CHILDHOOD MENTAL DISORDER
- CHILDHOOD MENTAL
DISORDERS
childhood and adolescence are times of
carefree bliss, many children and adolescents have one or more diagnosable mental
disorders. Most of these disorders may be viewed as exaggerations or distortions of
normal behaviors and emotions. Like adults, children and adolescents vary in
temperament. Some are shy and reticent; others are socially exuberant. Some are
methodical and cautious, and others are impulsive and careless. Whether a child is
behaving like a typical child or has a disorder is determined by the presence of
impairment and the degree of distress related to the symptoms. First, we will discuss
various types of pervasive developmental disorders as prominent childhood mental
disorders.
- General symptoms that may be present to some
in a child with a PDD include:
Difficulty with verbal communication, including problems using and understanding
Difficulty with verbal communication, including problems using and understanding
language
Difficulty with non-verbal communication, such as gestures and facial expressions
Difficulty with social interaction, including relating to people and to his or her
surroundings
Unusual ways of playing with toys and other objects
Difficulty adjusting to changes in routine or familiar surroundings
Repetitive body movements or patterns of behavior, such as hand flapping,
spinning and head banging
Changing response to sound (The child may be very sensitive to some noises
and seem to not hear others)
Temper tantrums
Difficulty sleeping
Aggressive behavior
Fearfulness or anxiety (nervousness).
- PERVASIVE DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS
The term “pervasive development disorders,” also called PDDs, refers to a group of
conditions that involve delays in the development of many basic skills, most notably
the ability to socialize with others, to communicate, and to use imagination. Children
with these conditions often are confused in their thinking and generally have problems
understanding the world around them. Because these conditions typically are identified
in children around 3 years of age, a critical period in a child’s development, they are
called developmental disorders. Although the condition begins far earlier than 3 years
of age, parents often do not notice a problem until the child is a toddler who is not
walking, talking, or developing as well as other children of the same age.
- Behaviors
A child or adult may continually play with only one type of toy.
The child may line up all the dolls or cars and the adult line up their clothes or
toiletries, for example, and repeatedly and systematically perform the same action on
each one. Any attempt to disrupt the person may result in extreme reactions on the
part of the individual with autism, including tantrums or direct physical attack. Objects
that spin, open and close, or perform some other action can hold an extreme
fascination. If left alone, a person with this disorder may sit for hours turning off and
on a light switch, twirling a spinning toy, or stacking nesting objects. Some individuals
can also have an inappropriate bonding to specific objects and become hysterical
without that piece of string, paper clip, or wad of paper.
- Social-behavioral symptoms. that may be present are:
1) Lack of social awareness
2) Lack of interest in socializing/making friends
3) Difficulty making and sustaining friendships
4) Inability to infer the thoughts, feelings, or emotions of others
5) Either gazing too intently or avoiding eye contact
- Childhood Disintegrative Disorder
Childhood disintegrative disorder, also known as Heller’s syndrome, is a condition
in which children develop normally until ages 2 to 4, but then demonstrate a severe
loss of social, communication and other skills. Childhood disintegrative disorder is
very much like autism. Both are among the group of disorders known as pervasive
developmental disorders, or autism spectrum disorders. Both involve normal
development followed by significant loss of language, social, play and motor skills.
However, childhood disintegrative disorder typically occurs later than autism and
involves a more dramatic loss of skills. In addition, childhood disintegrative disorder
is far less common than autism. Loss of developmental milestones may occur abruptly
over the course of days to weeks or gradually over an extended period.
- Children with childhood disintegrative disorder typically show the following signs and symptoms:
Language, including a severe decline in the ability to speak and have a conversation
Social skills, including significant difficulty relating to and interacting with others
Play, including a loss of interest in imaginary play and in a variety of games and
activities
Motor skills, including a dramatic decline in the ability to walk, climb, grasp
objects and other movements
Bowel or bladder control, including frequent accidents in a child who was
previously toilet-trained
- normal function or impairment also occurs in at least two of the following
three areas:
Social interaction
Communication
Repetitive behavior & interest pattern
