Hidden Messages, By Jan Hunt, M.Sc. (the way child thinks)

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Hidden Messages, By Jan Hunt, M.Sc. (the way child thinks)

Newborn

What we say: "You can cry all you want, I'm not going to pick you up again!"

What we think: "This is breaking my heart but all those experts can't be wrong."

What the child thinks: "They don't love me. They don't care about my suffering. Mommy Is perfect, so there must be something wrong with me. l must not be worthy of anybody's love."

What we say twenty years later: "What on earth do you see in Tom? How can you let him treat you like that? Don't you know you deserve better than that?"

Infant

What we say: "No more nursing - you're too big for that now!"

What we think: "I'd like to continue, but l Just can't stand all this criticism from my relatives."

What the child thinks: "I've just lost the most Important thing in my life: the long periods of cuddling, and the food that felt best Inside me. l must have done something terrible. I must be a terrible person."

What we say twenty years later: "Why are you drinking so much?"

Age 2

What we say: "You can't come into our bed any more. You won't be lonely. Look, here's a nice big teddy bear to keep you company!"

What we think: "Grandma thinks there's something wrong with having you in our bedroom. I'm not sure what it Is, but It's more important for us to please her than to please you. Anyway, this teddy bear should make you happy."

What the child thinks: "It isn't fair! They get to cuddle with a real person. They don't know me very well. They don't care about my feelings. Oh well, at least they gave me this bear."

What we say twenty years later: "I know you're upset that Tom broke off with you, but is that any reason to over-charge like this on your credit card? Will all this stuff make you feel better that someone left you? When did you get so materialistic?"

Age 4

What we say: "You know you're not supposed to hit your brother! I'll give you a spanking you'll never forget!"

What we think: "There must be a better way to handle this, but it's what my Dad did, so it must be right."

What the child thinks: "I was so upset with my brother I hit him. Now Dad is so upset with me for hitting, he's hitting me. I guess It's okay for adults to hit, but not for kids. I wonder what I should do when I get upset? Oh well, one of these days I'll be an adult myself."

What we say twenty years later: "A bar room brawl? Adults don't hit people just because they're upset. I never taught you to resort to violence!"

Age 6

What we say: "Well, this is a big day for you. Don't be afraid, Just do everything your teacher says."

What we think: "Please don't embarrass me by acting up at school!"

What the child thinks: "But I'm afraid! I'm not ready to leave them for so many hours a day! They must be getting tired of me. Maybe If l do what the teacher says, they'll like me better and let me stay home."

What we say twenty years later: "What?! Your friends talked you into taking drugs? Do you do what everybody else tells you to do? Don't you have a mind of your own?"

Age 8

What we say: "Your teacher says you aren't paying attention in class. How will you ever learn anything important?"

What we think: "If my kid never amounts to anything, I'll feel like a failure."

What the child thinks: "I'm not Interested In the things the teacher talks about, but I guess she knows best. The things that do interest me must not be important."

What we say twenty years later: You're 28 years old and you still don't know what you want to do with your life? Aren't you Interested in anything?!"

Age 10

What we say: "You broke another dish? Oh, never mind, I'll wash them myself."

What we think: "I know I should be more patient with you, but at least this way the dishes will get done."

What the child thinks: "Boy, am l clumsy. I'd better not even try to help any more."

What we say twenty years later: "You want that job but you won't even apply for it? You should have more faith In yourself!"

Age 12

What we say: "Go out and play with your friends - you'll have more fun with them than hanging around here all day."

What we think: "I know l should spend more time with you, but I've got so much to do. It's a good thing there are so many kids around here."

What the child thinks: "I want to do things with Mom and Dad, but they're always too busy. I guess my friends like me better."

What we say twenty years later: "You never call us or come to see us any more. Don't you care about our feelings?"

Age 14

What we say: "Please leave the room, dear. Your father and I have something personal to discuss."

What we think: "We have some secrets we'd rather you didn't know about."

What the child thinks: "I'm not really part of this family."

What we say twenty years later: "You're in prison?! Why didn't you tell us you were having problems? Don't you know there are no secrets in families? We tried so hard. Where did we go wrong?"

Mental problems rise with kids' screen time: study

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Mental problems rise with kids' screen time: study

(Reuters Health) - More than two hours a day spent watching television or playing computer games could put a child at greater risk for psychological problems, suggests a new study.

British researchers found the effect held regardless of how active kids were during the rest of the day.

"We know that physical activity is good for both physical and mental health in children and there is some evidence that screen viewing is associated with negative behaviors," lead researcher Dr. Angie Page of the University of Bristol told Reuters Health in an e-mail. "But it wasn't clear whether having high physical activity levels would 'compensate' for high levels of screen viewing in children."

Page and her colleagues studied more than 1,000 kids between the ages of 10 and 11. Over seven days, the children filled out a questionnaire reporting how much time they spent daily in front of a television or computer and answering questions describing their mental state -- including emotional, behavioral, and peer-related problems. Meanwhile, an accelerometer measured their physical activity.

The odds of significant psychological difficulties were about 60 percent higher for children spending longer than two hours a day in front of either screen compared with kids exposed to less screen time, the researchers report in the journal Pediatrics. For children with more than two hours of both types of screen time during the day, the odds more than doubled.

The effect was seen regardless of sex, age, stage of puberty, or level of educational or economic deprivation.

Psychological problems further increased if kids fell short of an hour of moderate to rigorous daily exercise in addition to the increased screen time. However, physical activity did not appear to compensate for the psychological consequences of screen time.

The researchers also found that sedentary time itself was not related to mental wellbeing. "It seems more like what you are doing in that sedentary time that is important," said Page, noting the lack of negative effect found for activities such as reading and doing homework.

Page and her team acknowledge several limitations in their study, including the potential for a kid to inaccurately recall his or her activities when filling out the questionnaire.

Dr. Thomas N. Robinson of the Stanford University School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study, said the new research was not enough to decipher whether the relationship between screen time and psychological wellbeing was truly cause-and-effect.

"They would have needed to do an experiment, a randomized controlled trial, to see whether limiting television or computer time improves psychological difficulties when compared to a control group that does not limit screen time," he told Reuters Health in an e-mail.

Robinson noted that his own related research, conducted in this way, found that limiting screen time reduced weight gain, aggression and consumer behaviors in kids.

"There are already lots of reasons to reduce kids' screen time and this is potentially another," said Robinson. "In our studies we find that giving children a screen-time budget and helping them stick to that budget is the most effective way to reduce their television, video game, computer and other screen time, and to improve their health as a result."

He usually aims for a budget of about an hour per day, or a reduction of at least 50 percent from a kid's starting screen time.

"Parents as well as kids tell us that budgeting kids' screen time has profound positive effects on their families' lives," added Robinson.

Jaundice at birth may be linked to autism

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Jaundice at birth may be linked to autism

(Reuters Health) - Babies diagnosed with jaundice may be more likely to later receive a diagnosis of autism, suggests a large new study.

However, the Danish researchers caution that many questions remain unanswered, making it too early to say for sure if there is a true cause-and-effect relationship between the conditions.

Environmental exposures prior to, during and shortly after birth are emerging as important risk factors for the development of autism, in addition to genetic factors, Hannah Gardener of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study, told Reuters Health in an e-mail.

Jaundice is a common condition among newborns that results when the yellow pigment found in bile, called bilirubin, accumulates faster than the immature liver can process it. More than half of babies born full-term have some of the characteristic yellowing of the skin and eyes, but it usually resolves itself and is rarely harmful.

Autism, which causes problems with social and communications skills, affects approximately one in every 110 U.S. children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In a prior study, Dr. Rikke Damkjaer Maimburg of Aarhus University found that children diagnosed with autism were twice as likely to have been admitted to the neonatal care unit as newborns, most commonly for jaundice. Yet she knew that earlier research into a link between jaundice and autism had yielded conflicting results.

So Maimburg and her colleagues decided to conduct a larger and more rigorous study than those done in the past. They retrieved detailed information from national registries on nearly all babies born in Denmark between 1994 and 2004.

Of the 733,826 children born during that period, 35,766 were born with jaundice, 1,721 were later diagnosed with a psychological disorder of some kind and 577 developed autism.

After adjusting for other factors such as birth weight and mother's smoking status, the team determined that children born full-term with jaundice had a 56 percent greater chance of developing an autistic spectrum disorder later on than those without jaundice, report the researchers in the journal Pediatrics.

These same children were also at a significantly greater risk of developing a range of other developmental psychological problems, such as learning or speech disorders.

Looking more closely at the data, the researchers found that first-born children and babies born earlier than the 37th week of pregnancy seemed to be protected from the apparent effects of jaundice. Those born during spring and summer months also seemed to be unaffected.

They speculate that whatever damage the jaundice may be inflicting occurs during the last few weeks of gestation, and that seasonal environmental factors after birth may lessen or worsen the problem.

"The best guess as to how jaundice causes changes in psychological development is that bilirubin crosses the blood-brain barrier and destroys brain cells, as we know it does in cerebral palsy," Maimburg told Reuters Health in an e-mail.

Increased brain development in the last weeks of gestation as well as a higher rate of infections and less sunlight (which can help in the breakdown of bilirubin) during winter months might explain some of the differences identified, note the researchers. Antibodies accumulated during previous pregnancies could also contribute to the greater effect seen in children who were not first-borns, they add.

The fact that most previous studies failed to show an association between jaundice and autism may be due to their not having broken down the data by these other potential factors, said Gardener.

The new study has its own limitations, she added, including a jaundice rate far lower than what is estimated in the general population. It is likely that only the most severe cases were captured because the researchers drew from diagnostic codes in hospital records and mild cases may not all be included there.

"Jaundice is a common exposure during the neonatal period and should not be ignored," said Gardener. "Identification and treatment of jaundice is important for both pre-term and term neonates."

Maimburg suggested that post-birth classes with lectures on how parents can observe their newborns and recognize when jaundice requires attention could help to minimize the potential risk. But she emphasized that parents shouldn't be alarmed if they do spot a yellow tint to their newborn's skin, as most will develop at least a mild case of jaundice during the first days of life.

Young People With Mental Health Problems at Risk of Falling Through ‘gap’ In Care Services

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Young People With Mental Health Problems at Risk of Falling Through ‘gap’ In Care Services

 Many young people with mental health problems are at risk of falling through a huge gap in provision when they move from adolescent to adult care services, according to new research from the University of Warwick.

A team led by Professor Swaran Singh at Warwick Medical School looked at the transition from child mental health services to adult mental health services and found for the vast majority of users the move was “poorly planned, poorly executed and poorly experienced”.

In a study published in The British Journal of Psychiatry, the research team looked at 154 service users who were crossing the boundary from child to adult mental health services. They followed the sample group for one year to examine their experiences.

Of the cohort of 154, only 58% made the transition to adult mental health services. The researchers found that individuals with a history of severe mental illness, being on medication or having been admitted to hospital were more like to make a transition than those with neurodevelopmental disorders, emotional/neurotic disorders and emerging personality disorder. 

The research team also found that a fifth of all actual referrals that crossed the boundary to adult mental health services in this study were discharged without being seen.

Professor Singh said: “Despite adolescence being a risk period for the emergence of serious mental disorders, substance misuse, other risk-taking behaviours and poor engagement with health services, mental health provision is often patchy during this period. By following a paediatric-adult split, mental health services introduce discontinuities in care provision where the system should be most robust. Often for the vast majority the transition from child to adult mental health services is poorly planned, poorly executed and poorly experienced.”

The team found that information transfer between child and adult mental health services was hampered by a lack of understanding of each other’s services, inconsistent documentation, different systems used for transfer of electronic information and transfer of referrals to lengthy waiting lists during which time dialogue between mental health professionals on each side was reduced.

Professor Singh added: “Where possible case notes should follow the young person and detailed referral letters, including risk assessments, should be sent to adult mental health services to facilitate planning. We need to ensure that the vital need for improving youth mental health is not ignored for fear of dismantling long-standing and yet unhelpful service barriers. “

Unexplained Childhood Disorders

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Unexplained Childhood Disorders

Parents of children with undiagnosed learning disorders, developmental deficits, and congenital abnormalities face a host of psychological and social challenges, which are explored in detail in a reflective article in Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers, a peer-reviewed journal.

An interview-based study of parents of children with undiagnosed disorders describes the parental experience as a "journey" comprised of an inner, emotional journey and an outer-world, sociological experience. Celine Lewis, from Genetic Alliance UK (London) and Heather Skirton and Ray Jones, from the University of Plymouth (UK), identify the primary components of this multifaceted journey in the article entitled "Living Without a Diagnosis: The Parental Experience." A commonly expressed theme among the study participants was the sense of frustration that is present throughout their experiences.

Many of the experiences described during the interviews are similar to those expressed by parents of children with known disabilities. These include the initial recognition and acceptance of the disorder and the process of pursuing a diagnosis, which are components of the inner journey. Additionally, shared social or outer-world experiences might include the interaction with members of the child's healthcare team and dealing with issues such as education and housing. The questioning and uncertainty associated with undiagnosed disorders in children adds another layer of complexity to the challenges these parents face, conclude the authors of the study.

"The article is a vivid illustration of the impact of a genetic disease, the benefit of a diagnosis, and the ongoing challenge of care to the patient and family after the diagnosis," says Kenneth I. Berns, MD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers, and Director of the University of Florida's Genetics Institute, College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL.

Prenatal Treatment of Congenital Toxoplasmosis Could Reduce Risk of Brain Damage

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Prenatal Treatment of Congenital Toxoplasmosis Could Reduce Risk of Brain Damage

Prenatal treatment of congenital toxoplasmosis with antibiotics might substantially reduce the proportion of infected fetuses that develop serious neurological sequelae (brain damage, epilepsy, deafness, blindness, or developmental problems) or die, and could be particularly effective in fetuses whose mothers acquired Toxoplasma gondii, the parasite that causes toxoplasmosis, during the first third of pregnancy.

These are the findings of an observational study by Ruth Gilbert from the UCL Institute of Child Health, London, UK, and colleagues and published in PLoS Medicine.

Toxoplasmosis is a very common parasitic infection but most infected people never know they have the disease. However, about a quarter of women who are infected with toxoplasmosis during pregnancy transmit the parasite to their fetus. The authors followed 293 children in six European countries in whom congenital toxoplasmosis had been identified by prenatal screening (France, Austria, and Italy) or by neonatal screening (in Denmark, Sweden, and Poland). Two-thirds of the children received prenatal treatment for toxoplasmosis with the antibiotics spiramycin or pyrimethamine-sulfonamide.

23 (8% of the fetuses) developed serious neurological sequelae or died, nine of which were terminated during pregnancy. By comparing the number of children who had serious neurological sequelae who received prenatal treatment with the number among children who did not receive prenatal treatment, the authors estimated that prenatal treatment of congenital toxoplasmosis reduced the risk of serious neurological sequelae by three-quarters.

Furthermore, they found that to prevent one case of serious neurological sequelae after maternal infection at 10 weeks of pregnancy, it would be necessary to treat three fetuses with confirmed infection and to prevent one case of SNSD after maternal infection at 30 weeks of pregnancy, 18 infected fetuses would need to be treated. The authors also found that that the effectiveness of the antibiotics used, pyrimethamine-sulfonamide and the less toxic spiramycin, was similar.

The authors explain how these results should be interpreted. They conclude: "The finding that prenatal treatment reduced the risk of [serious neurological sequelae] in infected fetuses should be interpreted with caution because of the low number of [serious neurological sequelae] cases and uncertainty about the timing of maternal seroconversion."

The authors add: "As these are observational data, policy decisions about screening require further evidence from a randomized trial of prenatal screening and from cost-effectiveness analyses that take into account the incidence and prevalence of maternal infection."

One in Five Children Meets Criteria for a Mental Disorder Across Their Lifetime, National U.S. Study Shows

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One in Five Children Meets Criteria for a Mental Disorder Across Their Lifetime, National U.S. Study Shows

Mental disorders in children are often difficult to identify due to the myriad of changes that occur during the normal course of maturation. For the first time, researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health have reported on the prevalence data on a broad range of mental disorders in a nationally representative sample of U.S. adolescents, which show that approximately one in five children in the U.S. meet the criteria for a mental disorder severe enough to disrupt their daily lives.

The prevalence of the mental health disorders as well as the notable link between parental mental health issues and their teen's disorders are the subject of the article by Merikangas and colleagues in the October 2010 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP).

In the article titled "Lifetime Prevalence of Mental Disorders in U.S. Adolescents : Results from the National Comorbidity Study-Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A).," Dr. Merikangas and colleagues examined the lifetime prevalence, severity, and comorbidity of DSM-IV mental health disorders across broad classes of disorders. The NCS-A is a nationally representative, face-to-face survey of 10,123 adolescents aged 13 to 18 years in the continental United States.2 Diagnostic assessment of DSM-IV mental disorders were measured using a modified version of the World Health Organization (WHO) Composite International Diagnostic Interview.

The researchers found that anxiety disorders were the most common condition (31.9%),followed by behavior disorders (19.1%), mood disorders (14.3%), and substance use disorders (11.4%), with approximately 40% of participants with one class of disorder also meeting criteria for another class of lifetime disorder.

Strikingly, the overall prevalence of disorders with severe impairment and/or distress, marked by interference with daily life was over one in five children, or 22.2%.

The authors note, "The prevalence of severe emotional and behavior disorders is even higher than the most frequent major physical conditions in adolescence, including asthma or diabetes, which have received widespread public health attention."

In an era when funding allocations for science are being reduced, evaluation of nationally representative samples of children and adolescents are critical in providing the necessary information for establishing priorities for prevention, treatment, and research.

In conclusion, Merikangas and colleagues state, "The present data can inform and guide the development of priorities for future research and health policy by providing previously lacking prevalence estimates in a nationally representative sample of U.S. adolescents, as well as the individual, familial, and environmental correlates of mental disorders. Prospective research is now needed to understand the risk factors for mental disorder onset in adolescence, as well as the predictors of the continuity of these disorders into adulthood."

The National Comorbidity Survey Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A) and the larger program of related NCS surveys are supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (U01-MH60220) and the National Institute of Drug Abuse (R01 DA016558) with supplemental support from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Grant 044708), and the John W. Alden Trust. The NCS-A was carried out in conjunction with the World Health Organization World Mental Health Survey Initiative.

This work was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Mental Health. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and should not be construed to represent the views of any of the sponsoring organizations, agencies, or U.S. Government.

"CHILD PSYCHOLOGY" Parenting Styles: The Four Styles of Parenting: By Kendra Cherry.

Developmental psychologists have long been interested in how parents impact child development. However, finding actual cause-and-effect links between specific actions of parents and later behavior of children is very difficult. Some children raised in dramatically different environments can later grow up to have remarkably similar personalities. Conversely, children who share a home and are raised in the same environment can grow up to have astonishingly different personalities than one another.



Despite these challenges, researchers have uncovered convincing links between parenting styles and the effects these styles have on children. During the early 1960s, psychologist Diana Baumrind conducted a study on more than 100 preschool-age children (Baumrind, 1967). Using naturalistic observation, parental interviews and other research methods, she identified four important dimensions of parenting:

• Disciplinary strategies
• Warmth and nurturance
• Communication styles
• Expectations of maturity and control

Based on these dimensions, Baumrind suggested that the majority of parents display one of three different parenting styles. Further research by also suggested the addition of a fourth parenting style (Maccoby & Martin, 1983).

The Four Parenting Styles

• Authoritarian Parenting

In this style of parenting, children are expected to follow the strict rules established by the parents. Failure to follow such rules usually results in punishment. Authoritarian parents fail to explain the reasoning behind these rules. If asked to explain, the parent might simply reply, "Because I said so." These parents have high demands, but are not responsive to their children. According to Baumrind, these parents "are obedience- and status-oriented, and expect their orders to be obeyed without explanation" (1991).

• Authoritative Parenting
  
  

  
  

  
  
  

  Like authoritarian parents, those with an authoritative parenting style establish rules and guidelines that their children are expected to follow. However, this parenting style is much more democratic. Authoritative parents are responsive to their children and willing to listen to questions. When children fail to meet the expectations, these parents are more nurturing and forgiving rather than punishing. Baumrind suggests that these parents "monitor and impart clear standards for their children’s conduct. They are assertive, but not intrusive and restrictive. Their disciplinary methods are supportive, rather than punitive. They want their children to be assertive as well as socially responsible, and self-regulated as well as cooperative" (1991).

• Permissive Parenting
  
  

  
  

  
  
  

  Permissive parents, sometimes referred to as indulgent parents, have very few demands to make of their children. These parents rarely discipline their children because they have relatively low expectations of maturity and self-control. According to Baumrind, permissive parents "are more responsive than they are demanding. They are nontraditional and lenient, do not require mature behavior, allow considerable self-regulation, and avoid confrontation" (1991). Permissive parents are generally nurturing and communicative with their children, often taking on the status of a friend more than that of a parent.

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  Uninvolved Parenting
  
  

  
  

  
  
  

  An uninvolved parenting style is characterized by few demands, low responsiveness and little communication. While these parents fulfill the child's basic needs, they are generally detached from their child's life. In extreme cases, these parents may even reject or neglect the needs of their children.

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  The Impact of Parenting Styles
  
  

  
  

  
  
  

  What effect do these parenting styles have on child development outcomes? In addition to Baumrind's initial study of 100 preschool children, researchers have conducted numerous other studies than have led to a number of conclusions about the impact of parenting styles on children.

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  Authoritarian parenting styles generally lead to children who are obedient and proficient, but they rank lower in happiness, social competence and self-esteem.
• Authoritative parenting styles tend to result in children who are happy, capable and successful (Maccoby, 1992).
• Permissive parenting often results in children who rank low in happiness and self-regulation. These children are more likely to experience problems with authority and tend to perform poorly in school.
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  Uninvolved parenting styles rank lowest across all life domains. These children tend to lack self-control, have low self-esteem and are less competent than their peers.

Why Do Parenting Styles Differ?

After learning about the impact of parenting styles on child development, you may wonder why all parents simply don't utilize an authoritative parenting style. After all, this parenting style is the most likely to produce happy, confident and capable children. What are some reasons why parenting styles might vary? Some potential causes of these differences include culture, personality, family size, parental background, socioeconomic status, educational level and religion.

Of course, the parenting styles of individual parents also combine to create a unique blend in each and every family. For example, the mother may display an authoritative style while the father favors a more permissive approach. In order to create a cohesive approach to parenting, it is essential that parents learn to cooperate as they combine various elements of their unique parenting styles.

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