Mental Health in Children & its Importance
Mental health is the well-being of our psychological, emotional, and social state that enables us to make good choices, and how deal with the problems of life. Considering children’s mental health is about how they think, their learning behavior, express their feelings, and contribute to the community. Being mentally healthy is integral for children to perform productively at home, school, and in other communities.
Mental disorders among children are characterized by disruptions in the way children typically learn, behave, and struggle to pay attention or interact with others. Mentally healthy and children who are diagnosed with mental disorders differ in the way of developing age-appropriate thinking, social skills, or regulations of emotions.
Common childhood mental disorders:
Common mental disorders diagnosed in children are:
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD):
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability that can cause significant communication, social and behavioral changes. ASD usually begins before 3 years but some children show ASD symptoms within the first 12 months of life.
Symptoms:
- People with ASD may have difficulties developing social communication and interaction.
- Children with ASD do not respond to names and do not show facial expressions like happy, sad, and surprised by 9 months of age.
- Children with ASD may have issues with delayed language, movement, cognitive or learning skills.
Treatment:
ASD affects each person differently, so treatment needs vary from person to person. Treatments can be given in health, education, community, or home settings, but in all that case make sure that treatment goals should meet the desired expectations. Different types of treatments are available such as:
Developmental therapy:
The most common therapy in this regard is Speech and Language Therapy which helps to improve a child’s understanding and use of speech and language.
Educational treatments:
These treatments are given in classroom settings. Teachers in a class can help children with autism by creating a social environment with minimal restriction, planning tasks and activities that result in meaningful outcomes, and also helping them to reach their full potential.
Social-relational treatments:
Social skills help children how to act in different conditions and are equally important for a child’s mental health and overall quality of life. Acoustic children can learn social skills and can get better at them with practice. Strategies that can help you build your child’s social skills can be playing games with them, encouraging them when you see them interacting positively with others, and for older children you can discuss things like what you’ve been watching on TV.
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD):
It is the most common childhood neurodevelopmental disorder that usually lasts to adulthood. Children diagnosed with ADHD may have trouble concentrating on one thing, controlling their emotions, hyperactivity, and some combinations of these problems.
Symptoms:
Children diagnosed with ADHD may show symptoms such as:
- Problems in giving full attention to one task that is tedious and time-consuming and being distracted easily.
- Make careless mistakes_ for example in school work and is unable to listen to or carry out instructions.
- They may have conversational problems, not have the capacity to listen to other’s opinions, and sometimes talk excessively.
Treatment
Medicine or therapy may be prescribed by a doctor but using both treatments at a time can give the best results.
By medicine:
Licensed medicines for the treatment of ADHD are methylphenidate, lisdexamfetamine, dexamfetamine, atomoxetine, and guanfacine. All these are prescribed for children and teenagers over the age of 5. These medicines work by decreasing the symptoms of ADHD making the person feel calmer, concentrate better and learn new skills. Some common side effects shown by them are headaches, stomachaches, and diarrhea.
By therapy:
Taking therapy is as important as taking medicine. Important therapies in this regard are psychoeducation, cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), social skills training, parent training, and education programs. These therapies help children in managing behavior, improve attention and teach them how to act in different situations.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD):
It is a mental health problem in which the child keeps having frightening thoughts and memories or flashbacks of the past event. Symptoms usually show soon after a stressful event or there may be a delay of months or even years before symptoms start to appear.
Symptoms:
- They may face sleep problems by constantly remembering the traumatic event that happened to them.
- Overactive and even violent about normal things, continuously remain in stressful situations or feeling numb.
- They may face problems in school by not having attention and face difficulty staying organized.
Treatment :
Effective treatments for PTSD include:
Cognitive behavioral therapy:
It is an active treatment that usually occurs over 12 to 16 weeks in which the patient is engaged in weekly appointments to learn skills that are applied to the symptoms to reduce them. It mainly focuses on understanding and changing thinking patterns and learning how to cover up that situation that leads to PTSD.
Medications:
Medications are also used to decrease symptoms and provide help to reduce anxiety and depression. The 4 SSRIs/SNRIs that are recommended are Paroxetine (Paxil), Fluoxetine (Prozac), Venlafaxine (Effexor), and Sertraline (Zoloft).
Importance of children’s mental health:
No one can deny the importance of good mental health as it is as necessary as overall physical health. A person with good mental health can live his life with full potential and can make his decisions in a better way than a person who has not good mental health. But in the case of children, it is very crucial to take care of their mental health so that they can properly get an education, grow up as a person who plays a positive role in the community and achieve all the desirable milestones in their life.
