Types and causes of deviations in child development article on correctional pedagogy on the topic

Children with mental disorders

Let's start with the fact that there really are certain deviations that manifest themselves in childhood. They do not apply to a person’s future life. Such pathologies most often occur due to disruption of the natural course of development. They are characterized by the fact that they are quite persistent, but there are no fluctuations in mental state.

There is also no dynamics in the manifestation of certain symptoms. With age, some symptoms may change and reduce, but nevertheless they will not completely disappear unless they are worked through with a doctor. According to statistics, mental disorders are most often found among boys.

Childhood autism

This disease is also called Kanner's syndrome. This is a pathology that is very rare, but nevertheless enough for it to be a problem. Again, autism is 4 times more common in boys than in girls.

Doctors believe that the first symptoms appear in infancy, but diagnosing autism at this period of life is very difficult. Most often, pathology is detected at the age of 3 years, when the child learns to form social contacts.

Dynamics and signs of mental disorder in children:

• The child shows no desire to communicate.
• Acts emotionally cold and is unable to empathize.
• Has problems expressing his emotions.
• Incorrectly combines gestures, timbre and voice, facial expressions, etc., to express his thoughts.
• Differs in specific speech.
• Tends to repeat certain words, use strange figures of speech, and speak in a monotone or mannered manner.

In almost all cases, the child is diagnosed with memory impairment. The desire to remain calm and not change anything remains stable. Such children do not like it when anything changes; they do not tolerate it well, because it is stressful for their psyche.

Pathological manifestations of mental development disorder in children:

• Weak level of mental development.
• The habit of doing everything according to the same algorithm, creating your own rituals.
• Tendency to engage in repetitive, stereotypical actions.
• Dangerous actions that can be directed both at oneself and at others.

The causes of autism are most often a hereditary predisposition. Also, the occurrence of this pathology can be influenced by the characteristics of intrauterine development. As the child grows, symptoms may gradually subside. Indeed, in some cases, with age, the child begins to feel better and adapt to the environment.

Treatment of mental disorders in children is based on special and separate education from other children, as well as medication.

Visual impairment

Let's talk about sensory perception disorders.

In general, how do we perceive information? These are vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch (tactility).

A person receives a large percentage of information through vision. There are visual illusions that distort the information we perceive with our eyes. This is the norm. At certain moments, our eyes may perceive pictures distortedly (see figure).

Sometimes there are visual illusions when something seems to be, when we imagine one thing, but in fact this thing is of a different shape. All this is situational and due to some reason. This is the norm.

It’s a different matter when there is persistent visual impairment (underdevelopment, loss, weakening).

Blind children are those who are blind from birth, or lose their sight in the first years (due to injury or illness) and have not yet developed their visual perception.

According to the degree of impairment, these are children with absolute blindness (in both eyes) and low vision (visual acuity from 0.05 to 0.2 with correction or glasses).

What are the causes of visual impairment?

• viral, infectious diseases. Domestic animals can be carriers. For example, if a pregnant mother becomes infected with toxoplasmosis from a cat, the child will be born blind;
• hereditary transmission of visual impairment from parents (cataracts, reduction in eye size). Sometimes these are benign tumors associated with disorders of the retina;
• benign brain tumors, which are not detected immediately, but may appear after some period of time;
• head injuries during childbirth and early childhood, cerebral hemorrhages;
• increased intraocular pressure;
• premature baby.

Blind children are children with a complete absence of visual sensation or who have some residual vision at a distance of up to 2 meters. There are totally blind children who do not even have the sensation of light, because blind people sometimes have a certain percentage of light perception left.

Partially blind children have light perception and are able to see and identify human figures and large objects against a general background without detail. Their visual span ranges from 0.005 to 0.04.

Visually impaired children whose visual acuity varies from 0.05 to 0.2. There are many such children today, especially in elementary school, many spoil their eyesight.

Any child who is born with a violation of any cognitive function, no matter whether it is vision or hearing, has a layer of secondary defect, incl. in the emotional and mental sphere. A blind child is compensated by hearing and tactility. A child may not even immediately realize his congenital blindness (up to the age of 6 months). Only at preschool age does a child begin to clearly realize that he is impaired: he does not see objects, forms, close people, anything or anyone.

But if you organize a correctional space for your baby in a timely manner, he will be able to feel quite adaptive and adequate.

How does a blind child develop?

He begins to manipulate objects later, because... he does not develop coordination, he does not see the form. The child begins to crawl later, and crawls forward with his feet. He sits on his butt, stretches his legs forward and slowly begins to explore the surrounding space.

Blind children are often injured. Naturally, already in the first year of life they begin to lag behind their peers. Due to the disruption of the visual analyzer, spatial-photographic representations are also disrupted. Even if a child develops through speech and tactility, fine motor skills still lag behind children with the norm. Hence the lag in higher mental functions - perception, attention, memory, thinking, speech, imagination.

What kind of attention can a child with impaired vision have? This is attention only to the sound stimulus. And it is not always fixed: children often switch and get distracted, it is impossible to attract them to constant and monotonous work.

Memory. Children have poor coordination and poorly developed motor skills, so their memory also suffers. Visual-figurative memory is generally absent, because Children have no visual example. The image of an object is formed only through tactile sensation. Verbal-logical thinking is formed and developed, but also with a delay.

Read more: Intention and secondary benefit

Imagination is practically absent, because it is difficult to visually imagine an object, especially if the baby cannot see from birth. The shape of an object is formed due to some internal, intuitive ideas.

Blind children may have exceptional auditory memory and an ear for music.

If we talk about psychological characteristics, emotional and volitional spheres, this is a mental disorder and disorder, a manifestation of aggression (the child cannot fully feel himself and understand his “deficit”). Many children are not at all capable of showing independence, so parents need to constantly teach them to be independent, the only thing is that this does not harm the health or threaten the life of the child.

If parents are able to adapt and socialize the child, a blind person may well be active, find his own business, fully compensate for the loss of vision and experience the fullness of life, including in adulthood.

Today, many parents adapt their child through art. For example, visiting exhibitions and a museum, where a child can touch a sculpture or object with his hands.

Teaching blind children should be based on other analyzers: auditory, skin, vibration, olfactory, thermal.

Hyperkinetic disorder

It is also called attention deficit disorder, which occurs in parallel with child hyperactivity. This disorder occurs much more often, in approximately 9% of children. Signs of mental disorder in children:

• Hyperactivity, which may be motor or verbal.
• Impulsive actions, lack of attention.
• Underachievement.

Pathology is distinguished by the fact that children cannot complete a single task. They have normal mental performance, but they very quickly lose interest in any task. Sometimes prone to conflicts. It is very difficult for them to concentrate their attention: they ask a lot of questions, but do not have time to listen to the answer, because they are already interested in something else. Capable of provoking adults into scandals.

The main causes of pathology:

• Genetic predisposition.
• Features of the perinatal period.
• Incorrect development of parent-child relationships.

It is the latter factor that can aggravate hyperkinetic disorder. At the same time, if parents behave correctly, then their communication will allow the child to survive this period and get rid of the disease. Most often, hyperactivity appears at the age of 6-8 years.

Treatment consists of conducting psychological and social activities in parallel with taking certain medications. Nootropic therapy shows excellent results.

Sustained aggression

Tantrums and aggression are frequent guests in homes where children under five and teenagers grow up. This is due to various factors - testing adults' strength, a way to attract attention, hormonal changes, physical illness. The situation is dangerous when aggression interferes with communication - the child fights, teases, humiliates peers, takes away and destroys other people's things.

Such behavior can be associated with temperament, insecurity, lack of parental love, or imitation of scenes of violence. If your character cannot be corrected using standard methods (not physical punishment!), visit a child psychologist to rule out a mental disorder.

Impaired mental function

This disease is manifested by slight mental retardation and poor development of cognitive activity. If a child has a mental disorder of this type, the reasons may be as follows:

• Genetic factor.
• Infection.
• Injuries.
• Intoxication of the body.

All this leads to a mild disruption of the child’s development rate.

Among the social factors that can serve as reasons, it is necessary to highlight the lack of education and lack of information.

Symptoms of mental disorder in children:

• Inhibited development of psychophysical functions, such as social adaptation, speech, motor skills.
• Emotional immaturity.
• Uneven development of individual psychological functions.
• Reversible nature of pathologies.

Most often, developmental delay can be detected at primary school age, when the child experiences severe difficulties during learning. Mental retardation very often manifests itself in conjunction with diseases such as hyperactivity syndrome, epilepsy, and motor alalia.

As you get older, the symptoms soften, but not in all cases. For treatment, it is necessary to record mental abnormalities and work on them separately with a psychologist and teacher.

Identification of mental and physiological abnormalities in children and adolescents

Natalya Kuznetsova

Identification of mental and physiological abnormalities in children and adolescents

Dear parents, hello!

For each of us, during the period of planning a child, during pregnancy and the further development of the child, his health is most important. Can you confidently answer the following questions: What are psychological and physical disabilities? What is it connected with? How to prevent developmental deviations in your child, how to notice in time? If not, then I bring to your attention the material on the topic “Identification of mental and physiological abnormalities in children and adolescents.” This problem is the most pressing today. It is very important to understand this. There is now a lot of varied material on the Internet, difficult to understand, sometimes unreliable. I tried to collect and systematize reliable information on this topic.

I ask everyone who viewed this material to write in the comments whether this information was useful to you, whether you learned something new.

Identification of mental and physiological abnormalities in children and adolescents

It is the dream of all parents to have healthy and happy children. To do this, many married couples undergo thorough examinations before conceiving a child, lead a healthy lifestyle, and follow all doctor’s instructions. But... The human body is not as predictable as we would like. Doctors are not always omnipotent. And then a child appeared in the family - sweet, beautiful, gentle, affectionate.

Does he have developmental disabilities? This is not easy to determine. Some defects appear immediately at birth. Well, there are those that begin to make themselves felt as the baby develops.

Causes of developmental disorders in children

What can influence the appearance of deviations in the development of a child? Experts identify two main factors that are considered the main causes of defects in child development:

- heredity;

— environmental factors.

If medicine tries to identify hereditary pathologies in the early stages, then with environmental factors it is more difficult, since they are very difficult to predict. They mean, firstly, various infectious diseases, injuries and intoxications. Based on the time of their impact on the body, experts determine pathologies:

- prenatal (intrauterine);

- natal (during childbirth);

- postnatal (after birth).

Secondly, a child’s development is significantly influenced by such factors as the social environment in which he grows up. If it is unfavorable, then at a certain point the following problems can be identified in the child’s development:

- emotional deprivation;

— pedagogical neglect;

- social neglect.

Types of developmental disorders in children

So what is a deviation in child development? This is a violation of his psychomotor functions, which occurs when various factors adversely affect his brain. As a result, the following types of deviations in the development of children are distinguished:

- Physical.

- Mental.

- Pedagogical.

- Social.

The group of children with physical disabilities includes those who have illnesses that make their actions difficult, as well as children with visual, hearing and musculoskeletal impairments.

The group with mental disorders includes children with mental retardation, mental retardation, speech disorders and emotional-volitional disorders.

The group with pedagogical deviations consists of those children who, for certain reasons, did not receive secondary education.

The group with social deviations consists of those children who, as a result of their upbringing, were not instilled with a function that significantly influences their entry into the social environment, which is very manifested in behavior and consciousness during their stay in a social group. Unlike the first three groups, social deviations (anger, phobias, lack of will, hyperactivity, significant suggestibility) are difficult to distinguish from the natural manifestation of the child’s character. It is in these cases that it is not therapeutic intervention on it that is of great importance, but the prevention of possible deviations from the rules and norms.

By the way, a gifted child is also a deviation from the norm, and such children constitute a separate

Determination of the norm in child development

So what is the norm for a child? This is, first of all:

— His level of development corresponds to most of his peers, among whom he grows up.

— His behavior meets the requirements of society: the child is not antisocial.

“It develops in accordance with individual inclinations, while clearly overcoming negative influences both from its body and the environment.

So, the conclusion can be drawn as follows: not every child with developmental disabilities from birth is no longer normal and, conversely, a healthy child at birth does not always reach the norm as a result of development.

The child develops according to the norm when:

- proper functioning of the brain and its cortex;

- normal mental development;

- preservation of sense organs;

- consistent training.

A question may arise about the appropriateness of these points for children with existing disabilities. Let us immediately determine that a child with a physical and mental defect must undergo complete rehabilitation from the very first days. This includes not only medical intervention, but also pedagogical correction. Thanks to the joint efforts of parents (primarily doctors and special educators), many pathologies in the development of the psyche can be circumvented thanks to the compensatory processes that are possible in children with disabilities.

Not everything will go smoothly and easily. But a child with physical disabilities can and should develop according to his age. To do this, he only needs the help of specialists and the boundless love and patience of his parents. Some success is also possible in children with mental pathologies. Each case requires an individual approach.

Which periods most clearly demonstrate possible deviations in the physical and mental development of a child?

Each sensitive period determines the amount of knowledge, skills and abilities that the child must operate with. Most experts believe that special attention should be paid to children during crisis periods in their lives, which fall at this age:

— preschool;

- junior school;

- teenage.

What behavior of a child should be on the alert in order to prevent deviations in his development?

In preschool age:

— As a result of pathogenic effects on the brain and its cortex, the normal relationships between irritative and inhibitory processes are disrupted. If a child has difficulty controlling inhibitory reactions to prohibitions, he cannot organize his behavior even in play, then this may be one of the signals that the child has developmental disorders.

— The child fantasizes excessively or, on the contrary, is quite primitive in his stories when he tries to get out of a difficult situation.

— The child is prone to imitating incorrect forms of behavior, which may indicate easy suggestibility.

- Infantile (underdeveloped) emotional manifestations in the form of loud screaming, crying or movements inappropriate for age.

— Hot temper, impulsive behavior for any minor reason, which leads to a quarrel or even a fight.

- Complete negativism, disobedience to elders with pronounced aggression, anger at remark, prohibition or punishment.

At primary school age:

- Low cognitive activity, which is combined with personal immaturity.

- Negative attitude towards lessons, refusal to complete assignments with a desire to attract attention through rudeness and disobedience.

— By the end of primary school age, there are significant gaps in knowledge, which are accompanied by a reluctance to learn.

— Craving and interest in what brings aggression and cruelty. Antisocial behavior.

— Any prohibition or demand is met with a violent response, bringing conflict, and escapes from home are possible.

- Sensation seeking as a result of increased sensory thirst.

During adolescence:

— Infantile judgments, weak functions of self-regulation and self-control, lack of volitional efforts.

- Complex behavior, which is accompanied by infantility with affective excitability.

- Early sexual desires, tendency to alcoholism, vagrancy.

- Completely negative attitude towards studying.

- Antisocial behavior that simulates inappropriate adult behavior.

Antisocial behavior in a child can be caused not only by congenital pathologies, but also by improper upbringing, which is accompanied by lack of control, antisocial behavior of family members, or their gross authoritarianism.

What to do if a child has developmental deviations?

In order to determine whether there are deviations in the child’s development or whether this is simply an age-related manifestation of character, it is necessary to conduct a full diagnosis. A diagnosis can only be made after a full examination with the participation of various specialists, among whom must be a doctor, psychologist, speech therapist, and speech pathologist.

It must be remembered: no one can draw a conclusion about the child’s mental development based on one symptom.

In order to draw a conclusion and determine the level of capabilities of a small patient, there are psychological, medical and pedagogical consultations (PMPC, where specialized specialists work, whose responsibilities include examining the child, consulting his parents and starting corrective work if necessary.

We must remember: firstly, only a specialist can make a diagnosis of mental development, and secondly, a doctor’s conclusion is not a sentence or a label for life. Over time, if there is a favorable effect on the child, the diagnosis can be changed.

Types of diagnostics of deviations in child development

For a complete analysis of health status, diagnostics are carried out:

- medical;

- psychological.

Medical examination

During medical diagnostics the following is carried out:

- general examination of the child;

— anamnesis analysis (it is important that the mother provides information);

— assessment of the child’s condition, both neurological and mental.

Much attention is paid to how the child’s emotional sphere is developed, what level of intelligence he has and whether it corresponds to his age; speech development is of great importance, as well as mental development. In this case, the doctor, if necessary, analyzes the results of a skull x-ray, computed tomography, and encephalogram.

During a general examination, the doctor gives an opinion on the structure of the skull, the proportionality of the face, the characteristics of the limbs, body, etc., and the functioning of the sensory systems (hearing, vision). The data can be subjective or objective. Objective ones include those provided by an ophthalmologist and otolaryngologist using special equipment.

Sometimes even visually, based on the structure of the skull and face, the child’s height, and eye movements, the doctor can already determine the following congenital abnormalities:

- micro- and macrocephaly; (Microcephaly is a significant decrease in the size of the skull and, accordingly, the brain with normal sizes of other parts of the body. Macrocephaly is a proportional increase in the entire brain, which can be asymptomatic, but always with mental retardation.)

— Down syndrome;

- nystagmus; (Nystagmus is involuntary oscillatory eye movements of high frequency (up to several hundred per minute).)

- strabismus, etc.

The state of the nervous system must be assessed, namely: the presence of paralysis, hyperkinesis (pathological sudden involuntary movements in one or a whole group of muscles, following an erroneous command from the brain), tremors, tics, etc. The structure of the articulatory apparatus is examined for the presence of such abnormalities as :

- narrow gothic sky;

- clefts of the hard and soft palate;

- cleft lip;

- shortened hypoglossal ligament.

At the same time, the bite and placement of the teeth are analyzed.

Mental examination

The mental function examination begins with an examination of the child's living conditions and how he was raised. It is these circumstances that are leading in ontogenesis. When diagnosing developmental disorders of a child, the characteristics of each age period must also be taken into account. The following mental functions are subject to analysis and research:

- attention;

- memory;

— thinking;

- perception;

— intelligence;

— emotional sphere, etc.

A child opens up best in a game, during which you can conduct diagnostic observations of his behavior, have a conversation, or conduct a learning experiment. Communication with him will provide an opportunity to assess his level of development, appropriateness to his age, what terms he uses, what sentences he makes, what kind of vocabulary the child has, whether he is active in play, whether he can construct, whether he concentrates attention and for how long, whether he can switch to another type of activity. whether it has cognitive interest, how it conducts analysis, whether its activity is productive, whether it brings the work it has begun to completion.

In this case, a variety of visual materials are used. The emotional background should be comfortable for the child. Methods and techniques of work are selected according to the defect that the child has: for the deaf they are allowed to respond with gestures, for the visually impaired they select clear pictures, for the mentally retarded they create simple tasks. The child should not give up playing. This is the main task of the one who diagnoses.

It is most difficult to examine such patients: deaf-blind people who do not understand anything, children with disrupted behavior, who have a reduced level of motivation and those who tire easily. It is also not easy to diagnose those who have multiple abnormalities, since it is difficult to determine the primary defect and what it entailed and how deep.

Only after a thorough medical and psychological diagnosis is a diagnosis determined, according to which corrective classes are prescribed. Their goal is to maximally fill, according to the intellectual and mental capabilities of the child, those gaps that arose as a result of his improper upbringing and development.

Rett syndrome

This is a genetic pathology that occurs only in girls. It is characterized by the fact that over time the ability to speak is lost and manual skills disappear. In some cases, there is a delay in the physical growth of the head, enuresis, shortness of breath, and epileptic seizures.

This is a very dangerous mental disorder. In a child aged 2 years it appears in all its glory. A very characteristic stage of the disease, which manifests itself with symptoms of autism. If the child is not treated, this can lead to severe disability.

Gilles De La Tourette Syndrome

The pathology was named after the French scientist who described the syndrome in 9 of his patients. This is a tic pathology, which is accompanied by the following manifestations:

• Emotional instability, which can manifest itself as irritability and a sharp decline in mood.
• The child's impulsive urge to say something indecent or unpleasant.
• An obsessive desire to hurt a loved one.
• Auto-aggression.

The cause of this pathology is most often a genetic factor. Treatment consists of psychotherapy, antidepressants and antipsychotics. Today, drug therapy is the most effective.

Schizophrenia

Mental disorders in preschool children are sometimes difficult to identify, which is why it is very important to regularly visit the office of a psychotherapist or at least a psychologist with your child. On the part of parents, it is necessary to observe the child’s behavior and note strange moments.

If you do not pay enough attention to the baby during this period and do not notice this or that pathology, then you can greatly disrupt his psychological development.

Often children develop schizophrenia, which is characterized by pathologies of thinking, behavioral reactions, distorted perception of the world around them, and emotional disorders. This is a severe mental disorder of children and adolescents, so attention should be paid to the child, even if he has already entered adolescence.

Signs of schizophrenia:

• Children experience a decline in activity, indifference to the world around them and those activities that aroused interest.
• The ability to concentrate attention and make specific judgments is impaired.
• Behavioral deviations that manifest themselves as aggressiveness and negativism.
• Auditory hallucinations are possible.

You need to understand that in any case, the child is unlikely to talk about the symptoms, especially about hallucinations.

Diagnosis occurs after clinical observation and assessment of the child’s condition in an inpatient setting. Sometimes it is necessary to carry out differential diagnosis in order to identify mental and behavioral disorders and choose the right treatment tactics.

The symptoms of schizophrenia are quite simple because they present a stereotypical picture. It begins to seem that children live in some kind of monotonous world and use various objects instead of toys: shoes, household items, wire, kitchen utensils. The range of interests is also noticeably narrowed, or they become quite primitive.

The behavior of children with a mental disorder of this type is characterized by delayed psychological development. But there are exceptions. Thus, in some children with schizophrenia, on the contrary, accelerated development is observed. They learn to read, write, and memorize texts faster. Such children usually cause surprise and delight. Kids can think in a very adult way and be interested in adult literature and problems. This indicates premature development of intelligence. Most often, in childhood, schizophrenia is associated with depersonalization. It is very important to distinguish this pathology from neurosis in order to begin adequate treatment. At the same time, stress and conflicts do not have any influence on the course of pathology.

Depression

Such mental disorders occur most often in preschool children. The child may begin to complain of constant melancholy, some fears and problems. In children, depression develops in parallel with disturbances of appetite, sleep, and constipation.

Symptoms:

• Sluggish movements and too weak speech.
• Noticeable slowness.
• Painful sensations in the body.
• Increased tearfulness.
• Refusal to play and be friends with other children.
• A pronounced feeling of worthlessness.

Help for children with this type of mental disorder should come from a professional so as not to worsen the situation.

Most often, treatment is medication and mental health therapy. At the same time, it is very important to attend doctor’s appointments together with the child in order to see his reaction to certain actions of the doctor. An inexperienced specialist can trigger the situation and even harm the child.

Symptoms of psychological disorders

Warning symptoms that adults should pay attention to include:

• obsessive states, tics;
• groundless fears;
• anxiety and disorders caused by them;
• aggressiveness;
• refusal of established rules;
• frequent mood changes;
• childhood schizophrenia;
• slowness in actions, unusual body movements;
• disturbances in thinking;
• complete refusal or decreased interest in active games.

During certain periods of growing up (age crises), susceptibility to nervous and mental disorders increases. Psychological disorders up to 1 year can be caused by a limitation in the range of needs that require satisfaction (pain, hunger, natural needs).

Neurosis

This mental disorder occurs very often in children from 4 years of age, but nevertheless, childhood neuroses can manifest themselves until the onset of adolescence. Diagnosing the disease is difficult because the child’s psyche is still very immature.

There is a modest list of symptoms that can be classified as a manifestation of a pathological neurotic reaction. You can notice these incorrect reactions when a child is scared, strictly prohibited, or punished. And yet, it is almost impossible to accurately determine the presence of a disease such as neurasthenia or hysteria in childhood. This is due to the fact that the earlier the pathology appears in a child, the weaker its dynamics become.

In a child, a mental disorder most often manifests itself as obsessive fears and anxieties:

• Fear of the dark.
• Fear of certain animals.
• Fear of heroes of films and fairy tales.
• Fear of parting with your loved ones.
• Fear of studying, competitions.
• Fear of death.

The occurrence of certain phobias is greatly influenced by the child’s character. Most often, disorders occur in children who are characterized by anxiety and suspiciousness, along with strong impressionability. Also, children who are suggestible and inclined to trust everything they are told are more susceptible to neuroses.

Causes

We looked at the symptoms of mental disorders in children, talked about treatment and diagnosis. However, one should think about why certain pathologies can arise at such an early age, when a person is still very vulnerable and has practically not encountered the negative aspects of life.

The manifestation of pathology can be associated with a number of factors, including psychological, biological and sociopsychological. However, all of them only provoke a worsening of the pathology, while the main reason most often lies in the developmental characteristics of the child and his relationship with his parents.

Possible reasons:

• Genetic predisposition to mental disorders.
• Incompatibility of parents and child in character and temperament.
• Poor development of intelligence.
• The presence of brain defects that may have been caused to the child during birth.
• Family problems that greatly traumatize the psyche.
• Lack of education or its distorted form.

It is for these reasons that mental disorders most often occur in children 3 years of age and even earlier. Pathologies in children of primary school age most often arise due to conflict in the family and divorce of parents. The chance of neurosis is higher in children who grow up in single-parent families or are exposed to constant stress.

The psychological climate in the family has a great influence on the formation of mental health. So, a child can live in a single-parent family, but if they love him, give him a feeling of joy, give him warmth and affection, then there is a high probability that the psyche of this baby will be strong and stable.

But if a child grows up in a complete family, and constantly observes quarrels, conflicts, and violence, then he will suffer from neuroses and experience great suffering. This is important to understand for the simple reason that very often parents try to save the family at any cost for the sake of the child’s health. Perhaps some of them have lived with only one parent and understand that it is difficult. But we must understand that it is better to live with one parent in a calm, joyful atmosphere than in a full family, experiencing pain, suffering and loneliness.

Reasons for deviations

The main reasons for the development of deviations in children are divided into:

• hereditary;
• external (environmental influences).

Hereditary include:

• Genetic factor.
• Somatic.
• Brain damage.

Depending on when pathogenic factors could have an impact, the following time periods are distinguished:

• Before birth.
• During labor.
• Postpartum period up to 3 years.

The greatest impact on the development of mental functions has a harmful effect at the time of intensive cellular development of the brain, during the development of the embryo.

General signs

If a child has a mental disorder, it is quite difficult to detect it. Firstly, it is necessary to know exactly the symptoms, and secondly, to take into account associated factors and circumstances. Naturally, it is very difficult for parents to connect all this with each other, so there is no need to study the symptoms of all mental disorders. It is enough just to know the behavioral disorders that are typical for a child of a certain age. If you observe them at a given age, this indicates the presence of deviations. What type of abnormality this is, how it is treated and how it is diagnosed can be identified later. The main thing at this stage is to realize that there is a deviation and it requires treatment.

The disorder in children aged 2 years is characterized by passivity. A baby at this age is usually very active and is interested in everything. If you notice that your child behaves insecurely, is afraid of a lot of things and, in principle, avoids the world around him, then you need to contact a specialist.

At the age of 3 years, disorders can manifest themselves as moodiness, reluctance to obey adults, increased vulnerability, fatigue, and irritability. At this age, it is very important not to suppress the child’s activity, because this can lead to a deficit in emotional experience, and this in turn can provoke autism and speech disorders.

At the age of 4 years, disorders manifest themselves in stubbornness, protest, and psychogenic breakdowns. The child experiences tension and sensitivity to the emotions of others, which can provoke frustration. If you notice that at this age a child begins to react too sharply and aggressively to something, then you need to consult a specialist.

At the age of 5 years, pathologies are manifested by too rapid mental development, in comparison with peers, and the emergence of interests of a specific orientation. The child may also lose skills that he or she already possessed. He may start playing meaningless games, stop using new words that he already knows, give up role-playing games, and become sloppy.

At the age of 7 years, pathologies are characterized by sleep disturbances, appetite, increased fatigue, dizziness, decreased performance, a tendency to phobias, and overwork. However, we must understand that at this age the child is a little unstable, because he is preparing for school. Natural nervousness should not be mistaken for some kind of deviation if it does not go beyond normal boundaries.

Treatment

Treatment of mental disorders in children most often involves the use of medications and therapy with a specific specialist. Parents cannot solve such problems on their own, because the specifics of childhood pathologies are very unclear. It is much better to trust a specialist who can help your child at an early age and solve his problems.

If a child has a mental disorder, then it is worth preparing for long-term treatment. It is very important to contact a child psychiatrist in time so as not to waste precious time. Note that the same medications that are used to treat adults are used to treat mental disorders. The only difference is that children take smaller doses. In the fight against childhood pathologies, antidepressants, stimulants and mood stabilizers, drugs that reduce anxiety, and antipsychotics have proven themselves to be excellent.

If you have already started treatment, we recommend that you do not change the specialist, because this may have a bad effect on the child. If he trusted a person and made contact with him, then he may refuse to get closer to another doctor. This should once again remind you of how important it is to initially choose a good professional.

We do not recommend asking your child about sessions with a doctor. It is better to talk with the specialist himself, because the child may take your interest with hostility and close himself off from communication.

To summarize, it is very important to monitor your child. While he is small, try not to educate him, but to simply be a detached observer. Then you can better understand him and build better communication in the future.

Development of mental processes in children

• Each stage of development determines the amount of knowledge, skills and abilities that a child must master. The norm is considered to be that the level of development of a child corresponds to the majority of children of his age. For example, the main task of an infant is to study his own physical capabilities. In early childhood, children actively master psychomotor skills (the ability to use a spatula, collect cubes, eat with a spoon)
• Determining deviations in a child’s development can be difficult. If there are several children growing up in a family, a parent can evaluate the child’s development level empirically by comparing the child with his brothers and sisters. If there is only one child in a family, it is quite difficult to understand how well he matches his peers in development.
• In addition, within each age there are subjective individual characteristics of the child, which makes the task of assessing development even more difficult