, psychotherapy, small doses of haloperidol are used.

Childhood hyperkinetic disorder

Hyperkinetic conduct disorder (hyperdynamic syndrome) is a relatively common developmental disorder (3 to 8% of all children). The ratio of boys and girls is 5: 1. Characterized by extreme activity, mobility, impaired attention, preventing regular studies and assimilation of school material. The business that has begun, as a rule, does not end; with good mental abilities, children quickly cease to be interested in the task, lose and forget things, get involved in fights, cannot sit at the TV screen, constantly pester others with questions, push, pinch and tug on parents and peers. It is assumed that the disorder is based on minimal cerebral dysfunction, but there are almost no clear signs of psychoorganic syndrome. In most cases, behavior normalizes at the age of 12-20 years, however, to prevent the formation of persistent psychopathic asocial traits, treatment should be started as early as possible. Therapy is based on persistent, structured parenting (strict supervision by parents and caregivers, regular sports). In addition to psychotherapy, psychotropic drugs are also used. Nootropic drugs are widely used - piracetam, pantogam, phenibut, encephabol. In most patients, there is a paradoxical improvement in behavior against the background of the use of psychostimulants (sydnocarb, caffeine, phenamine derivatives, stimulating antidepressants - imipramine and sydnophen). With the use of phenamine derivatives, a temporary growth retardation and a decrease in body weight are occasionally observed, and dependence may form.

Isolated delays in skill formation

Often, children have an isolated delay in the development of a skill: speech, reading, writing or counting, motor functions. Unlike oligophrenias, which are characterized by a uniform lag in the development of all mental functions, with the above disorders, a significant improvement in the condition and a smoothing of the existing lag are usually observed as they grow older, although some disorders may remain in adults. Pedagogical methods are used for correction.

The ICD-10 includes several rare syndromes, presumably organic in nature, occurring in childhood and accompanied by an isolated disorder of some skills.

Landau-Kleffner syndrome manifests itself as a catastrophic violation of pronunciation and understanding of speech at the age of 3-7 years after a period of normal development. Most patients develop epileptiform seizures, almost all of them have abnormalities on the EEG with mono- or bilateral temporal lobe epiativity. Recovery is observed in 1/3 of cases.

Rett syndrome occurs only in girls. It manifests itself as a loss of manual skills and speech, combined with delayed head growth, enuresis, encopresis and attacks of shortness of breath, sometimes epileptic seizures. The disease occurs at the age of 7-24 months against the background of relatively favorable development. At a later age, ataxia, scoliosis and kyphoscoliosis join. The disease leads to severe disability.

Disorders of some physiological functions in children

Enuresis, encopresis, eating inedible (peak), stuttering can occur as independent disorders or (more often) are symptoms of childhood neuroses and organic brain damage. Often, several of these disorders or their combination with tics can be observed in the same child at different age periods.

Stuttering occurs quite often in children. It is indicated that transient stuttering occurs in 4%, and persistent stuttering occurs in 1% of children, more often in boys (in various works, the sex ratio is estimated from 2: 1 to 10: 1). Stuttering usually occurs between the ages of 4 and 5, with normal mental development... In 17% of patients, there is a hereditary burden of stuttering. There are neurotic variants of stuttering with psychogenic onset (after fright, against the background of severe intra-family conflicts) and organically determined (dysontogenetic) variants. The prognosis for neurotic stuttering is much more favorable; after puberty, the disappearance of symptoms or smoothing is noted in 90% of patients. Neurotic stuttering is closely related to traumatic events and personal characteristics of patients (anxious and suspicious traits prevail). Characterized by increased symptoms in a situation of great responsibility, a difficult experience of their illness. Quite often, this type of stuttering is accompanied by other symptoms of neurosis (logoneurosis): sleep disturbances, tearfulness, irritability, fatigue, fear of public speaking (logophobia). The prolonged existence of symptoms can lead to pathological development of the personality with an increase in asthenic and pseudoschizoid features. An organically conditioned (dysontogenetic) variant of stuttering gradually develops regardless of traumatic situations, psychological feelings about the existing speech defect are less pronounced. Other signs of organic pathology are often observed (diffuse neurological symptoms, changes in the EEG). The stuttering itself has a more stereotyped, monotonous character, reminiscent of teak-like hyperkinesis. An increase in symptoms is associated more with additional exogenous harm (trauma, infections, intoxication) than with psychoemotional stress. Stuttering treatment should be done in collaboration with a speech therapist. In the neurotic variant, speech therapy sessions should be preceded by relaxing psychotherapy ("silence mode", family psychotherapy, hypnosis, auto-training and other suggestions, group psychotherapy). In the treatment of organic variants, great importance is attached to the appointment of nootropics and muscle relaxants (mydocalms).

Enuresis at various stages of development, it is noted in 12% of boys and 7% of girls. The diagnosis of enuresis is made in children over 4 years of age; in adults, this disorder is rarely observed (up to 18 years of age, enuresis persists only in 1% of boys, and is not observed in girls). Some researchers note the participation of hereditary factors in the occurrence of this pathology. It is proposed to distinguish primary (dysontogenetic) enuresis, which is manifested by the fact that the normal rhythm of urination is not established from infancy, and secondary (neurotic) enuresis, which occurs in children against the background of psychotraumas after several years of normal regulation of urination. The latter variant of enuresis proceeds more favorably and by the end of puberty in most cases disappears. Neurotic (secondary) enuresis, as a rule, is accompanied by other symptoms of neurosis - fears, fearfulness. These patients often sharply emotionally react to the existing disorder, additional mental trauma provoke an increase in symptoms. Primary (dysontogenetic) enuresis is often combined with mild neurological symptoms and signs of dysontogenesis (spina bifida, prognathia, epicanthus, etc.); partial mental infantilism is often observed. A calmer attitude towards their defect, a strict periodicity, not associated with the momentary psychological situation, are noted. Urination during nocturnal seizures should be distinguished from inorganic enuresis. For differential diagnosis examine the EEG. Some authors consider primary enuresis as a sign that predisposes to the onset of epilepsy [Sprecher BL, 1975]. For the treatment of neurotic (secondary) enuresis, sedative psychotherapy, hypnosis and auto-training are used. Patients with enuresis are advised to reduce fluid intake before bedtime, as well as eat foods that promote water retention in the body (salty and sweet foods).

Tricyclic antidepressants (imipramine, amitriptyline) for enuresis in children have a good effect in most cases. Bedwetting often goes away without special treatment.

Tiki

Tiki occur in 4.5% of boys and 2.6% of girls, usually at the age of 7 years and older, usually do not progress and in some patients completely disappear upon reaching maturity. Anxiety, fear, attention of others, the use of psychostimulants increase tics and can provoke them in an adult who has recovered from tics. A link between tics and neurosis is often found obsessions in children. You should always carefully differentiate tics from other motor disorders (hyperkinesis), which are often a symptom of severe progressive nervous diseases (parkinsonism, Huntinggon's chorea, Wilson's disease, Lesch-Nyhan syndrome, chorea minor, etc.). Unlike hyperkinesis, tics can be suppressed by an effort of will. The children themselves treat them as a bad habit. For the treatment of neurotic tics, family therapy, hypnosuggestion and autogenous training... It is recommended to involve the child in physical activity that is interesting for him (for example, playing sports). If psychotherapy is unsuccessful, mild antipsychotics (sonapax, ethaperazine, halotteridol in small doses) are prescribed.

A serious illness manifested by chronic tics isgilles de la Tourette's syndrome . The disease begins in childhood (usually between 2 and 10 years); in boys 3-4 times more often than in girls. First, tics appear in the form of blinking, head twitching, grimaces. A few years later, in adolescence, vocal and complex motor tics join, often changing localization, sometimes having an aggressive or sexual component. In 1/3 of cases coprolalia (swear words) is observed. Patients are characterized by a combination of impulsivity and obsessions, a decrease in the ability to concentrate. The disease is hereditary. There is an accumulation among the relatives of sick patients with chronic tics and obsessive compulsive disorder. There is a high concordance in identical twins (50-90%), in fraternal twins - about 10%. Treatment is based on the use of antipsychotics (haloperidol, pimozide) and clonidine in minimal doses. The presence of profuse obsessions also requires the appointment of antidepressants (fluoxetine, clomipramine). Pharmacotherapy allows you to control the condition of patients, but does not cure the disease. Sometimes efficiency drug treatment decreases over time.

Features of the manifestation of the main mental illness in children

Schizophrenia with a debut in childhood differs from typical variants of the disease in a more malignant course, a significant predominance of negative symptoms over productive disorders. Early onset of the disease is more common in boys (sex ratio is 3.5: 1). In children, it is very rare to see such typical manifestations of schizophrenia as delusions of exposure and pseudohallucinations. Disorders of the motor sphere and behavior predominate: catatonic and hebephrenic symptoms, disinhibition of drives, or, conversely, passivity and indifference. All symptoms are characterized by simplicity and stereotype. Attention is drawn to the monotonous nature of the games, their stereotypes and schematism. Often, children pick up special items for games (wires, plugs, shoes), and neglect toys. Sometimes there is a surprising one-sidedness of interests (see the clinical case illustrating body dysmorphism in section 5.3).

Although the typical signs of a schizophrenic defect (lack of initiative, autism, indifferent or hostile attitude towards parents) can be observed in almost all patients, they are often combined with a kind of mental retardation, reminiscent of oligophrenia. E. Kraepelin (1913) singled out as an independent formpfropfschizophrenia, combining the features of oligophrenia and schizophrenia with a predominance of hebephrenic symptoms. Occasionally, forms of the disease are noted, in which the mental development preceding the manifestation of schizophrenia occurs, on the contrary, at an accelerated pace: children begin to read and count early, are interested in books that do not correspond to their age. In particular, it is noticed that the paranoid form of schizophrenia is often preceded by premature intellectual development.

At puberty, frequent signs of the onset of schizophrenia are dysmorphomanic syndrome and symptoms of depersonalization. The slow progression of symptoms, the absence of obvious hallucinations and delusions may resemble neurosis. However, unlike neuroses, such symptomatology does not in any way depend on the existing stressful situations, it develops autochthonously. Rituals and senestopathies are early added to the symptoms typical of neuroses (fears, obsessions).

Affective insanity does not occur in early childhood. Distinct affective seizures can be observed in children at least 12-14 years old. It is quite rare for children to complain of feelings of boredom. More often, depression is manifested by somatovegetative disorders, sleep and appetite disorders, and constipation. Depression can be evidenced by persistent lethargy, slowness, unpleasant sensations in the body, moodiness, tearfulness, refusal to play and communicate with peers, and a feeling of worthlessness. Hypomanic states are more noticeable to others. They are manifested by unexpected activity, talkativeness, restlessness, disobedience, decreased attention, inability to measure actions with one's own strengths and capabilities. In adolescents, more often than in adult patients, there is a continual course of the disease with a constant change in affective phases.

Outlined pictures are rarely seen in young children.neurosis. Short-term neurotic reactions due to fear, unpleasant for the child, the prohibition on the part of the parents. The likelihood of such reactions is higher in children with symptoms of residual organic failure. It is not always possible to clearly identify the typical adult variants of neuroses (neurasthenia, hysteria, obsessive-phobic neurosis) in children. Attention is drawn to incompleteness, rudimentary symptoms, the predominance of somatovegetative and movement disorders (enuresis, stuttering, tics). G.E. Sukhareva (1955) emphasized that the regularity is that the younger the child, the more monotonous and monotonous the symptoms of neurosis.

A fairly common manifestation of childhood neuroses is a variety of fears. In early childhood, this is a fear of animals, fairy-tale characters, movie characters, in preschool and primary school age - fear of darkness, loneliness, separation from parents, death of parents, anxious anticipation of the upcoming school, in adolescents - hypochondriacal and dysmorphophobic thoughts, sometimes fear of death ... Phobias more often occur in children with an anxious and suspicious character and increased impressionability, suggestibility, fearfulness. The emergence of fears is facilitated by hyperprotection on the part of the parents, which consists in constant anxious fears for the child. Unlike obsessions in adults, children's phobias are not accompanied by a consciousness of alienation and pain. As a rule, there is no purposeful drive to get rid of fears. Obsessive thoughts, memories, obsessive counting are not typical for children. Abundant ideatorial, emotionally uncolored obsessions, accompanied by rituals and isolation, require differential diagnosis with schizophrenia.

There are also no detailed pictures of hysterical neurosis in children. More often you can see affect-respiratory attacks with loud crying, at the height of which respiratory arrest and cyanosis develop. Psychogenic selective mutism is sometimes noted. The reason for such reactions may be parental prohibition. In contrast to hysteria in adults, children's hysterical psychogenic reactions occur in boys and girls with the same frequency.

The basic principles of treatment of mental disorders in childhood do not differ significantly from those used in adults. Psychopharmacotherapy is the leading one in the treatment of endogenous diseases. In the treatment of neuroses, psychotropic drugs are combined with psychotherapy.

LIST OF REFERENCES

• Bashina V.M. Early childhood schizophrenia (statics and dynamics). - 2nd ed. - M .: Medicine, 1989 .-- 256 p.
• Gurieva V.A., Semke V.Ya., Gindikin V.Ya. Psychopathology of adolescence. - Tomsk, 1994 .-- 310 p.
• Zakharov A.I. Neuroses in children and adolescents: anamnesis, etiology and pathogenesis. - JL: Medicine, 1988.
• Kagan V.E. Autism in children. - M .: Medicine, 1981 .-- 206 p.
• Kaplan G.I., Sadok B.J. Clinical psychiatry: Per. from English. - T. 2. - M .: Medicine, 1994 .-- 528 p.
• V.V. Kovalev Childhood Psychiatry: A Guide for Physicians. - M .: Medicine, 1979 .-- 607 p.
• V.V. Kovalev Semiotics and diagnosis of mental illness in children and adolescents. - M .: Medicine, 1985 .-- 288 p.
• Oudtshoorn D.N. Child and adolescent psychiatry: Per. from nether-land. / Ed. AND I. Gurovich. - M., 1993 .-- 319 p.
• Psychiatry: Per. from English. / Ed. R. Shader. - M .: Practice, 1998 .-- 485 p.
• Simeon T.P. Early childhood schizophrenia. - M .: Medgiz, 1948 .-- 134 p.
• Sukhareva G.E. Lectures on child psychiatry. - M .: Medicine, 1974 .-- 320 p.
• Ushakov T.K. Child psychiatry. - M .: Medicine, 1973 .-- 392 p.

Health

To help children who have not been diagnosed with a mental disorder, the researchers released a checklist 11 warning signs that are easily recognizablethat can be used by parents and other people.

This list is intended to help bridge the gap between the number of children suffering from mental illness and those who are actually being treated.

Research has shown that three out of four children with mental health problems, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, eating disorders and bipolar disorder, go unnoticed and do not receive proper treatment.

Parents who notice any of the warning signs should see a pediatrician or mental health professional for a psychiatric assessment. Researchers hope that the proposed list of symptoms help parents distinguish normal behavior from signs of mental illness.

"Many people cannot be sure if their child has a problem., "- says Dr. Peter S. Jensen (Dr. Peter S. Jensen) Professor of Psychiatry. " If a person has an answer "yes" or "no", then it is easier for him to make a decision."

Defining a mental disorder in adolescence will also enable children to receive treatment earlier, making it more effective. For some children, it can take up to 10 years from the time the symptoms appear and the time they start receiving treatment.

To compile the list, the committee reviewed research on mental disorders in which more than 6,000 children participated.

Here are 11 warning signs of mental illness:

1. Feelings of deep sadness or withdrawal that last longer than 2-3 weeks.

2. Serious attempts to harm or kill yourself, or plans to do so.

3. Sudden, all-consuming fear for no reason, sometimes accompanied by a strong heartbeat and rapid breathing.

4. Participation in many fights, including the use of weapons, or the desire to harm someone.

5. Violent, uncontrollable behavior that may harm yourself or others.

6. Avoiding food, throwing away food or using laxatives to lose weight.

7. Severe anxieties and fears that interfere with normal activity.

8. Great difficulty concentrating or not being able to sit still, which puts you in physical danger or causes you to fail.

9. Repeated use of drugs and alcohol.

10. Severe mood swings that lead to relationship problems.

11. Sudden changes in behavior or personality

These signs are not a diagnosis, and parents should consult a specialist for an accurate diagnosis. In addition, the researchers explained that these signs do not necessarily show up in children with mental disorders.

The speech function, as well as other higher mental functions (memory, thinking, perception, attention, etc.), is formed in the child gradually, starting from the prenatal period, and this process does not always proceed smoothly.

Deviations in speech development are possible for various reasons. These can be various pathologies during intrauterine development (the most gross speech defects occur when exposed to unfavorable factors for a period of 4 weeks to 4 months of pregnancy), toxicosis, incompatibility of the blood of the mother and the child by the Rh factor, viral and endocrine diseases, trauma, hereditary factors, etc.

Birth trauma and asphyxia during childbirth, pathological course of childbirth, various diseases in the first years of a child's life (skull injuries accompanied by a concussion, etc.) can become a cause for unrest. Not the last place is occupied by unfavorable social and living conditions, leading to pedagogical neglect of children, violations of their emotional-volitional sphere and a deficit of verbal communication.

Parents need to pay attention to the development of the baby's need to speak. Often, when communicating with a small child, adults try to understand and fulfill his requests, without waiting for him to try to express them.

Depending on the duration of exposure to adverse factors and on which part of the brain is damaged, speech defects of various types appear. Speech problems can be just one of the manifestations general violation activity of the nervous system and be accompanied by intellectual and motor impairment.

Speech disorders are now very well studied and many of them are being successfully corrected. The main thing is that you need to contact a specialist in time in order to diagnose them in a timely manner and understand: speech impairment is the only problem or is it a consequence of other serious diseases (autism, hearing impairment, the functioning of the central nervous system, deviations in intellectual development, etc.).

It is very difficult for parents who are worried about a child's delay in speech or its impairment, it is very difficult to understand how serious the problem is with their child, what to do. As a rule, they hope that everything will pass by itself, and they waste valuable time.

The main types of speech disorders

Speech disorders can be divided into four main types:

Violation of sound pronunciation;

Violation of the rhythm and tempo of speech;

Speech disorders associated with hearing impairment;

Underdevelopment of speech or loss of previously existing speech.

Violation of sound pronunciation

The most common violation of sound pronunciation is dyslalia, in which there is either the absence of some sounds (the child misses them in words), or their distortion (the baby pronounces them incorrectly), or the replacement of one sound with another.

Dislalia is functional and mechanical.

With functional dyslalia, there are no violations of the structure of the speech apparatus (jaws, teeth, palate, tongue). It is observed during the period when the process of assimilation of sounds occurs. Functional dyslalia can occur due to the general physical weakness of the child due to various somatic diseases (especially during the period of active speech formation), mental retardation (minimal brain dysfunctions), delayed speech development, impaired phonemic perception, limited communication, imitation of incorrect speech. In this case, it is necessary to develop the ability to listen to sounds, actively communicate with the child. Gymnastics to strengthen the muscles of the tongue can be effective.

With mechanical dyslalia, a violation of sound pronunciation is caused by anatomical defects of the organs of articulation, such as improper structure of the teeth, the absence of incisors or their anomalies, bite defects, pathological changes in the tongue (tongue too large or too small), shortened frenulum.

Less common are violations of sound pronunciation caused by labial anomalies, since congenital defects (deformities) are corrected surgically at an early age. If there are anatomical defects, consultation (and in some cases treatment) of a surgeon and orthodontist is necessary.

Dislalia can also develop when communicating with children who have not formed the correct sound pronunciation. Being in a bilingual environment influences, as well as the attitude of adults towards incorrect pronunciation (many of them do not correct the child's speech, believing that after some time he will learn to speak correctly).

Defects in sound pronunciation in children can be caused by underdevelopment of phonemic hearing (it is difficult for a child to distinguish sounds that are similar in acoustic characteristics: w — w, s — z, etc.), decreased physical hearing, and insufficient mental development.

But it is necessary to distinguish complex dyslalia from other similar disorders, in which lateral pronunciation of many phonemes can be observed, the appearance of excessive saliva at the time of speech is noted, it is difficult for the child to hold the tongue in the desired position for a long time, the mobility of the tongue, strength and accuracy of movements are changed.

A more serious violation of sound pronunciation arising from organic damage to the central nervous system is dysarthria. With dysarthria, not only the pronunciation of individual sounds suffers. These children have limited mobility of speech and facial muscles. In speech, there is a fuzzy, blurry sound pronunciation, the voice is quiet, weak, and sometimes, on the contrary, harsh; the breathing rhythm is disturbed, speech loses its smoothness, the rate of speech can be accelerated or slowed down.

The causes of dysarthria are various unfavorable factors that can act in utero during pregnancy (viral infections, toxicosis, pathology of the placenta), at the time of birth (protracted or rapid labor causing hemorrhage in the infant's brain) and at an early age (infectious diseases of the brain and meninges: meningitis, meningoencephalitis, etc.).

This disorder can be observed in a severe form (within the framework of infantile cerebral palsy), or in a mild, so-called erased form of dysarthria (dysarthric component). Children with this diagnosis receive comprehensive speech therapy and medical assistance in special institutions. In more easy form violations of the movements of the organs of the articulatory apparatus, general and fine motor skills, as well as sound pronunciation are traced - speech is understandable to others, but indistinct.

Children with erased forms dysarthria do not always immediately attract attention, but they can be distinguished by some features. They pronounce words illegibly, eat poorly, refuse to chew solid food, as it is difficult for them to do this (such children must be gradually taught to chew solid food - this will contribute to the development of the muscles of the tongue and cheeks). Many skills that require precise movements of various muscle groups are difficult and therefore need to be developed. The child is taught in different directions: the development of motor skills (general, fine, articulatory), the correction of sound pronunciation, the formation of the rhythmic-melodic side of speech and the improvement of diction.

The kid needs to master mouthwash. To do this, you must first learn to puff out your cheeks and hold the air, and then move it from one cheek to another; retract the cheeks, while the mouth is open and the lips are closed.

It is necessary to develop fine motor skills of the hands using special exercises. It is necessary to teach the child to fasten buttons (first large, then small) on the doll's clothes or on the removed dress, coat. At the same time, an adult not only shows movements, but also helps to produce them with the hands of the child himself. To train the ability to lacing shoes, various aids are used - lacing.

Children with this disorder have difficulty in visual activity. Therefore, it is necessary to teach them how to hold the pencil correctly, regulate the pressure when drawing, and use scissors.

Difficulties are also noted when doing physical exercisedancing. Children are taught to maintain balance, to stand and jump on one leg, to correlate their movements with the beginning and end of a musical phrase, to change the character of movements in accordance with the beat. Parents need to know that if you do not start corrective work on time, this can lead to reading (dyslexia) and writing (dysgraphia) disorders in the future. For the earliest possible achievement of results, work should be carried out in conjunction with a speech therapist, consultations of a neuropsychiatrist and a specialist in physiotherapy exercises are also required.

I would like to dwell on another violation of the sound pronunciation of speech - rhinolalia, the main difference of which is the presence of a nasal tone of voice. Nasal tone of speech (nasal tone) occurs when the stream of exhaled air passes almost completely through the nose. At the same time, sound production is disturbed, which depends both on the activity of the muscles of the soft palate, pharynx and tongue, and on deformation of the hard palate (cleft), alveolar ridge, improper position of the teeth (in the presence of a cleft lip), from disruption of the shape of the wing of the nose (nostrils).

The occurrence of clefts is influenced by genetic factors - unfavorable heredity (the presence of clefts in direct or indirect relatives); biological - diseases of the mother during pregnancy (influenza, SARS, mumps, toxoplasmosis); chemical - contact with harmful substances (pesticides, acids); poor state of the environment; the influence of alcohol, nicotine, drugs; uncontrolled intake of drugs, in particular, oversaturation of the fetus with vitamin A and drugs of the cortisone group.

Usually, at an early age, this disorder is corrected with the help of surgical intervention. Basically speech therapy classes start right after plastic surgery palate.

Violation of the rhythm and tempo of speech

Let us dwell on one of the most common types of disturbances in the rhythm and tempo of speech - stuttering. This disorder is characterized by a spasm of the speech muscles. It manifests itself in two forms - the so-called developmental stuttering and reactive stuttering.

Development stuttering is usually noted in early childhood, when the child is not yet good at speaking, he has poorly formed articulations of the tongue, lips and cheeks. And if during this period the baby is taught to pronounce difficult words (frying pan, snowman, policeman, etc.), he may start to stutter.

Overexcitation of the speech areas of the brain underlies the occurrence of such stuttering. Therefore, the first measure aimed at restoring normal speech should be a "silence mode" for 7-10 days. We must try to exclude all types of emotional impact, completely limit the child's speech, communicate in a whisper and reduce conversations with the baby to a minimum. Sometimes it helps, but in some cases the disorder is quite persistent.

As soon as a child has a stutter or something similar to it (it is difficult for a child to start talking, he finds it difficult to pronounce complex words, repeats the same syllable, etc.), you need to contact a speech therapist and strictly follow all his instructions.

Reactive stuttering (develops as a reaction to some kind of strong impact) is most often the result of fright, mental trauma (severe family conflicts) or debilitating long-term illness.

Children with a weakened begin to stutter nervous systemwho have a predisposition to this speech disorder (stuttering in close relatives). These children often show signs of a neurotic state: poor appetite, restless sleep, night fears, urinary incontinence, etc.

A stuttering child must be supervised by a neurologist. He needs both medical and speech therapy assistance. The main thing is not to fix the baby's attention on this defect, not to imitate him and not repeat incorrectly pronounced words after him. Your task is to teach him to speak more slowly. Most likely, the child is in a hurry not only to speak, so it is necessary to normalize the entire motor regime of the baby, using calm games. The family environment should also be calm and calm.

Parents need to remember that if a child is easily aroused, whining, sleeping restlessly, etc., you should not read too much, tell long stories, rush to teach difficult words and complex phrases. This is especially true for children who have speech disorders that are acceptable for a given age. Against the background of unworked articulation, an abundance of new words will easily lead to a "breakdown" nervous activity... In other words, the level of speech development should correspond to the level of development of the baby as a whole. When this does not happen, there is a risk of stuttering.

Keep in mind that stuttering may recur after treatment. There are age periods in which the onset or recurrence of the disease is most likely (from 2 to 6 years). The reasons for relapse are the same as the reasons that originally caused stuttering: family conflicts, overwork, weakening of the body infections. Therefore, resumption of stuttering can be prevented if the people around them try to create a calm environment for the child.

Hearing-related speech disorders

Already in the first year of life, you yourself can draw conclusions about the level of speech development of the child. Attention should be paid to humming. "If at 3-4 months it does not become more complicated and does not turn into babbling, but gradually fades away, this may indicate serious hearing impairment. As soon as possible, it is necessary to examine the child's hearing, consult an otolaryngologist, and make an audiogram.

How to test your child's hearing at home?

The simplest hearing test is to test it with whispering and regular speaking. Being at a distance of 5-6 meters from the baby (he has his back to you), say in a whisper the words he knows well. Children with full hearing usually hear whispers. If your child cannot hear at that distance, you should gradually approach him until he can repeat all the words you said.

During the survey, it is necessary to consider general state baby: fatigue, attention, readiness to complete the task. A tired child is easily distracted, does not perceive the meaning of the task assigned to him and may give inaccurate answers. In the case when the baby does not yet know oral speech and does not understand verbal instructions, you can use sounding (tambourine, whistle) and sounded (bird, barking dog, etc.) toys.

If the child does not hear a whisper, move away from him at the same distance and say other familiar words to him in a voice at normal conversational volume. In this way, it is possible to establish at what distance the baby hears normal speech. If you suspect that he is hard of hearing, you should consult an otolaryngologist. If a young child hears speech at normal conversational volume at a distance of 3-4 meters (that is, physical hearing is normal), you can help develop his speech at home (19).

In case of hearing impairment, early correctional work gives the greatest positive effect. If the child is shown a hearing aid, it must be used - with the help of the device, speech can develop quite successfully. You need to talk with your baby slowly, so that he has the opportunity to see your face, facial expressions, articulation while you utter words - this will develop the ability to read lips.

Underdevelopment of speech or loss of previously existing speech

There is a violation of speech activity - alalia, which can occur due to late maturation of nerve cells in the speech zone of the left hemisphere or as a result of early damage to these cells during infections, intoxications, birth trauma, soon after birth. There is motor alalia, when the speech of the child is poorly developed, and sensory, when the understanding of the speech of other people is impaired. Most often, there is a mixed form of alalia with a predominance of motor or sensory disorders. The speech of children suffering from alalia develops late, the vocabulary is replenished slowly, they do not change words in numbers, cases, there are no bundles of words in the sentence, therefore at 7-8 years old the child speaks like a 2-3-year-old baby ("Katya is walking in the garden" ). They find it difficult to pronounce the sequence of pronouncing sounds, so they poorly read and understand poorly. In such children, both general motor skills are insufficiently developed (they are inactive, awkward, slow) and the movements of the fingers.

With this diagnosis, logorhythmic classes, exercises for the development of finely coordinated hand movements are very effective (we give examples of such tasks below). In working with such children, not only a speech therapist should take part, but also a psychologist, a defectologist, a neuropsychiatrist and other specialists (exercise therapy, massage).

If speech has already been formed, but it was lost due to focal lesion of the speech zones of the brain, then we can talk about another speech disorder - aphasia. Even a very severe form of this disorder goes away in children relatively quickly, if the main cause of the speech disorder is eliminated - the brain tumor is removed, the hemorrhage resolved after the injury, etc.

An important part correctional work with non-speaking children are games and exercises aimed at improving the movements of the organs of the articulatory apparatus, relieving their muscle tension, developing the ability to feel and control their movements.

In relation to children of early age (up to 5 years old) who master speech skills at a later date, specialists often use the diagnosis of RAD (delayed speech development). This diagnosis can be made both independently and be a sign of some serious disorder. To understand this, you need to have an idea of \u200b\u200bthe age characteristics of speech development, which will be discussed below.

When you need to seek help from specialists

By the end of the first year of life, with preserved hearing, the child begins to develop understanding of speech. If this does not happen, that is, the baby is not involved in the work of imitating the actions and speech of adults, is not active in playing with toys, then one can suspect intellectual underdevelopment.

In this case, the semantic side of speech will suffer more, therefore, the main help should be directed to the development of cognitive interests.

If a child at 2 years old has normal hearing, and speech is not developed, he needs active communication with adults through gestures and any sounds, and then in the near future the baby will have words.

The child is 2 years 7 months old, and he does not speak yet? It is necessary to begin special classes to form the need for conversation. At this age, if the baby has problems with speech, it must be shown to specialists and examined.

Adults should in no case reproach a child for experiencing certain difficulties in the process of verbal communication, as this can cause fear of the need to speak, fear of making a mistake. The kid should be encouraged and encouraged to make the slightest attempt to use words. It is necessary to specially create such situations in which the baby will be forced to say something.

If, with preserved hearing and normal intelligence, by the age of three the child does not have phrasal speech or he uses incorrect sentences, we can talk about systemic speech disorders (in understanding the meaning of words, changing them, using them).

The speech of such children develops better in the process of any activity, therefore, it is necessary to conduct joint games, involve the baby in housework, read books that are simple in content, comment on everything that the child sees and does. When communicating with a baby, simple, laconic sentences should be used, and words for repetition should be used in different case forms.

If a four-year-old baby's sound pronunciation lags significantly behind the norm, that is, there are numerous substitutions in speech: instead of sibilants, sibilants are pronounced (w — s, w — z, w — s), the sound p is replaced by l, l or d, replacing solid consonants with the corresponding soft, - this indicates a violation of phonemic hearing and, accordingly, the need to conduct classes in order to develop it.

Distorted pronunciation of individual consonants may also be noted: p throat; p is one-hit (that is, pronounced without vibration of the tip of the tongue); l two-lipped, similar to English w; whistling sounds s, z, c, pronounced with the tip of the tongue sticking between the teeth.

These speech defects are not age-related and will not disappear by themselves, so parents do not need to postpone their correction until later, so as not to reinforce the incorrect pronunciation in speech. To set the sound, you should contact a specialist, and the parents themselves can help the child develop the ability to use the set sound. At first, the baby in some words can pronounce the sound as it should, but in others - still replace it. The role of adults is to correct the baby and ask him to repeat the word correctly. When reinforcing the sound, those words are used that the child pronounces correctly.

By the age of five, undeveloped coherent speech, low speech activity, lack of curiosity, and poor vocabulary may indicate mental retardation (PD).

A child with DPD needs to activate cognitive interests, for which he needs to read more books about nature, about animals, and encourage him to retell texts.

Summing up the above, I would like to note that it is necessary to pay attention to problems that may appear already in the early stages of a child's development. If your baby is two years old, and he does not babble, is inactive, does not make contact well, is not very emotional - all this should alert the parents. Such a child should be shown to a neurologist, otolaryngologist, speech therapist, an EEG - electroencephalography of the brain, if necessary - an audiogram to test hearing. It is better to prevent those problems that may arise later than to face them.

You noticed mental disorder in children? Do you want to know more detailed information or do you need an inspection? You can make an appointment with a doctor - the Eurolab clinic is always at your service! The best doctors will examine you, study external signs and help identify the disease by symptoms, advise you and provide help needed... You can also call a doctor at home. The Eurolab clinic is open for you around the clock.

The phone number of our clinic in Kiev: (+3 (multichannel). The secretary of the clinic will select a convenient day and hour for you to visit the doctor. Our coordinates and directions are indicated here. Look in more detail about all the services of the clinic on its personal page.

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How not to miss a mental disorder in a child and what to do in these cases

The concept of mental disorder in children can be difficult to explain, let alone need to define, especially on your own. Parents' knowledge is usually not enough for this. As a result, many children who could benefit from treatment do not receive the care they need. This article will help parents learn to identify warning signs of mental illness in children and highlight some options for help.

Why is it difficult for parents to determine the state of mind of their child?

Unfortunately, many adults are unaware of the signs and symptoms of mental illness in children. Even if parents are familiar with the basic principles of recognizing serious mental disorders, it is often difficult for parents to distinguish between subtle signs of deviation from the normal behavior of children. And the child sometimes lacks vocabulary or intellectual baggage to explain your problems verbally.

Concerns about stereotypes associated with mental illness, the cost of using certain medications, as well as the material and technical complexity of possible treatment, often postpone the timing of therapy, or force parents to explain the condition of their child with some simple and temporary phenomenon. However, a psychopathological disorder that is beginning to develop cannot contain anything, except for the correct, and most importantly, timely treatment.

The concept of mental disorder, its manifestation in children

Children can suffer from the same mental illnesses as adults, but they manifest them in different ways. For example, depressed children often show more signs of irritability than adults, who tend to be more saddened.

Children most commonly suffer from a number of medical conditions, including acute or chronic mental disorders:

Children with anxiety disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, social phobia, and generalized anxiety disorder display vividly the signs of anxiety, which is an ongoing problem that interferes with their daily activities.

Sometimes worry is a traditional part of every child's experience, often moving from one stage of development to the next. However, when stress is proactive, it becomes difficult for the child. It is in such cases that symptomatic treatment is indicated.

• Attention deficit or hyperactivity disorder.

This disorder typically includes three categories of symptoms: difficulty concentrating, hyperactivity, and impulsive behavior. Some children with this condition have symptoms of all categories, while others may have only one symptom.

It is a serious developmental disorder that manifests itself in early childhood - usually before the age of 3 years. Although symptoms and severity are prone to variability, the disorder always affects a child's ability to communicate and interact with others.

Eating disorders - such as anorexia, bulimia and binge eating - are serious enough diseases that threaten a child's life. Children can become so busy with food and their own weight that it prevents them from focusing on anything else.

Affect disorders such as depression and bipolar disorder can lead to stabilization of persistent feelings of sadness or mood swings much more severe than the usual variability common in many people.

This chronic mental illness causes the child to lose touch with reality. Schizophrenia appears more often in late adolescence, around the age of 20.

Depending on the condition of the child, illnesses can be classified as temporary mental disorders or permanent.

The main signs of mental illness in children

Some markers that a child may have mental health problems are:

Mood changes. Look for dominant signs of sadness or longing that last for at least two weeks, or severe mood swings that cause relationship problems at home or at school.

Too strong emotions. Acute emotions of overwhelming fear for no reason, sometimes combined with tachycardia or rapid breathing, are a serious reason to pay attention to your child.

Abnormal behavior. This can include abrupt changes in behavior or self-assessment, as well as dangerous or out of control actions. Frequent fights using third-party objects, a strong desire to harm others are also warning signs.

Difficulty concentrating. The characteristic manifestation of such signs is very clearly visible at the time of preparing homework. It is also worth paying attention to teacher complaints and current school performance.

Unexplained weight loss. Sudden loss of appetite frequent vomiting or the use of laxatives may indicate an eating disorder;

Physical symptoms. Compared to adults, children with mental health problems may often complain of headaches and abdominal pains rather than sadness or anxiety.

Physical damage. Sometimes a mental health condition leads to self-injury, also called self-harm. Children often choose far inhumane ways for these purposes - they often cut themselves or set themselves on fire. These children also often develop suicidal thoughts and attempts to actually commit suicide.

Substance abuse. Some children use drugs or alcohol to try to cope with their feelings.

Actions of parents in case of suspicion of mental disorders in a child

If parents are really worried about their child's mental health, it is imperative to see a specialist as soon as possible.

The physician should describe the present behavior in detail, focusing on the most striking inconsistencies with the earlier period. For more information, it is recommended that you talk to your school teacher, class teacher, close friends, or other people who have been with your child for extended periods of time before visiting the doctor. As a rule, this approach helps a lot to define and discover something new, something that the child will never show at home. It must be remembered that there should be no secrets from the doctor. And yet - there is no panacea in the form of pills for mental illness.

General actions of specialists

The mental state of health in children is diagnosed and treated on the basis of signs and symptoms, with the obligatory consideration of the influence of psychological or mental abnormalities on the child's daily life. This approach also allows you to identify the types of mental disorders in the child. There are no simple, unique, or 100% positive tests. In order to make a diagnosis, the physician may recommend the presence of related professionals, such as a psychiatrist, psychologist, social worker, psychiatric nurse, mental health educators, or behavioral therapist.

The doctor or other professionals will work with the child, usually on an individual basis, to determine first whether or not there is a true deviation from normal mental health based on diagnostic criteria. For comparison, a special database of children's psychological and mental symptoms is used, which is used by experts from all over the world.

In addition, the doctor or other mental health care provider will look for other possible reasons explaining the child's behavior, such as a history of previous illness or injury, including family history.

It is worth noting that diagnosing childhood mental health problems can be difficult, as it can be a major challenge for children to express their emotions and feelings correctly. Moreover, this quality always fluctuates from child to child - there are no identical children in this regard. Despite these problems, an accurate diagnosis is essential to correct, effective treatment.

General therapeutic approaches

Common treatment options for children who have mental health problems include:

Psychotherapy, also known as "talk therapy" or behavior therapy, is a way to address many mental health problems. Talking to a psychologist, while showing emotions and feelings, the child allows you to look into the very depth of his experiences. During psychotherapy, children themselves learn a lot about their condition, mood, feelings, thoughts and behavior. Psychotherapy can help a child learn to respond to challenging situations while healthy overcoming problem barriers.

In the process of searching for problems and their solutions, specialists themselves will offer the necessary and most effective treatment option. In some case, psychotherapy sessions will be quite enough, in another - without medicines will not be enough.

It should be noted that acute mental disorders are always easier to stop than chronic ones.

Help from parents

At times like these, a child needs parental support more than ever. Children with mental health diagnoses, in fact, like their parents, usually experience feelings of helplessness, anger and frustration. Ask your child's healthcare provider for advice on how to change the way you interact with your son or daughter, and how to cope with difficult behaviors.

Look for ways to relax and have fun with your child. Praise his strengths and abilities. Explore new stress management techniques that can help you understand how to calmly respond to stressful situations.

Family counseling or support from support groups can be helpful in treating childhood mental health problems. This approach is very important for parents and children. This will help you understand your child's illness, their feelings, and what can be done together to provide maximum help and support.

To help your child succeed in school, educate your child's teachers and school management about your child's mental health. Unfortunately, in some cases, you may have to change educational institution to school, training program which is designed for children with mental problems.

If you are concerned about your child's mental health, seek professional advice. No one can make a decision for you. Don't shy away from helping out because of your shame or fear. With appropriate support, you can learn the truth about whether your child has disabilities and can explore the options for the proposed treatment, thereby ensuring your child a further decent quality of life.

Comments and Feedback:

uSEFUL ARTICLE, JUST A CHILD GROWS UP. NOW I KNOW AT WHAT MOMENTS IN THE BEHAVIOR OF A CHILD TO PAY ATTENTION.

In the first grade, I realized that something was wrong with my child. All the children were somehow worried this year, but it was especially difficult for my son. And despite the fact that my husband believed that everything was fine with him, I went to the doctor. And for good reason. Just care and attention to the son was not enough. I had to take medications and the treatment turned out to be very effective

The child has a very disturbed psyche, what to do?

Hello, I am a mother of three. Two boys 8 and 3 years old and a baby 8 months old. The problem with the older child. From a very young age, he was very hyperactive and excitable. Since childhood, he never played with toys. I always didn't know what to do until now. Very aggressive, a little something wrong can beat. Everywhere he is not loved, neither in the garden, nor at school or on the street. He always does evil to everyone. And he is also happy. Everything is good in our family, no one drinks or smokes. At home, too, the problem he offends the younger can never sit down and play something. There are enough toys. He only chases the younger all over the apartment or twists his head on the bed with the younger one like this game. Almost immediately crying and yelling. I explain that crying and screaming do not solve the problem, you need to come up to me and talk. He also always twitches and imagines that he is shooting. Behaves like 4 years. Inadequate on the street or anywhere else. At school they complain that he beats children, that he is aggressive if someone bends him or if he accidentally gets ready to beat him. Very angry. I do not know what to do. Is it possible to somehow calm the psyche? Sedatives? When he was a little dad he often watched TV action movies with murders and shooters and he also saw. Could this affect the psyche? He can't twitch all the time and for 10 minutes he can be calm even when we go to school he twitches like he shoots. Help with advice.

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nata30

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Lyonik Vasilisa

How does the child develop - by age or lagging behind?

How does he do in school - exactly how?

You need to see a psychologist for diagnosis - is there really hyperactivity or is it a consequence of upbringing? To complete the picture, a testimony from the teacher should be brought to the psychologist.

Also make a video and show the psychologist how the child behaves at home, how he plays.

Have you tried taking him to the sports section by age? Find a good coach, explain the situation. Maybe in the section the child will let off steam and your relationship will improve.

The impression that during all this time you did not try to fix anything, sorry, but you did not write what exactly you were trying to do.

Do not run the problem until adolescence, it will get harder over time

nata30

Judging by your description, the state of the boy's nervous system and psyche must be checked by specialists: a neurologist, a psychiatrist (in the clinic) and a psychologist (you need to look, but now full-time psychologists are not uncommon in schools).

Only specialists, after personal contact with the child, can make a conclusion: an adequate child or not.

If experts consider that the child is completely adequate, only there are difficulties with upbringing, etc. - then please, we can discuss these problems in detail here.

If experts consider that the child needs medical supervision and medical measures, then they will take these measures, including prescribing a sedative.

Please do not be afraid to contact a neurologist and psychologist - only they can personally establish whether the child's nerves and psyche are in perfect order or not.

If everything is in order with them, then it will be possible to adjust the upbringing and lifestyle of the child.

But if everything is not in order, then it is necessary to establish it exactly.

nata30

I support E.O. Komarovsky and repeat what I have already said: if a psychiatrist after long-term observation diagnoses "hyperactivity", then nothing is better than fulfilling his instructions, the patient cannot be done, except to look for another psychiatrist.

Mental disorders in children

Mental disorders can make life difficult for a person even more than obvious physical disabilities. The situation is especially critical when a small child suffers from an invisible disease, whose whole life is ahead, and right now there should be a rapid development. For this reason, parents should navigate the topic, closely monitor their children and respond promptly to any suspicious phenomena.

Causes of occurrence

Childhood mental illness does not arise out of nowhere - there is a clear list of criteria that do not guarantee the development of the disorder, but strongly contribute to it. Certain diseases have their own causes, but mixed specific disorders are more characteristic of this area, and this is not a matter of choosing or diagnosing a disease, but of common reasons occurrence. It is worth considering all possible causes, without dividing according to the disorders they cause.

Genetic predisposition

This is the only completely inevitable factor. In this case, the disease is caused initially by the malfunctioning of the nervous system, and genetic disorders, as you know, are not cured - doctors can only muffle the symptoms.

If there are known cases of serious mental disorders among the close relatives of future parents, it is possible (but not guaranteed) that they will be passed on to the baby. However, such pathologies can manifest themselves even in preschool age.

Mental disabilities

This factor, which is also a kind of mental disorder, can negatively affect further development body and provoke more severe ailments.

Brain damage

Another very common reason that (like genetic disorders) interferes with the normal functioning of the brain, but not at the genetic level, but at the level visible through an ordinary microscope.

First of all, this includes head injuries received in the first years of life, but some children are so unlucky that they manage to get injured even before birth - or as a result of difficult childbirth.

Violations can also be provoked by an infection, which is considered more dangerous for the fetus, but can also infect the child.

Bad habits of parents

Usually they point to the mother, but if the father was not healthy due to alcoholism or a strong addiction to smoking, drugs, this could also affect the child's health.

Experts say that the female body is especially sensitive to the destructive effects of bad habits, therefore, it is extremely undesirable for women to drink or smoke, but even a man who wants to conceive healthy child, must first refrain from such methods for several months.

It is strictly forbidden for a pregnant woman to drink and smoke.

Constant conflicts

When it is said that a person is capable of going crazy in a difficult psychological environment, this is not at all an artistic exaggeration.

If an adult does not provide a healthy psychological atmosphere, then for a baby who still does not have a developed nervous system or a correct perception of the world around him, this can be a real blow.

Most often, the cause of pathologies is conflicts in the family, since the child stays there most time, from there he has nowhere to go. However, in some cases, an unfavorable environment in the circle of peers - in the yard, in kindergarten or school - can play an important role.

In the latter case, the problem can be solved by changing the institution that the child is attending, but for this you need to understand the situation and begin to change it even before the consequences become irreversible.

Types of diseases

Children can get sick with almost all mental ailments that adults are also susceptible to, but babies also have their own (especially childhood) illnesses. At the same time, accurate diagnosis of a particular disease in childhood is greatly complicated. The peculiarities of the development of babies, whose behavior is already very different from that of adults, have an effect.

In all cases, parents may not be able to recognize early signs of problems easily.

Even doctors usually make the final diagnosis no earlier than the child reaches primary school age, using very vague, too general concepts to describe an early disorder.

We will provide a generalized list of diseases, the description of which, for this reason, will not be perfectly accurate. In some patients, individual symptoms will not appear, and the very fact of the presence of even two or three signs will not mean a mental disorder. In general, the summary table of childhood mental disorders looks like this.

Mental retardation and developmental delay

The essence of the problem is quite obvious - the child is physically developing normally, but in terms of mental and intellectual level, he significantly lags behind his peers. It is possible that he will never reach the level of even an average adult.

The result can be mental infantilism, when an adult behaves literally like a child, moreover, a preschooler or elementary school student. It is much more difficult for such a child to learn, this can be caused by both poor memory and an inability to on their own focus on a specific subject.

The slightest extraneous factor can distract the kid from learning.

Attention deficit disorder

Although the name of this group of diseases can be perceived as one of the symptoms of the previous group, the nature of the phenomenon is completely different.

A child with such a syndrome in mental development is not lagging behind at all, and his typical hyperactivity is perceived by most people as a sign of health. However, it is precisely in excessive activity that the root of evil lies, since in this case it has painful features - there is absolutely no occupation that the child would love and bring to the end.

If high activity is not strange for young children, then here it is hypertrophied to the point that the kid cannot even wait for his turn in the game - and for this reason he can leave it without finishing the game.

It is quite obvious that getting such a child to study hard is extremely problematic.

Autism

The concept of autism is extremely broad, but in general it is characterized by a very deep withdrawal into one's own inner world. Autism is considered by many to be a form of retardation, but in terms of potential, the autistic person is usually not very different from their peers.

The problem lies in the impossibility of normal communication with others. If a healthy child he learns absolutely everything from others, then the autistic receives much less information from the outside world.

Gaining new experiences is also a serious problem, as children with autism are extremely negative about any sudden changes.

However, autistic people are even capable of independent mental development, it just goes by more slowly - due to the lack of maximum opportunities for obtaining new knowledge.

"Adult" mental disorders

This should include those ailments that are considered relatively common among adults, but are quite rare in children. A notable phenomenon among adolescents is various manic states: megalomania, persecution, and so on.

Childhood schizophrenia affects only one child out of fifty thousand, but it is frightening by the scale of regression in mental and physical development. Because of the pronounced symptoms, Tourette's syndrome also became known, when the patient regularly uses obscene language (uncontrollably).

What should parents pay attention to?

Psychologists with extensive work experience argue that absolutely healthy people do not exist. If in most cases minor oddities are perceived as a peculiar, but not particularly disturbing character trait, then in certain situations they can become a clear sign of an impending pathology.

Since the systematics of mental illness in childhood is complicated by the similarity of symptoms in fundamentally different disorders, it is not worth considering alarming oddities in relation to individual diseases. It is better to present them as a general list of alarming "bells".

It is worth recalling that none of these qualities is a 100% sign of a mental disorder - unless there is a hypertrophied, pathological level of defect development.

So, the reason for going to a specialist can be a bright manifestation of the following qualities in a child.

Increased level of brutality

Here one should distinguish between child abuse caused by a lack of understanding of the degree of discomfort caused, and receiving pleasure from purposeful, conscious infliction of pain - not only to others, but also to oneself.

If a kid at the age of about 3 years pulls a cat by the tail, then he learns the world in this way, but if at school age he checks her reaction to an attempt to rip her paw off, then this is clearly abnormal.

Violence usually expresses an unhealthy atmosphere at home or in the company of friends, but it can both go away by itself (under the influence of external factors) and have irreparable consequences.

A fundamental refusal to eat and an exaggerated desire to lose weight

The concept of anorexia has been heard in recent years - it is a consequence of low self-esteem and a desire for an ideal that is so exaggerated that it takes on ugly forms.

Among children with anorexia, almost all are adolescent girls, but one should distinguish between normal tracking of their figure and bringing oneself to exhaustion, since the latter has an extremely negative effect on the body's work.

Panic attacks

Fear of something may look normal in general, but be unreasonably high. Relatively speaking: when a person is afraid of heights (falling), standing on the balcony is normal, but if he is afraid to be even just in an apartment, on the top floor, this is already a pathology.

Such unfounded fear not only interferes with normal life in society, but can also lead to more serious consequences, in fact, creating a difficult psychological environment where it does not exist.

Severe depression and suicidal tendencies

Sadness is characteristic of people of any age. If this is delayed for a long time (for example, a couple of weeks), the question arises about the reason.

Children have virtually no reason to fall into depression for such a long period, so it can be perceived as a separate disease.

The only common reason for childhood depression may be perhaps a difficult psychological environment, but it is precisely the cause of the development of many mental disorders.

Depression itself is dangerous with a tendency to self-destruction. Many people think about suicide at least once in their life, but if this topic takes the shape of a hobby, there is a risk of trying to self-harm.

Abrupt mood swings or changes in habitual behavior

The first factor indicates that the psyche is shaky, its inability to resist in response to certain stimuli.

If a person behaves this way in everyday life, then his reaction in an emergency may be inadequate. In addition, with constant bouts of aggression, depression or fear, a person is able to harass himself even more, as well as negatively affect the mental health of others.

A strong and abrupt change in behavior that does not have a specific justification, rather indicates an increased likelihood of such an outcome rather than the onset of a mental disorder.

In particular, a person who suddenly became silent must have experienced severe stress.

Excessive hyperactivity that interferes with concentration

When a child is very mobile, this does not surprise anyone, but he probably has some activity to which he is ready to devote a long time. Hyperactivity with signs of impairment is when a baby, even in active games, cannot play for a long enough time, and not because he is tired, but simply due to a sharp switch of attention to something else.

It is impossible to influence such a child even with threats, and yet he is faced with reduced opportunities for learning.

Negative social phenomena

Excessive conflict (up to regular assault) and a tendency to bad habits in themselves can simply signal the presence of a difficult psychological situation that the child is trying to overcome in such unsightly ways.

However, the roots of the problem may lie elsewhere. For example, constant aggression can be caused not only by the need to defend, but also by the increased cruelty mentioned at the beginning of the list.

The nature of a sudden abuse of something is generally very unpredictable - it can be either a deeply hidden attempt at self-destruction, or a banal escape from reality (or even a psychological attachment bordering on mania).

At the same time, alcohol and drugs never solve the problem that led to the addiction to them, but they adversely affect the body and can contribute to further degradation of the psyche.

Treatment methods

Although mental disorders are clearly a serious problem, most of them can be corrected - until complete recovery, while a relatively small percentage of them are incurable pathologies. Another thing is that treatment can last for years and almost always requires the maximum involvement of all people around the child.

The choice of the technique strongly depends on the diagnosis, while even very similar diseases in terms of symptoms may require a fundamentally different approach to treatment. That is why it is so important to describe as accurately as possible to the doctor the essence of the problem and the symptoms noticed. At the same time, the main emphasis should be placed on the comparison of “it was and was”, to explain why it seems to you that something went wrong.

Most of the relatively simple diseases are treated with ordinary psychotherapy - and only with it. Most often it takes the form of personal conversations between the child (if he has already reached a certain age) with the doctor, who in this way gets the most accurate idea of \u200b\u200bunderstanding the essence of the problem by the patient himself.

A specialist can assess the scale of what is happening, find out the reasons. The task of an experienced psychologist in this situation is to show the child the hypertrophied nature of the reason in his mind, and if the reason is really serious, to try to distract the patient from the problem, give him a new stimulus.

At the same time, therapy can take many forms - for example, self-contained autists and schizophrenics are unlikely to support the conversation. They may not make contact with humans at all, but usually they do not refuse close communication with animals, which ultimately can increase their sociability, and this is already a sign of improvement.

The use of medications is always accompanied by the same psychotherapy, but it already indicates a more complex pathology - or its greater development. Children with communication disabilities or developmental retardation are given stimulants to increase their activity, including cognition.

For severe depression, aggression, or panic attacks, antidepressants and sedatives are prescribed. If the child shows signs of painful mood swings and seizures (up to tantrum), stabilizers and antipsychotics are used.

Hospital is the most difficult form of intervention, showing the need for constant monitoring (at least during the course). This type of treatment is only used to correct the most severe disorders, such as schizophrenia in children. Ailments of this kind are not treated at once - the little patient will have to repeatedly go to the hospital. If positive changes are noticeable, such courses will become more rare and shorter over time.

Naturally, during the treatment, the most favorable environment should be created for the child, excluding any stress. That is why the fact of having a mental illness does not need to be hidden - on the contrary, kindergarten teachers or school teachers must know about it in order to properly build the educational process and relationships in the team.

It is completely unacceptable to tease or reproach a child for his disorder, and in general it is not worth mentioning him - let the baby feel normal.

But love him a little more, and then over time everything will fall into place. Ideally, it is better to react even before any signs appear (by prophylactic methods).

Achieve a stable positive atmosphere in the family circle and build a trusting relationship with your child so that he can count on your support at any time and is not afraid to talk about any unpleasant phenomenon for him.

You can find out more information regarding this topic by watching the video below.

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Mental disorder in children

Mental disorder is not a disease, but a designation of their group. Violations are characterized by destructive changes in the psycho-emotional state and human behavior. The patient is unable to adapt to everyday conditions, to cope with everyday problems, professional tasks or interpersonal relationships.

The reasons

Both psychological, biological, and sociopsychological factors are on the list of what can be a mental disorder at an early age. And how the disease manifests itself directly depends on its nature and the degree of exposure to the stimulus. A mental disorder in a minor patient can cause a genetic predisposition.

Often doctors define the disorder as a consequence of:

• limited intellectual abilities,
• brain damage
• problems within the family,
• regular conflicts with relatives and peers.

Emotional trauma can lead to serious mental illness. For example, there is a deterioration in the psycho-emotional state of the child as a result of an event that caused a shock.

Symptoms

Juvenile patients are prone to the same mental disorders as adults. But, diseases manifest themselves, as a rule, in different ways. So, in adults, the most common manifestation of the disorder is a state of sadness, depression. Children, in turn, more often show the first signs of aggression, irritability.

How a child's illness begins and progresses depends on the type of acute or chronic disorder:

• Hyperactivity is a major symptom of attention deficit disorder. Violation can be identified by three key symptoms: inability to concentrate, excessive activity, including emotional, impulsive, sometimes aggressive behavior.
• The signs and severity of symptoms of autistic mental disorders are variable. However, in all cases, the violation affects the ability of the minor patient to communicate and interact with others.
• A child's reluctance to eat, excessive attention to changes in weight indicate eating disorders. They interfere with daily life and harm your health.
• If the child is prone to loss of touch with reality, memory lapses, inability to navigate in time and space, this may be a symptom of schizophrenia.

It is easier to treat the disease when it starts. And in order to identify the problem in time, it is also important to pay attention to:

• Changes in the child's mood. If for a long time children are in a state of sadness or anxiety, you need to take action.
• Excessive emotionality. An increased severity of an emotion, such as fear, is an alarming symptom. Emotionality without a valid reason can also provoke disturbances in heart rhythm and breathing.
• Atypical behavioral responses. A signal of a mental disorder may be a desire to harm yourself or others, frequent fights.

Diagnosis of mental disorder in a child

The basis for the diagnosis is the combination of symptoms and the degree to which the disorder affects the child's daily activities. If necessary, related specialists help diagnose the disease and its type:

Working with a minor patient takes place on an individual basis using an approved symptomatology database. Tests are prescribed primarily in the diagnosis of eating disorders. It is compulsorily studied clinical picture, history of illness and injury, including psychological, preceding the disorder. There are no precise and rigorous methods for determining a mental disorder.

Complications

The danger of a mental disorder depends on its nature. In most cases, the consequences are expressed in violation:

• ability to communicate,
• intellectual activity,
• correct reaction to situations.

Often mental disorders in children are accompanied by suicidal tendencies.

Treatment

What can you do

In order to cure a mental disorder in a minor patient, the participation of doctors, parents, and teachers is necessary - all people with whom the child contacts. Depending on the type of disease, it can be treated with psychotherapeutic methods or with the use of drug therapy. The success of treatment directly depends on the specific diagnosis. Some diseases are incurable.

The task of parents is to consult a doctor in time and give detailed information about the symptoms. It is necessary to describe the most significant inconsistencies between the current state and behavior of the child with the previous ones. The specialist must tell the parents what to do with the disorder and how to provide first aid during home treatment if the situation worsens. For the period of therapy, the task of the parents is to provide the most comfortable environment and the complete absence of stressful situations.

What the doctor does

As part of psychotherapy, a psychologist talks with a patient, helping him independently assess the depth of his feelings and understand his condition, behavior, and emotions. The goal is to develop the correct response to acute situations and freely overcome the problem. Medical treatment involves taking:

• stimulants,
• antidepressants,
• sedatives,
• stabilizing and antipsychotic drugs.

Prevention

Psychologists remind parents that the family environment and upbringing are of great importance when it comes to the psychological and nervous stability of children. For example, divorce or regular fights between parents can provoke violations. Mental disorder can be prevented by providing ongoing support to your child, allowing them to share their experiences without embarrassment or fear.

we lost whole generations in them. While the parents worked and tried to bring home a crust of bread, the children walked by themselves. And although I know that many of you remember your childhood as something most wonderful, by the way, I also belong to these ranks. But that crisis and unemployment gave a powerful impetus to the negative.

Recently my husband told. His friend was walking home, and a company of young people stood near the house, shouting good words under the windows and drinking alcoholic beverages. The man asked the company to move to a more deserted place.

Arm yourself with the knowledge and read a helpful informative article about mental disorder in children. After all, to be parents means to study everything that will help maintain the level of health in the family at the level of "36.6".

Find out what can cause the disease, how to recognize it in a timely manner. Find information about what are the signs that can be used to identify ailment. And what tests will help identify the disease and make the correct diagnosis.

In this article, you will read all about the methods of treating a disease such as mental disorder in children. Clarify what effective first aid should be. How to treat: choose medicines or alternative methods?

You will also learn what the danger of untimely treatment of a mental disorder in children can be, and why it is so important to avoid the consequences. Everything about how to prevent mental disorder in children and prevent complications.

And caring parents will find on the pages of the service complete information about the symptoms of mental illness in children. What is the difference between the signs of the disease in children at 1, 2 and 3 years of age from the manifestations of the disease in children at 4, 5, 6 and 7 years old? What is the best treatment for mental disorder in children?

Take care of the health of your loved ones and be in good shape!