Mental disorders of a child of 3 years. Neuropsychiatric disorders in children

The main types of mental disorders that are characteristic of adults are found in childhood and adolescents. Timely diagnosis in this case is of great importance, since it affects the treatment and further prognosis of the development of severe psychopathology. Mental disorders in school-age children are most often limited to the following categories: schizophrenia, anxiety, and social behavior disorders. Also, adolescents often have psychosomatic disorders that do not have organic causes.

Most common in adolescence are mood disorders (depressions), which can have the most dangerous consequences. At this time, his whole existence seems hopeless to a teenager, he sees everything in black colors. A fragile psyche is the cause of suicidal thoughts among young people. This problem has acquired important, including medical significance.

In most cases, depression begins with the child's complaints about his neuropsychic state and subjective feelings. The teenager is isolated from others and withdraws into himself. He feels inferior, depressed and often aggressive. His critical attitude towards himself further exacerbates the severe mental state. If a teenager is not provided with medical care at this moment, then you can lose him.

The first signs of a mental disorder in children can indicate a problem:

The child's behavior changes for no apparent reason.
Performance is deteriorating.
There is also a constant feeling of fatigue.
The child moves away, withdraws into himself, can lie idle for days on end.
Shows increased aggressiveness, irritability, tearfulness.
The child does not share experiences, becomes detached, forgetful, ignores requests. He is silent all the time, does not dedicate to his affairs and gets irritated if he is asked about them.
Suffers from bulimia or a complete lack of appetite.

The list can be continued, but if a teenager has most of the listed signs, then you should immediately contact a specialist. Childhood mental disorders should be treated by a doctor who specializes in the treatment of adolescent psychopathology. Treatment of depression most often involves a combination of pharmacological and psychotherapeutic interventions.

Schizophrenia

Timely detection and pharmacotherapy of the initial stage of schizophrenia in childhood and adolescence improves the prognosis in the future. The early signs of this disorder are vague and similar to common puberty problems. However, after a few months, the picture changes, and the pathology becomes more distinct.

It is believed that schizophrenia is always manifested by delusions or hallucinations. In fact, the early signs of schizophrenia can range from obsessions, anxiety disorders to emotional deprivation, and so on.

Signs of a mental disorder in school-age children and adolescents:

The child's warm feelings towards parents weaken, the personality changes. There is groundless aggression, anger, irritation, although relationships with peers may remain the same.
Initial symptoms can be expressed in the form of a loss of past interests and hobbies, in the absence of new ones. Such children may wander aimlessly down the street or loaf without leaving the house.
In parallel, the lower instincts are weakened. Patients lose interest in food. They don't feel hungry and may skip meals. In addition, teenagers become sloppy, forget to change dirty things.

A characteristic sign of pathology is a sharp decline in academic performance and loss of interest in school life. Personality change is accompanied by unmotivated aggression. As the disease progresses, the symptoms become more pronounced, and the specialist will be able to easily recognize the signs of schizophrenia.

Psychosomatic disorders

In adolescence, psychosomatic disorders often occur: pain in the abdomen or head, sleep disorders. These somatic problems are caused by psychological causes associated with age-related changes in the body.

Stress and nervous tension caused by school and family troubles result in a teenager in poor health. The student has difficulty falling asleep in the evening or waking up too early in the morning. In addition, he may suffer from nightmares, enuresis, or sleepwalking. All of these disorders are indications for seeking medical attention.

Schoolchildren, both girls and boys, often suffer from obsessive headaches. In girls, this is sometimes associated with a certain period of the menstrual cycle. But mostly they occur without organic causes. They are caused by psychosomatic disorders as in respiratory diseases.

Painful sensations are caused by an increase in muscle tone, and prevent the child from doing normal schoolwork and doing homework.

Examination of children up to 6 years

Evaluation is a more complex task than examining an adult patient. Toddlers lack the language and cognitive capacity to describe their emotions and feelings. Thus, the doctor should rely mainly only on the data of observation of the child by parents and caregivers.

The first signs of a mental disorder in preschool children:

Nervous and mental disorders after 2 years arise due to the fact that the mother limits the independence of the child and overprotects him, continuing to breastfeed the grown baby. Such a child is shy, dependent on the mother, and often lags behind peers in the development of skills.
At the age of 3 years, mental disorders are expressed in increased fatigue, capriciousness, irritability, tearfulness, and speech disorders. If you suppress the sociability and activity of a three-year-old child, this can lead to isolation, autism. In the future, there may be problems in interaction with peers.
Neurotic reactions in 4-year-old children are expressed in protest against the will of adults and hypertrophied stubbornness.
The reason for seeking medical help for disorders in a 5-year-old child is the occurrence of symptoms such as the impoverishment of vocabulary, the loss of previously acquired skills, the refusal of role-playing games and joint activities with peers.

When assessing the mental state of babies, we must not forget that they develop within the family framework, and this greatly affects the behavior of the child.

A mentally normal child who lives in a family of alcoholics and is periodically subjected to violence may have signs of mental disorders. Fortunately, in most cases, childhood mental disorders are mild and respond well to treatment. In severe forms of pathology, treatment is carried out by a qualified child psychiatrist.

Department of Health of the Tyumen Region

State medical institution of the Tyumen region

"Tyumen Regional Clinical Psychiatric Hospital"

State educational institution of higher professional education "Tyumen Medical Academy"

Early manifestations of mental illness

in children and adolescents

medical psychologists

Tyumen - 2010

Early manifestations of mental illness in children and adolescents: guidelines. Tyumen. 2010.

Rodyashin E.V. chief physician of GLPU TO TOKPB

Raeva T.V. head Department of Psychiatry, Dr. med. Sciences of the State Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education "Tyumen Medical Academy"

Fomushkina M.G. chief freelance child psychiatrist of the Department of Health of the Tyumen region

The guidelines provide a brief description of the early manifestations of major mental and developmental disorders in childhood and adolescence. The manual can be used by pediatricians, neurologists, clinical psychologists and other specialists in "childhood medicine" to establish preliminary diagnoses of mental disorders, since the establishment of a final diagnosis is within the competence of a psychiatrist.

Introduction

neuropathy

Hyperkinetic disorders

Pathological habitual actions

Childhood fears

Pathological fantasizing

Organ neuroses: stuttering, tics, enuresis, encopresis

Neurotic sleep disorders

Neurotic disorders of appetite (anorexia)

Mental underdevelopment

Mental infantilism

Violation of school skills

Decreased mood background (depression)

Withdrawal and vagrancy

Painful attitude to an imaginary physical handicap

Anorexia nervosa

Syndrome of early childhood autism

Conclusion

Bibliography

Application

Scheme of pathopsychological examination of a child

Diagnosing the presence of fears in children

Introduction

The state of mental health of children and adolescents is essential to ensure and support the sustainable development of any society. At the present stage, the effectiveness of providing psychiatric care to the child population is determined by the timeliness of the detection of mental disorders. The earlier children with mental disorders are identified and receive appropriate comprehensive medical, psychological and pedagogical assistance, the higher the likelihood of good school adaptation and the lower the risk of maladaptive behavior.

An analysis of the incidence of mental disorders in children and adolescents living in the Tyumen region (excluding autonomous districts) over the past five years has shown that early diagnosis of this pathology is not well organized. In addition, in our society there is still a fear, both of direct appeal to a psychiatric service, and of possible condemnation of others, leading to active avoidance of parents from consulting a psychiatrist of their child, even if it is undeniably necessary. Late diagnosis of mental disorders in the child population and delayed treatment lead to the rapid progression of mental illness, early disability of patients. It is necessary to increase the level of knowledge of pediatricians, neurologists, medical psychologists in the field of the main clinical manifestations of mental illness in children and adolescents, since if there are any deviations in the health (somatic or mental) of a child, his legal representatives seek help first of all from these specialists .

An important task of the psychiatric service is the active prevention of neuropsychiatric disorders in children. It should start from the perinatal period. The identification of risk factors when taking anamnesis in a pregnant woman and her relatives is very important for determining the likelihood of neuropsychiatric disorders in newborns (hereditary burden of both somatic and neuropsychiatric diseases in families, the age of a man and woman at the time of conception, the presence of them bad habits, features of the course of pregnancy, etc.). Infections transferred in utero by the fetus are manifested in the postnatal period by perinatal encephalopathy of hypoxic-ischemic origin with varying degrees of damage to the central nervous system. As a result of this process, attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity disorder may occur.

Throughout the life of a child, there are so-called "critical periods of age-related vulnerability", during which the structural, physiological and mental balance in the body is disturbed. It is during such periods, when exposed to any negative agent, that the risk of mental disorders in children increases, and also, in the presence of a mental illness, its more severe course. The first critical period is the first weeks of intrauterine life, the second critical period is the first 6 months after birth, then from 2 to 4 years, from 7 to 8 years, from 12 to 15 years. Toxicosis and other hazards that affect the fetus in the first critical period are often the cause of severe congenital developmental anomalies, including severe brain dysplasia. Mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, epilepsy, occurring at the age of 2 to 4 years, are characterized by a malignant course with a rapid disintegration of the psyche. There is a preference for the development at a certain age of the child of specific age-related psychopathological conditions.

Early manifestations of mental illness in children and adolescents

neuropathy

Neuropathy is a syndrome of congenital childhood "nervousness" that occurs before the age of three. The first manifestations of this syndrome can be diagnosed already in infancy in the form of somatovegetative disorders: sleep inversion (drowsiness during the day and frequent awakenings and anxiety at night), frequent regurgitation, temperature fluctuations to subfebrile, hyperhidrosis. There is frequent and prolonged crying, increased capriciousness and tearfulness with any change in the situation, changing the regimen, conditions of care, placing the child in a children's institution. A fairly common symptom is the so-called “rolling up”, when a reaction of discontent occurs to a psychogenic stimulus, associated with resentment and accompanied by a cry, which leads to an affective-respiratory attack: at the height of exhalation, tonic tension of the muscles of the larynx occurs, breathing stops, the face turns pale, then acrocyanosis appears. The duration of this state is several tens of seconds, ending with a deep breath.

Children with neuropathy often have an increased tendency to allergic reactions, infectious and colds. With the preservation of neuropathic manifestations at preschool age under the influence of adverse situational influences, infections, injuries, etc. various monosymptomatic neurotic and neurosis-like disorders easily arise: nocturnal enuresis, encopresis, tics, stuttering, night terrors, neurotic appetite disorders (anorexia), pathological habitual actions. The syndrome of neuropathy is relatively often included in the structure of residual organic neuropsychiatric disorders resulting from intrauterine and perinatal organic lesions of the brain, accompanied by neurological symptoms, increased intracranial pressure and, often, delayed psychomotor and speech development.

hyperkinetic disorders.

Hyperkinetic disorders (hyperdynamic syndrome) or psychomotor disinhibition syndrome occurs mainly at the age of 3 to 7 years and is manifested by excessive mobility, restlessness, fussiness, lack of concentration, leading to impaired adaptation, instability of attention, distractibility. This syndrome occurs several times more often in boys than in girls.

The first signs of the syndrome appear at preschool age, but before entering school, they are sometimes difficult to recognize due to the variety of normal variants. At the same time, the behavior of children is characterized by a desire for constant movements, they run, jump, sit down for a short while, then jump up, touch and grab objects that fall into their field of vision, ask many questions, often not listening to the answers to them. Due to increased motor activity and general excitability, children easily come into conflict with their peers, often violate the regime of children's institutions, and poorly learn the school curriculum. Up to 90% of hyperdynamic syndrome occurs with the consequences of early organic brain damage (pathology of intrauterine development, birth trauma, birth asphyxia, prematurity, meningoencephalitis in the first years of life), accompanied by scattered neurological symptoms and, in some cases, a lag in intellectual development.

Pathological habitual actions.

The most common pathological habitual actions in children are thumb sucking, nail biting, masturbation, hair pulling or plucking, head and torso rocking rhythmically. The common features of pathological habits are their arbitrary nature, the ability to stop them temporarily by an effort of will, the child's understanding (starting from the end of preschool age) as negative and even bad habits, in the absence in most cases of the desire to overcome them and even active resistance to attempts by adults to eliminate them.

Thumb or tongue sucking as a pathological habit occurs mainly in children of early and preschool age. Thumb sucking is the most common. Long-term presence of this pathological habit can lead to bite deformation.

Yactation is an arbitrary rhythmic stereotypical swaying of the body or head, observed mainly before falling asleep or upon awakening in young children. As a rule, rocking is accompanied by a feeling of pleasure, and attempts by others to prevent it cause discontent and crying.

Nail biting (onychophagia) is most common during puberty. Often, not only the protruding parts of the nails, but partially adjacent areas of the skin are bitten, which leads to local inflammation.

Onanism (masturbation) consists in irritating the genital organs with hands, squeezing the legs, rubbing against various objects. In young children, this habit is the result of the fixation of playing manipulation of body parts and is often not accompanied by sexual arousal. With neuropathy, masturbation occurs due to increased general excitability. Starting from the age of 8-9 years, irritation of the genital organs may be accompanied by sexual arousal with a pronounced vegetative reaction in the form of facial flushing, increased sweating, and tachycardia. Finally, at puberty, masturbation begins to be accompanied by representations of an erotic nature. Sexual arousal and orgasm contribute to the consolidation of a pathological habit.

Trichotillomania - the desire to pull out the hair on the scalp and eyebrows, often accompanied by a feeling of pleasure. It is observed mainly in girls of school age. Hair pulling sometimes results in localized baldness.

Childhood fears.

The relative ease of the emergence of fears is a characteristic feature of childhood. Fears under the influence of various external, situational influences arise the easier, the younger the child. In young children, fear can be caused by any new, suddenly appeared object. In this regard, an important, although not always easy, task is to distinguish between "normal", psychological fears and fears that are pathological in nature. Signs of pathological fears are their causelessness or a clear discrepancy between the severity of fears and the intensity of the impact that caused them, the duration of the existence of fears, a violation of the general condition of the child (sleep, appetite, physical well-being) and the child's behavior under the influence of fears.

All fears can be divided into three main groups: obsessive fears; fears with overvalued content; delusional fears. Obsessive fears in children are distinguished by the specificity of the content, a more or less distinct connection with the content of the psychotraumatic situation. Most often, these are fears of infection, pollution, sharp objects (needles), enclosed spaces, transport, fear of death, fear of verbal answers at school, fear of speech in stutterers, etc. Obsessive fears are perceived by children as "superfluous", alien, they fight with them.

Children do not treat fears of overvalued content as alien, painful, they are convinced of their existence, they do not try to overcome them. Among these fears in children of preschool and primary school age, fears of darkness, loneliness, animals (dogs), fear of school, fear of failure, punishment for violation of discipline, fear of a strict teacher predominate. Fear of school can be the cause of stubborn refusals to attend school and the phenomena of school maladaptation.

Fear of delusional content is characterized by the experience of a hidden threat both from people and animals, and from inanimate objects and phenomena, accompanied by constant anxiety, alertness, timidity, suspicion of others. Young children are afraid of loneliness, shadows, noise, water, various everyday objects (faucets, electric lamps), strangers, characters from children's books, fairy tales. The child treats all these objects and phenomena as hostile, threatening his well-being. Children hide from real or imaginary objects. Delusional fears arise outside the traumatic situation.

Pathological fantasy.

The emergence of pathological fantasizing in children and adolescents is associated with the presence of a painfully altered creative imagination (fantasy) in them. In contrast to the mobile, rapidly changing fantasies of a healthy child closely related to reality, pathological fantasies are persistent, often divorced from reality, bizarre in content, often accompanied by behavioral and adaptation disorders and manifest themselves in various forms. The earliest form of pathological fantasizing is playful reincarnation. A child for a time, sometimes for a long time (from several hours to several days), reincarnates into an animal (wolf, hare, horse, dog), a character from a fairy tale, a fictional fantastic creature, an inanimate object. The behavior of the child imitates the appearance and actions of this object.

Another form of pathological play activity is monotonous stereotypical manipulations with objects that have no play value: bottles, pots, nuts, strings, etc. Such "games" are accompanied by obsession, difficulty switching, discontent and irritation of the child when trying to tear him away from this activity.

In children of senior preschool and primary school age, pathological fantasizing usually takes the form of figurative fantasizing. Children vividly imagine animals, little men, children with whom they mentally play, give them names or nicknames, travel with them, getting into unfamiliar countries, beautiful cities, to other planets. In boys, fantasies are often associated with military themes: scenes of battles, troops are presented. Warriors in the colorful clothes of the ancient Romans, in the armor of medieval knights. Sometimes (mainly in prepubertal and pubertal age) fantasies have a sadistic content: natural disasters, fires, scenes of violence, executions, torture, murders, etc. are presented.

Pathological fantasizing in adolescents can take the form of self-incrimination and slander. More often these are detective-adventure self-incriminations of teenage boys who talk about alleged participation in robberies, armed attacks, car thefts, belonging to spy organizations. To prove the truth of all these stories, teenagers write in altered handwriting and enclose notes to relatives and friends allegedly from gang leaders, which contain all kinds of demands, threats, obscene expressions. Teenage girls have slander in rape. In both self-incrimination and slander, adolescents at times almost believe in the reality of their fantasies. This circumstance, as well as the colorfulness and emotionality of reports of fictitious events, often convince others of their veracity, in connection with which investigations begin, appeals to the police, etc. Pathological fantasizing is observed in various mental illnesses.

Organ neuroses(systemic neurosis). Organ neuroses include neurotic stuttering, neurotic tics, neurotic enuresis and encopresis.

neurotic stuttering. Stuttering is a violation of the rhythm, pace and fluency of speech associated with muscle spasms involved in the speech act. The causes of neurotic stuttering can be both acute and subacute mental trauma (fear, sudden excitement, separation from parents, a change in the habitual stereotype of life, for example, placing a child in a preschool child care institution), and long-term traumatic situations (conflict relations in the family, incorrect upbringing). Contributing internal factors are a family history of speech pathology, primarily stuttering. A number of external factors also play an important role in the origin of stuttering, especially the unfavorable "speech climate" in the form of information overload, attempts to speed up the pace of the child's speech development, a sharp change in the requirements for his speech activity, bilingualism in the family, and parents' excessive demands on the child's speech. As a rule, the increase in stuttering occurs in conditions of emotional stress, excitement, increased responsibility, and also, if necessary, to make contact with strangers. At the same time, in a familiar home environment, when talking with friends, stuttering may become less noticeable. Neurotic stuttering is almost always combined with other neurotic disorders: fears, mood swings, sleep disorders, tics, enuresis, which often precede the onset of stuttering.

neurotic tics. Neurotic tics are called various automatic habitual elementary movements: blinking, wrinkling the forehead, licking the lips, twitching the head, shoulders, coughing, "hunting", etc.). In the etiology of neurotic tics, the role of causative factors is played by prolonged psychotraumatic situations, acute mental trauma accompanied by fright, local irritation (conjunctiva, respiratory tract, skin, etc.) that cause a protective reflex motor reaction, as well as imitation of tics in one of the surrounding. Tics usually occur as a direct or somewhat delayed in time from the action of a traumatic neurotic factor. More often, such a reaction is fixed, there is a tendency to develop tics of a different localization, other neurotic manifestations join: mood instability, tearfulness, irritability, episodic fears, sleep disturbances, asthenic symptoms.

neurotic enuresis. The term "enuresis" refers to the state of unconscious loss of urine, mainly during a night's sleep. To neurotic enuresis are those cases in the occurrence of which the causal role belongs to psychogenic factors. Enuresis, as a pathological condition, is spoken of with urinary incontinence in children from the age of 4 years, since at an earlier age it can be physiological, associated with age-related immaturity of the mechanisms of urination regulation and the lack of a strengthened ability to hold urine.

Depending on the time of occurrence of enuresis, it is divided into "primary" and "secondary". With primary enuresis, urinary incontinence is noted from early childhood without intervals of the period of the formed skill of neatness, characterized by the ability not to retain urine not only during wakefulness, but also during sleep. Primary enuresis (dysontogenetic), in the genesis of which, the delay in the maturation of urination regulation systems plays a role, often has a family-hereditary character. Secondary enuresis occurs after a more or less long period of at least 1 year of neatness. Neurotic enuresis is always secondary. The clinic of neurotic enuresis is distinguished by a pronounced dependence on the situation and environment in which the child is located, on various influences on his emotional sphere. Urinary incontinence, as a rule, sharply increases with an exacerbation of a traumatic situation, for example, in the event of a parental breakup, after another scandal, in connection with physical punishment, etc. On the other hand, the temporary removal of a child from a traumatic situation is often accompanied by a noticeable decrease or cessation of enuresis. Due to the fact that the emergence of neurotic enuresis is facilitated by such character traits as inhibition, timidity, anxiety, timidity, impressionability, self-doubt, low self-esteem, children with neurotic enuresis relatively early, already in preschool and primary school age, begin to experience pain their lack, embarrassed by it, they have a feeling of inferiority, as well as an anxious expectation of a new urination. The latter often leads to disruption of falling asleep and disturbing night sleep, which, however, does not ensure the timely awakening of the child when an urge to urinate occurs during sleep. Neurotic enuresis is never the only neurotic disorder, it is always combined with other neurotic manifestations, such as emotional lability, irritability, tearfulness, capriciousness, tics, fears, sleep disturbances, etc.

It is necessary to distinguish neurotic enuresis from neurosis-like. Neurosis-like enuresis occurs in connection with previous cerebro-organic or general somatic diseases, is characterized by a greater monotony of the course, the absence of a clear dependence on changes in the situation with a pronounced dependence on somatic diseases, frequent combination with cerebrosthenic, psycho-organic manifestations, focal neurological and diencephalic-vegetative disorders, the presence of organic EEG changes and signs of hydrocephalus on the x-ray of the skull. With neurosis-like enuresis, the reaction of the personality to urinary incontinence is often absent until puberty. Children do not pay attention to their defect for a long time, they are not ashamed of it, despite the natural inconvenience.

Neurotic enuresis should also be distinguished from urinary incontinence as one of the forms of passive protest reactions in preschool children. In the latter case, urinary incontinence is observed only during the daytime and occurs mainly in a traumatic situation, for example, in a nursery or kindergarten in case of unwillingness to attend them, in the presence of an undesirable person, etc. In addition, there are manifestations of protest behavior, dissatisfaction with the situation, and negative reactions.

Neurotic encopresis. Encopresis is the involuntary discharge of bowel movements that occurs in the absence of anomalies and diseases of the lower intestine or anal sphincter. The disease occurs about 10 times less often than enuresis. The cause of encopresis is in most cases chronic traumatic situations in the family, excessively strict requirements of parents to the child. Contributing factors of the "soil" may be neuropathic conditions and residual-organic cerebral insufficiency.

The clinic of neurotic encopresis is characterized by the fact that a child who had previously had skills in neatness, periodically during the daytime, there is a small amount of bowel movements on linen; more often parents complain that the child only “slightly soils his pants”, in rare cases more abundant bowel movements are found. As a rule, the child does not feel the urge to defecate, at first does not notice the presence of bowel movements, and only after some time feels an unpleasant odor. In most cases, children painfully experience their lack, are ashamed of it, and try to hide soiled linen from their parents. A peculiar reaction of the personality to encopresis may be the child's excessive desire for cleanliness and accuracy. In most cases, encopresis is combined with a low mood background, irritability, tearfulness.

Neurotic sleep disorders.

The physiologically necessary duration of sleep varies significantly with age from 16-18 hours a day in a child of the first year of life to 10-11 hours - at the age of 7-10 years and 8-9 hours - in adolescents 14-16 years old. In addition, with age, sleep shifts towards predominantly night time, and therefore most children over 7 years of age do not feel like sleeping during the daytime.

To establish the presence of a sleep disorder, it is not so much its duration that matters, but the depth, determined by the speed of awakening under the influence of external stimuli, as well as the duration of the period of falling asleep. In young children, the immediate cause of the onset of a sleep disorder is often various psycho-traumatic factors that affect the child in the evening hours, shortly before bedtime: quarrels of parents at this time, various reports of adults frightening the child about any incidents and accidents, watching movies on television, etc.

The clinic of neurotic sleep disorders is characterized by sleep disturbance, sleep depth disorders with nocturnal awakenings, night terrors, as well as sleepwalking and sleep-talking. Sleep disturbance is expressed in a slow transition from wakefulness to sleep. Falling asleep can last up to 1-2 hours and is often combined with various fears and concerns (fear of the dark, fear of suffocation in a dream, etc.), pathological habitual actions (sucking a finger, curling hair, masturbation), obsessive actions such as elementary rituals ( repeated good night wishes, putting certain toys to bed and certain actions with them, etc.). Sleepwalking and sleepwalking are common manifestations of neurotic sleep disorders. As a rule, in this case they are associated with the content of dreams, reflect individual traumatic experiences.

Nocturnal awakenings of neurotic origin, unlike epileptic ones, are devoid of sudden onset and cessation, are much longer, and are not accompanied by a distinct change in consciousness.

Neurotic disorders of appetite (anorexia).

This group of neurotic disorders is widespread and includes various disorders of "eating behavior" in children associated with a primary decrease in appetite. Various psycho-traumatic moments play a role in the etiology of anorexia: separation of the child from the mother, placement in a children's institution, uneven educational approach, physical punishment, insufficient attention to the child. The immediate cause for the emergence of primary anorexia nervosa is often an attempt by the mother to force-feed the child when he refuses to eat, overfeeding, an accidental coincidence of feeding with some unpleasant impression (a sharp cry, fear, quarrel between adults, etc.). The most important contributing internal factor is a neuropathic condition (congenital or acquired), which is characterized by a sharply increased autonomic excitability and instability of autonomic regulation. In addition, a certain role belongs to somatic weakness. Of the external factors, the excessive anxiety of parents regarding the state of nutrition of the child and the process of his feeding, the use of persuasion, stories and other distractions from food, as well as improper upbringing to satisfy all the whims and whims of the child, leading to his excessive spoiled.

The clinical manifestations of anorexia are quite similar. The child has no desire to eat any food, or he shows great selectivity in food, refusing many common foods. As a rule, he reluctantly sits down at the table, eats very slowly, “rolls” food in his mouth for a long time. Due to the increased gag reflex, vomiting often occurs during meals. Eating causes a child to have a low mood, capriciousness, tearfulness. The course of a neurotic reaction can be short-lived, not exceeding 2-3 weeks. At the same time, in children with neuropathic conditions, as well as those spoiled in conditions of improper upbringing, anorexia nervosa can acquire a protracted course with a long stubborn refusal to eat. In these cases, weight loss is possible.

Mental underdevelopment.

Signs of mental retardation appear already at the age of 2-3 years, there is no phrasal speech for a long time, skills of neatness and self-service are slowly developed. Children are not inquisitive, have little interest in surrounding objects, games are monotonous, there is no liveliness in the game.

At preschool age, attention is drawn to the poor development of self-service skills, phrasal speech is characterized by poor vocabulary, the absence of detailed phrases, the impossibility of a coherent description of plot pictures, and there is an insufficient supply of household information. Contact with peers is accompanied by a misunderstanding of their interests, meaning and rules of games, poor development and non-differentiation of higher emotions (sympathy, pity, etc.).

At primary school age, there is an inability to understand and assimilate the program of primary classes of a mass school, a lack of basic everyday knowledge (home address, parents' professions, seasons, days of the week, etc.), an inability to understand the figurative meaning of proverbs. Kindergarten teachers and school teachers can help diagnose this mental disorder.

Psychic infantilism.

Mental infantilism is a delayed development of a child's mental functions with a predominant lag in the emotional-volitional sphere (personal immaturity). Emotional-volitional immaturity is expressed in lack of independence, increased suggestibility, the desire for pleasure as the main motivation for behavior, the predominance of gaming interests at school age, carelessness, immaturity of a sense of duty and responsibility, a weak ability to subordinate one's behavior to the requirements of the team, school, inability to restrain direct manifestations of feelings , inability to volitional tension, to overcome difficulties.

The immaturity of psychomotor skills is also characteristic, manifested in the insufficiency of fine hand movements, the difficulty in developing motor school (drawing, writing) and labor skills. These psychomotor disorders are based on the relative predominance of the activity of the extrapyramidal system over the pyramidal system due to its immaturity. Intellectual insufficiency is noted: the predominance of a concrete-figurative type of thinking, increased exhaustion of attention, some memory loss.

The socio-pedagogical consequences of mental infantilism are insufficient "school maturity", lack of interest in learning, poor progress at school.

Violations of school skills.

Violations of school skills are typical for children of primary school age (6-8 years). Disorders in the development of reading skills (dyslexia) manifest themselves in the lack of recognition of letters, the difficulty or impossibility of the ratio of the image of letters to the corresponding sounds, the replacement of some sounds by others when reading. In addition, there is a slow or accelerated pace of reading, rearrangement of letters, swallowing of syllables, incorrect placement of stresses during reading.

The disorder in the formation of the writing skill (dysgraphia) is expressed in violations of the correlation of the sounds of oral speech with their writing, gross disorders of independent writing from dictation and presentation: there is a replacement of letters corresponding to sounds similar in pronunciation, omissions of letters and syllables, their rearrangement, dismemberment of words and fusion writing two or more words, replacing graphically similar letters, mirroring letters, fuzzy writing, slipping off a line.

Violation of the formation of counting skills (dyscalculia) is manifested in the special difficulties in the formation of the concept of number and understanding the structure of numbers. Particular difficulties are caused by digital operations associated with the transition through a dozen. Difficulty writing multi-digit numbers. Often there is a mirror spelling of numbers and digital combinations (21 instead of 12). Often there are violations of the understanding of spatial relationships (children confuse the right and left sides), the relative position of objects (in front, behind, above, below, etc.).

Decreased mood background - depression.

In children of early and preschool age, depressive states manifest themselves in the form of somatovegetative and motor disorders. The most atypical manifestations of depressive conditions in young children (up to 3 years), they occur during prolonged separation of the child from the mother and are expressed by general lethargy, bouts of crying, motor anxiety, refusal to play activities, disturbances in the rhythm of sleep and wakefulness, loss of appetite, weight loss, susceptibility to colds and infectious diseases.

At preschool age, in addition to sleep disorders, appetite, enuresis, encopresis, and depressive psychomotor disorders are observed: children have a suffering facial expression, walk with their heads bowed, dragging their legs, without moving their hands, speak in a low voice, discomfort or pain in different parts of the body may be observed . In children of primary school age, behavioral changes come to the fore in depressive states: passivity, lethargy, isolation, indifference, loss of interest in toys, learning difficulties due to impaired attention, slow learning of educational material. Some children, especially boys, are dominated by irritability, resentment, a tendency to aggression, as well as leaving school and home. In some cases, there may be a resumption of pathological habits characteristic of a younger age: thumb sucking, nail biting, hair pulling, masturbation.

In prepubertal age, a more distinct depressive affect appears in the form of a depressed, dreary mood, a peculiar feeling of low value, ideas of self-abasement and self-blame. Children say: “I am incapable. I am the weakest among the guys in the class.” For the first time, suicidal thoughts arise (“Why should I live like this?”, “Who needs me like this?”). At puberty, depression is manifested by its characteristic triad of symptoms: depressed mood, intellectual and motor retardation. A large place is occupied by somatovegetative manifestations: sleep disorders, loss of appetite. constipation, complaints of headaches, pain in various parts of the body.

Children fear for their health and life, become anxious, fixated on somatic disorders, fearfully ask their parents if their hearts can stop, if they will suffocate in their sleep, etc. In connection with persistent somatic complaints (somatic, "masked" depression), children undergo numerous functional and laboratory examinations, examinations of narrow specialists to identify any somatic disease. The test results are negative. At this age, against the background of a reduced mood, adolescents develop an interest in alcohol, drugs, they join the companies of adolescent delinquents, and are prone to suicidal attempts and self-harm. Depression in children develops in severe psychotraumatic situations, in schizophrenia.

Leaving and vagrancy.

Leaving and vagrancy are expressed in repeated departures from home or school, boarding school or other children's institution, followed by vagrancy, often many days. Mostly seen in boys. In children and adolescents, withdrawal may be associated with resentment, hurt feelings, representing a reaction of passive protest, or with fear of punishment or anxiety about some misconduct. With mental infantilism, there are mainly departures from school and absenteeism due to fear of difficulties associated with study. Shoots in adolescents with hysterical character traits are associated with the desire to attract the attention of relatives, to arouse pity and sympathy (demonstrative shoots). Another type of initial withdrawal motivation is "sensory craving", i.e. the need for new, constantly changing experiences, as well as the desire for entertainment.

Departure can be "unmotivated", impulsive, with an irresistible desire to escape. They are called dromomanias. Children and teenagers run away together or in a small group, they can leave for other cities, spend the night in porches, attics, basements, as a rule, they do not return home on their own. They are brought by police officers, relatives, strangers. Children do not experience fatigue, hunger, thirst for a long time, which indicates that they have a pathology of drives. Care and vagrancy violate the social adaptation of children, reduce school performance, lead to various forms of antisocial behavior (hooliganism, theft, alcoholism, substance abuse, drug addiction, early sexual relations).

Painful attitude to an imaginary physical defect (dysmorphophobia).

The painful idea of an imaginary or unreasonably exaggerated physical defect in 80% of cases occurs at puberty, more often occurs in adolescent girls. The very ideas of physical deficiency can be expressed in the form of thoughts about facial defects (long, ugly nose, large mouth, thick lips, protruding ears), physique (excessive fullness or thinness, narrow shoulders and short stature in boys), insufficient sexual development (small, "curved" penis) or excessive sexual development (large mammary glands in girls).

A special kind of dysmorphophobic experiences is the insufficiency of certain functions: fear of not keeping intestinal gases in the presence of strangers, fear of bad breath or sweat, etc. The experiences described above affect the behavior of adolescents, who begin to avoid crowded places, friends and acquaintances, try to walk only after dark, change clothes and hairstyles. More sthenic teenagers are trying to develop and use various methods of self-treatment, special physical exercises for a long time, persistently turn to cosmetologists, surgeons and other specialists demanding plastic surgery, special treatment, for example, growth hormones, drugs that reduce appetite. Adolescents often look at themselves in the mirror (“mirror symptom”) and also refuse to be photographed. Episodic, transient dysmorphophobic experiences associated with a prejudiced attitude towards real minor physical defects occur normally at puberty. But if they have a pronounced, persistent, often absurd pretentious character, determine behavior, disrupt the social adaptation of a teenager, and are based on a reduced background of mood, then these are already painful experiences that require the help of a psychotherapist, psychiatrist.

Anorexia nervosa.

Anorexia nervosa is characterized by a deliberate, extremely persistent desire for a qualitative and/or quantitative refusal to eat and reduce body weight. It is much more common in adolescent girls and young women, much less common in boys and children. The leading symptom is the belief in overweight and the desire to correct this physical “flaw”. In the early stages of the condition, appetite persists for a long time, and abstinence from food is occasionally interrupted by bouts of overeating (bulimia nervosa). Then the fixed habitual nature of overeating alternates with vomiting, leading to somatic complications. Adolescents tend to eat alone, try to quietly get rid of it, carefully study the calorie content of foods.

The fight against weight occurs in various additional ways: exhausting physical exercises; taking laxatives, enemas; regular artificial induction of vomiting. The feeling of constant hunger can lead to hypercompensatory forms of behavior: feeding younger brothers and sisters, increased interest in cooking various foods, as well as irritability, increased excitability, and a decrease in mood. Gradually, signs of somatoendocrine disorders appear and increase: the disappearance of subcutaneous fat, oligo-, then amenorrhea, dystrophic changes in the internal organs, hair loss, changes in blood biochemical parameters.

Syndrome of early childhood autism.

The syndrome of early childhood autism is a group of syndromes of different origin (intrauterine and perinatal organic brain damage - infectious, traumatic, toxic, mixed; hereditary-constitutional) observed in children of early, preschool and primary school age within different nosological forms. The syndrome of early childhood autism manifests itself most clearly from 2 to 5 years, although some signs of it are also noted at an earlier age. So, already in infants, there is a lack of the “revitalization complex” characteristic of healthy children when in contact with their mother, they do not smile at the sight of their parents, sometimes there is a lack of an indicative reaction to external stimuli, which can be taken as a defect in the sense organs. Children have sleep disturbances (sleep discontinuity, difficulty falling asleep), persistent appetite disorders with its decrease and special selectivity, lack of hunger. There is a fear of novelty. Any change in the usual environment, for example, in connection with the rearrangement of furniture, the appearance of a new thing, a new toy, often causes dissatisfaction or even violent protest with crying. A similar reaction occurs when changing the order or time of feeding, walking, washing and other moments of the daily routine.

The behavior of children with this syndrome is monotonous. They can spend hours doing the same actions, vaguely reminiscent of a game: pour water into and pour out of dishes, sort through papers, matchboxes, cans, strings, arrange them in a certain order, not allowing anyone to remove them. These manipulations, as well as an increased interest in certain objects that usually do not have a game purpose, are an expression of a special obsession, in the origin of which the role of the pathology of drives is obvious. Children with autism actively seek solitude, feeling better when they are left alone. Typical psychomotor disturbances are manifested in general motor insufficiency, clumsy gait, stereotypy in movements, shaking, rotation of the hands, jumping, rotation around its axis, walking and running on tiptoe. As a rule, there is a significant delay in the formation of elementary self-service skills (self-catering, washing, dressing, etc.).

The child's facial expressions are poor, inexpressive, characterized by an "empty, expressionless look", as well as a look, as it were, past or "through" the interlocutor. In speech there are echolalia (repetition of the heard word), pretentious words, neologisms, drawn out intonation, the use of pronouns and verbs in the 2nd and 3rd person in relation to themselves. In some children, there is a complete refusal to communicate. The level of development of intelligence is different: normal, exceeding the average norm, there may be a lag in mental development. Syndromes of early childhood autism have different nosological affiliation. Some scientists attribute them to the manifestation of the schizophrenic process, others - to the consequences of early organic brain damage, atypical forms of mental retardation.

Conclusion

Making a clinical diagnosis in child psychiatry is based not only on complaints from parents, guardians and the children themselves, the collection of an anamnesis of the patient's life, but also on observing the child's behavior and analyzing his appearance. When talking with the parents (other legal representatives) of the child, it is necessary to pay attention to the facial expression, facial expressions of the patient, his reaction to your examination, the desire to communicate, the productivity of contact, the ability to comprehend what he heard, follow the given instructions, the volume of vocabulary, the purity of pronunciation of sounds, the development of fine motor skills , excessive mobility or lethargy, slowness, awkwardness in movements, reaction to the mother, toys, children present, desire to communicate with them, the ability to dress, eat, develop neatness skills, etc. If signs of a mental disorder are detected in a child or adolescent, parents or guardians should be advised to seek advice from a child psychotherapist, child psychiatrist or psychiatrists of regional hospitals in rural areas.

Child psychotherapists and child psychiatrists serving the child and adolescent population of Tyumen work in the outpatient department of the Tyumen Regional Clinical Psychiatric Hospital, Tyumen, st. Herzen, d. 74. Telephone registry of child psychotherapists: 50-66-17; telephone registry of child psychiatrists: 50-66-35; helpline: 50-66-43.

Bibliography

Bukhanovsky A.O., Kutyavin Yu.A., Litvan M.E. General psychopathology. - Publishing house "Phoenix", 1998.
Kovalev V.V. Psychiatry of childhood. – M.: Medicine, 1979.
Kovalev V.V. Semiotics and diagnosis of mental illness in children and adolescents. – M.: Medicine, 1985.
Levchenko I.Yu. Pathopsychology: Theory and practice: textbook. — M.: Academy, 2000.
Problems of diagnostics, therapy and instrumental research in child psychiatry / Scientific materials of the All-Russian conference. -Volgograd, 2007.
Eidemiller E.G. Child psychiatry. St. Petersburg: Peter, 2005.

APPENDIX

Scheme of pathopsychological examination of a child according to

Contact (speech, gesture, mimic):

- does not make contact

- shows speech negativism;

- formal contact (purely external);

- does not come into contact immediately, with great difficulty;

- does not show interest in contact;

- selective contact;

- easily and quickly establishes contact, shows interest in it, willingly obeys.

Emotional-volitional sphere:

active / passive;

active / inert;

cheerful / lethargic;

motor disinhibition;

aggressiveness;

spoiled;

mood swings;

conflict;

Hearing condition(normal, hearing loss, deafness).

Vision condition(normal, myopia, hyperopia, strabismus, optic nerve atrophy, low vision, blindness).

Motor skills:

1) leading hand (right, left);

2) development of the manipulative function of the hands:

- there is no grasping;

- sharply limited (cannot manipulate, but there is grasping);

- limited;

- insufficient, fine motor skills;

- safe;

3) coordination of the actions of the hands:

- missing;

- norm (N);

4) tremor. Hyperkinesis. Impaired coordination of movements

Attention (concentration duration, persistence, switching):

- the child concentrates poorly, with difficulty keeping attention on the object (low concentration and instability of attention);

- attention is not stable enough, superficial;

- quickly depleted, requires switching to another type of activity;

- poor switching of attention;

- attention is quite stable. The duration of concentration and switching of attention is satisfactory.

Reaction to approval:

- adequate (rejoices at approval, waits for it);

- inadequate (does not respond to approval, is indifferent to it). Reaction to remark:

- adequate (corrects behavior in accordance with the remark);

Adequate (offended);

- no response to the remark;

- negative reaction (does it out of spite).

Dealing with failure:

evaluates failure (notices the incorrectness of his actions, corrects mistakes);

- there is no assessment of failure;

- a negative emotional reaction to failure or one's own mistake.

Health:

- extremely low;

- reduced;

- sufficient.

Nature of activity:

- lack of motivation to work;

- works formally;

- activity is unstable;

- the activity is stable, works with interest.

Learnability, use of assistance (during examination):

- Lack of learning. Help does not use;

- there is no transfer of the shown method of action to similar tasks;

- learning is low. Help is underused. The transfer of knowledge is difficult;

- the child is taught. Uses the help of an adult (transitions from a lower way of completing tasks to a higher one). Carries out the transfer of the received method of action to a similar task (N).

Activity development level:

1) showing interest in toys, selectivity of interest:

- Persistence of play interest (whether he is engaged in one toy for a long time or passes from one to another): does not show interest in toys (does not work with toys in any way. Does not join a joint game with adults. Does not organize independent play);

- shows a superficial, not very persistent interest in toys;

- shows persistent selective interest in toys;

- performs inadequate actions with objects (ridiculous, not dictated by the logic of the game or the quality of the subject of the action);

- uses toys adequately (uses the object in accordance with its purpose);

3) the nature of actions with objects-toys:

- non-specific manipulations (it acts the same with all objects, stereotypically - taps, pulls in the mouth, sucks, throws);

- specific manipulations - takes into account only the physical properties of objects;

- objective actions - uses objects in accordance with their functional purpose;

- procedural actions;

- a chain of game actions;

- game with plot elements;

- role-playing game.

Stock of general representations:

- low, limited;

- somewhat reduced;

- corresponds to age (N).

Knowledge of parts of the body and face (visual orientation).

visual perception:

color perception:

- there is no idea of color;

- compares colors;

- distinguishes colors (selects by word);

- recognizes and names the primary colors (N - at 3 years old);

size perception:

- there is no idea of the size;

- compares objects by size; - differentiates objects by size (selection by word);

- names the size (N - at 3 years old);

shape perception:

- no idea of the form;

- correlates objects in shape;

- distinguishes geometric shapes (selects by word); names (planar and volumetric) geometric shapes (N - at 3 years old).

Folding nesting dolls (three-piece– from 3 to 4 years; four-part– 4 to 5 years; six-part– from 5 years):

- ways to complete the task:

- action by force;

- selection of options;

- targeted samples (N - up to 5 years);

- trying on;

Inclusion in a row (six-piece matryoshka– from 5 years):

- actions are inadequate / adequate;

- ways to complete the task:

- without taking into account the size;

- targeted samples (N - up to 6 years);

- visual correlation (mandatory from 6 years old).

Folding the pyramid (up to 4 years old - 4 rings; from 4 years old - 5-6 rings):

- actions are inadequate / adequate;

- without taking into account the size of the rings;

- taking into account the size of the rings:

- trying on;

- visual correlation (N - mandatory from 6 years old).

Insert Cubes(samples, enumeration of options, trying on, visual correlation).

Mailbox (from 3 years old):

- action by force (permissible in N up to 3.5 years);

- selection of options;

- trying on;

- visual correlation (N from 6 years is mandatory).

Paired pictures (from 2 years old; choice according to the model from two, four, six pictures).

Construction:

1) construction from building material (by imitation, by model, by representation);

2) folding figures from sticks (by imitation, by model, by representation).

Perception of spatial relationships:

1) orientation in the sides of one's own body and mirror image;

2) differentiation of spatial concepts (higher - lower, further - closer, right - left, front - behind, in the center);

3) a holistic image of the object (folding cut pictures from 2-3-4-5-6 parts; cut vertically, horizontally, diagonally, broken line);

4) understanding and use of logical and grammatical constructions (N from 6 years old).

Time representations:

- parts of the day (N from 3 years);

- seasons (N from 4 years old);

- days of the week (N from 5 years old);

— understanding and use of logical and grammatical constructions (N from 6 years old).

Quantitative representations:

— ordinal counting (orally and counting items);

- determination of the number of items;

- selection of the required quantity from the set;

- correlation of objects by quantity;

- the concepts of "a lot" - "little", "more" - "less", "equally";

- counting operations.

Memory:

1) mechanical memory (within N, reduced);

2) mediated (verbal-logical) memory (N, decreased). Thinking:

- level of development of thinking:

- visual and effective;

- visual-figurative;

- elements of abstract-logical thinking.

Diagnosis of the presence of fears in children.

To diagnose the presence of fears, a conversation is held with the child with a discussion of the following questions: Tell me, please, are you afraid or not afraid:

When are you alone?
Get sick?
Die?
Some children?
Any of the educators?
That they will punish you?
Babu Yaga, Kashchei the Immortal, Barmaley, Serpent Gorynych?
Terrible dreams?
Darkness?
Wolf, bear, dogs, spiders, snakes?
Cars, trains, planes?
Storms, thunderstorms, hurricanes, floods?
When is it very high?
In a small cramped room, a closet?
Water?
Fire, fire?
Wars?
Doctors (except dentists)?
Blood?
injections?
Pain?
Unexpected sharp sounds (when something suddenly falls, knocks)?

Processing of the technique "Diagnosis of the presence of fears in children"

Based on the answers to the above questions, a conclusion is made about the presence of fears in children. The presence of a large number of various fears in a child is an important indicator of a preneurotic state. Such children should be referred to the “risk” group and special (correctional) work should be carried out with them (it is advisable to consult them with a psychotherapist or psychiatrist).

Fears in children can be divided into several groups: medical(pain, injections, doctors, diseases); associated with physical harm(unexpected sounds, transport, fire, fire, elements, war); of death(his); animals and fairytale characters; nightmares and darkness; socially mediated(people, children, punishment, being late, loneliness); "spatial fears"(heights, water, confined spaces). In order to make an unmistakable conclusion about the emotional characteristics of the child, it is necessary to take into account the characteristics of the entire life of the child as a whole.

In some cases, it is advisable to use a test that allows you to diagnose the anxiety of a child aged four to seven years in relation to a number of typical life situations of communication with other people. The authors of the test consider anxiety as a kind of emotional state, the purpose of which is to ensure the safety of the subject at the personal level. An increased level of anxiety may indicate a lack of emotional adaptation of the child to certain social situations.

Mental disorders in children or mental dysontogenesis is a deviation from normal behavior, accompanied by a group of disorders that are pathological conditions. They arise due to genetic, sociopathic, physiological reasons, sometimes injuries or diseases of the brain contribute to their formation. Violations that occur at an early age cause mental disorders and require treatment by a psychiatrist.

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Causes of disorders

The formation of the child's psyche is associated with the biological characteristics of the organism, heredity and constitution, the rate of formation of the brain and parts of the central nervous system, acquired skills. The root of the development of mental disorders in children should always be sought in the biological, sociopathic or psychological factors that provoke the occurrence of disorders, often the process is triggered by a combination of agents. The main reasons include:

genetic predisposition. Assumes initially incorrect functioning of the nervous system due to the innate characteristics of the body. When close relatives had mental disorders, there is a possibility of passing them on to the child.
Deprivation (inability to meet needs) in early childhood. The connection between mother and baby begins from the first minutes of birth, it sometimes has a major impact on a person’s attachments, the depth of emotional feelings in the future. Any type of deprivation (tactile or emotional, psychological) partially or completely affects the mental development of a person, leads to mental dysontogenesis.
Limitation of mental abilities also refers to a kind of mental disorder and affects physiological development, sometimes causing other disorders.
Brain injury occurs as a result of difficult childbirth or head bruises, encephalopathy is caused by infections during fetal development or after past illnesses. According to the prevalence, this reason occupies a leading place along with the hereditary factor.
The bad habits of the mother, the toxicological effects of smoking, alcohol, and drugs have a negative effect on the fetus even during the period of bearing a child. If the father suffers from these ailments, the consequences of intemperance often affect the health of the child, affecting the central nervous system and the brain, which negatively affects the psyche.

Family conflicts or an unfavorable situation in the house are a significant factor that traumatizes the emerging psyche, aggravating the condition.

Mental disorders in childhood, especially under one year, are united by a common feature: the progressive dynamics of mental functions is combined with the development of dysontogenesis associated with impaired morphofunctional brain systems. The condition occurs due to cerebral disorders, congenital features or social influences.

Association of disorders and age

In children, psychophysical development occurs gradually, is divided into stages:

early - up to three years;
preschool - up to six years of age;
junior school - up to 10 years;
school-puberty - up to 17 years.

Critical periods are considered to be time periods during the transition to the next stage, which are characterized by a rapid change in all body functions, including an increase in mental reactivity. At this time, children are most susceptible to nervous disorders or worsening of the pathologies of the psyche present. Age crises occur at 3-4 years, 5-7 years, 12-16 years. What are the features of each stage:

Up to a year, babies develop positive and negative sensations, and initial ideas about the world around them are formed. In the first months of life, disorders are associated with the needs that the child must receive: food, sleep, comfort and the absence of pain. The crisis of 7-8 months is marked by awareness of the differentiation of feelings, recognition of loved ones and the formation of attachment, so the child needs the attention of the mother and family members. The better parents provide satisfaction of needs, the faster a positive stereotype of behavior is formed. Dissatisfaction causes a negative reaction, the more unfulfilled desires accumulate, the more severe the deprivation, which subsequently leads to aggression.
In children of 2 years old, active maturation of brain cells continues, motivation of behavior appears, orientation to the assessment by adults, positive behavior is identified. With constant control and prohibitions, the impossibility of self-affirmation leads to a passive attitude, the development of infantilism. With additional stress, behavior takes on a pathological character.
Stubbornness and nervous breakdowns, protests are observed at the age of 4, mental disorders can manifest themselves in mood swings, tension, internal discomfort. Restrictions cause frustration, the mental balance of the child is disturbed due to even a slight negative influence.
At the age of 5, violations can manifest themselves in advance of mental development, accompanied by dyssynchrony, that is, a one-sided orientation of interests appears. Also, attention should be paid if the child has lost the skills acquired earlier, has become untidy, limits communication, his vocabulary has decreased, the baby does not play role-playing games.
In seven-year-olds, schooling is the cause of neurosis; with the beginning of the school year, violations manifest themselves in instability of mood, tearfulness, fatigue, and headaches. The reactions are based on psychosomatic asthenia (poor sleep and appetite, decreased performance, fears), fatigue. The disruption factor is the discrepancy between the mental capabilities of the school curriculum.
In school and adolescence, mental disorders are manifested in anxiety, increased anxiety, melancholy, mood swings. Negativism is combined with conflict, aggression, internal contradictions. Children react painfully to the assessment of their abilities and appearance by those around them. Sometimes there is increased self-confidence or, conversely, criticality, posturing, disregard for the opinion of the teacher and parents.

Psychiatric disorders must be distinguished from anomalies of post-schizophrenic defect and dementia due to organic brain disease. In this case, dysontogenesis acts as a symptom of pathology.

Types of pathologies

Children are diagnosed with mental disorders characteristic of adults, but babies also have specific age-related ailments. Symptoms of dysontogenesis are diverse, due to age, stage of development and the environment.

The peculiarity of the manifestations is that in children it is not always easy to distinguish the pathology from the characteristics of character and development. There are several types of mental disorders in children.

Mental retardation

Pathology refers to acquired or congenital underdevelopment of the psyche with a clear lack of intelligence, when the social adaptation of the child is difficult or completely impossible. In sick children, the following are reduced, sometimes significantly:

cognitive abilities and memory;
perception and attention;
speech skills;
control over instinctive needs.

Vocabulary is poor, pronunciation is fuzzy, emotionally and morally the child is poorly developed, unable to predict the consequences of his actions. In a mild degree, it is detected in children with admission to school, the middle and severe stages are diagnosed in the first years of life.

The disease cannot be completely cured, but proper upbringing and training will allow the child to learn communication and self-service skills; with a mild stage of the disease, people are able to adapt in society. In severe cases, care for a person will be required throughout life.

Impaired mental function

The borderline state between oligophrenia and the norm, violations are manifested by a delay in the cognitive, motor or emotional, speech sphere. Mental delay sometimes occurs due to the slow development of brain structures. It happens that the state disappears without a trace or remains as an underdevelopment of one function, while it is compensated by other, sometimes accelerated abilities.

There are also residual syndromes - hyperactivity, decreased attention, loss of previously acquired skills. The type of pathology can become the basis for pathocharacterological manifestations of personality in adulthood.

ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder)

A common problem in children of preschool age and up to 12 years old, characterized by neuro-reflex excitability. Shows that the child:

active, unable to sit still, do one thing for a long time;
constantly distracted;
impulsive;
unrestrained and talkative;
does not finish what he started.

Neuropathy does not lead to a decrease in intelligence, but if the condition is not corrected, it often becomes the cause of difficulties with study and adaptation in the social sphere. In the future, the consequence of attention deficit disorder may be incontinence, the formation of drug or alcohol addiction, family problems.

Autism

A congenital mental disorder is accompanied not only by speech and motor disorders, autism is characterized by a violation of contact and social interaction with people. Stereotypical behavior makes it difficult to change the environment, living conditions, changes cause fear and panic. Children are prone to making monotonous movements and actions, repeating sounds and words.

The disease is difficult to treat, but the efforts of doctors and parents can correct the situation and reduce the manifestations of psychopathological symptoms.

Acceleration

Pathology is characterized by accelerated development of the child in physical or intellectual terms. The reasons include urbanization, improved nutrition, interethnic marriages. Acceleration can manifest itself as harmonic development, when all systems develop evenly, but these cases are rare. With the progress of the physical and mental direction, somatovegetative deviations are noted at an early age, endocrine problems are detected in older children.

The mental sphere is also characterized by discord, for example, during the formation of early speech skills, motor skills or social cognition lag behind, and physical maturity is also combined with infantilism. With age, disagreements smooth out, so violations usually do not lead to consequences.

Infantilism

With infantilism, the emotional-volitional sphere lags behind in development. Symptoms are detected at the stage of school and adolescence, when already a big child behaves like a preschooler: he prefers to play rather than gain knowledge. Does not accept school discipline and requirements, while the level of abstract-logical thinking is not violated. In an unfavorable social environment, simple infantilism tends to progress.

The reasons for the formation of the disorder often become constant control and restriction, unjustified guardianship, the projection of negative emotions onto the child and incontinence, which prompts him to close and adapt.

What to pay attention to?

Manifestations of mental disorders in childhood are diverse, sometimes it is difficult to confuse them with a lack of education. Symptoms of these disorders can sometimes appear in healthy children, so only a specialist can diagnose the pathology. You should consult a doctor if the signs of mental disorders are pronounced, expressed in the following behavior:

Increased cruelty. A child at a younger age does not yet understand that dragging a cat by the tail hurts the animal. The student is aware of the level of discomfort of the animal, if he likes it, you should pay attention to his behavior.
Desire to lose weight. The desire to be beautiful arises in every girl in adolescence, when, with a normal weight, a schoolgirl considers herself fat and refuses to eat, the reason to go to a psychiatrist is “obvious”.
If a child has a high degree of anxiety, panic attacks often occur, the situation cannot be left unattended.
Bad mood and blues are sometimes characteristic of people, but the course of depression for more than 2 weeks in a teenager requires increased attention from parents.
Mood swings indicate the instability of the psyche, the inability to adequately respond to stimuli. If a change in behavior occurs without a reason, this indicates problems that need to be addressed.

When a child is mobile and sometimes inattentive, there is nothing to worry about. But if because of this it is difficult for him to play even outdoor games with peers, because he is distracted, the condition requires correction.

Treatment Methods

Timely detection of behavioral disorders in children and the creation of a favorable psychological atmosphere makes it possible to correct mental disorders in most cases. Some situations require monitoring and medication throughout life. Sometimes it is possible to cope with the problem in a short time, sometimes it takes years to recover, the support of adults surrounding the child. Therapy depends on the diagnosis, age, causes of formation and type of manifestations of disorders, in each case the method of treatment is selected individually, even when the symptoms vary slightly. Therefore, when visiting a psychotherapist and psychologist, it is important to explain to the doctor the essence of the problem, to provide a complete description of the characteristics of the child's behavior, based on a comparative description before and after the changes.

In the treatment of children are used:

In simple cases, psychotherapeutic methods are sufficient, when the doctor, in conversations with the child and parents, helps to find the cause of the problem, ways to solve it, and teaches how to control behavior.
A complex of psychotherapeutic measures and taking medications indicates a more serious development of the pathology. In depressive states, aggressive behavior, mood swings, sedatives, antidepressants, antipsychotics are prescribed. Nootropics, psychoneuroregulators are used to treat developmental delays.
In case of severe disorders, inpatient treatment is recommended, where the child receives a course of necessary therapy under the supervision of a doctor.

During the period of treatment and after it, it is necessary to create a favorable environment in the family, eliminate stress and the negative impact of the environment that affects behavioral reactions.

If parents have doubts about the adequacy of the child's behavior, it is necessary to contact a psychiatrist, a specialist will conduct an examination and prescribe treatment. It is important to identify pathology at an early stage in order to correct behavior in time, prevent the progression of the disorder and eliminate the problem.

Reading time: 3 min

Mental disorders in children arise due to special factors that provoke violations in the development of the child's psyche. The mental health of children is so vulnerable that the clinical manifestations and their reversibility depend on the age of the baby and the duration of exposure to special factors.

The decision to consult a child with a psychotherapist, as a rule, is not easy for parents. In the understanding of parents, this means the recognition of suspicions that the child has neuropsychiatric disorders. Many adults are afraid of registering a baby, as well as the limited forms of education associated with this, and in the future a limited choice of profession. For this reason, parents often try not to notice the peculiarities of behavior, development, oddities, which are usually manifestations of mental disorders in children.

If parents are inclined to believe that the child should be treated, then at first, as a rule, attempts are made to treat neuropsychiatric disorders with home remedies or advice from familiar healers. After unsuccessful independent attempts to improve the condition of the offspring, the parents decide to seek qualified help. Turning to a psychiatrist or psychotherapist for the first time, parents often try to do this anonymously, unofficially.

Responsible adults should not hide from problems and when recognizing early signs of neuropsychiatric disorders in children, consult a doctor in a timely manner and then follow his recommendations. Every parent should have the necessary knowledge in the field of neurotic disorders in order to prevent deviations in the development of their child and, if necessary, seek help at the first sign of a disorder, since the issues that relate to the mental health of babies are too serious. It is unacceptable to experiment in treatment on your own, so you should contact specialists in time for advice.

Often, parents attribute mental disorders in children to age, implying that the child is still small and does not understand what is happening to him. Often this condition is perceived as a common manifestation of whims, however, modern experts argue that mental disorders are very noticeable with the naked eye. Often these deviations are reflected negatively on the social opportunities of the baby and his development. With timely seeking help, some disorders can be completely cured. If suspicious symptoms are detected in a child in the early stages, serious consequences can be prevented.

Mental disorders in children are divided into 4 classes:

developmental delays;
early childhood;
attention deficit disorder.

Causes of mental disorders in children

The appearance of mental disorders can be caused by various reasons. Doctors say that all sorts of factors can influence their development: psychological, biological, socio-psychological.

The provoking factors are: genetic predisposition to mental illness, incompatibility in the type of temperament of the parent and child, limited intelligence, brain damage, family problems, conflicts, traumatic events. Last but not least is family education.

Mental disorders in children of primary school age often arise due to the divorce of parents. Often there is an increased chance of mental disorders in children from single-parent families, or if one of the parents has a history of any mental illness. To determine what kind of help you need to give your baby, you should accurately determine the cause of the problem.

Symptoms of mental disorders in children

These disorders in a baby are diagnosed by the following symptoms:

tics, obsession syndrome;
ignoring the established rules, ;
for no apparent reason, often changing mood;
decreased interest in active games;
slow and unusual body movements;
deviations associated with impaired thinking;

The periods of greatest susceptibility to mental and nervous disorders occur during age-related crises, which cover the following age periods: 3-4 years, 5-7 years, 12-18 years. From this it is clear that adolescence and childhood are the right time for the development of psychogenies.

Mental disorders in children under one year old are due to the existence of a limited range of negative and positive needs (signals) that babies must satisfy: pain, hunger, sleep, the need to cope with natural needs.

All these needs are of vital importance and cannot be satisfied, therefore, the more pedantically parents follow the regimen, the faster a positive stereotype is developed. Failure to satisfy one of the needs can lead to a psychogenic cause, and the more violations are noted, the more severe the deprivation. In other words, the reaction of a baby up to a year old is due to the motives for satisfying instincts and, of course, in the very first place - this is the instinct of self-preservation.

Mental disorders in children 2 years of age are noted if the mother maintains an excessive connection with the child, thereby contributing to infantilization and inhibition of its development. Such attempts by the parent, creating obstacles to the self-affirmation of the baby, can lead to frustration, as well as elementary psychogenic reactions. While maintaining a sense of overdependence on the mother, the passivity of the child develops. Such behavior with additional stress can take on a pathological character, which often happens in children who are insecure and shy.

Mental disorders in children of 3 years old reveal themselves in capriciousness, disobedience, vulnerability, increased fatigue, irritability. It is necessary to carefully suppress the growing activity of a baby at the age of 3, since in this way it is possible to contribute to a lack of communication and a deficit of emotional contact. A lack of emotional contact can lead to (isolation), speech disorders (delayed development of speech, refusal to communicate or speech contact).

Mental disorders in children of 4 years old are manifested in stubbornness, in protest against the authority of adults, in psychogenic breakdowns. There are also internal tensions, discomfort, sensitivity to deprivation (restriction), which causes.

The first neurotic manifestations in 4-year-old children are found in behavioral reactions of refusal and protest. Minor negative impacts are enough to disturb the mental balance of the baby. The baby is able to respond to pathological situations, negative events.

Mental disorders in children of 5 years old reveal themselves in advance of the mental development of their peers, especially if the interests of the baby become one-sided. The reason for seeking help from a psychiatrist should be the loss of previously acquired skills by the baby, for example: aimlessly rolls cars, vocabulary becomes poorer, becomes untidy, stops role-playing games, communicates little.

Mental disorders in children 7 years of age are associated with the preparation and admission to school. Instability of mental balance, fragility of the nervous system, readiness for psychogenic disorders may be present in children aged 7 years. The basis for these manifestations is a tendency to psychosomatic asthenization (disturbances in appetite, sleep, fatigue, dizziness, reduced performance, a tendency to fear) and overwork.

Classes at school then become the cause of neurosis when the requirements for the child do not correspond to his abilities and he lags behind in school subjects.

Mental disorders in children aged 12-18 are manifested in the following features:

Tendency to sharp mood swings, anxiety, melancholy, anxiety, negativism, impulsiveness, conflict, aggressiveness, inconsistency of feelings;

Sensitivity to others' assessment of their strength, appearance, skills, abilities, excessive self-confidence, excessive criticality, disregard for the judgments of adults;

Combination of sensitivity with callousness, irritability with painful shyness, desire for recognition with independence;

Rejection of generally accepted rules and the deification of random idols, as well as sensual fantasy with dry sophistication;

Schizoid and cycloid;

The desire for philosophical generalizations, a tendency to extreme positions, the internal inconsistency of the psyche, the egocentrism of youthful thinking, the uncertainty of the level of claims, the inclination to theorizing, maximalism in assessments, the variety of experiences associated with awakening sexual desire;

Intolerance to guardianship, unmotivated mood swings.

Often the protest of adolescents grows into ridiculous opposition and senseless stubbornness to any reasonable advice. Self-confidence and arrogance develop.

Signs of a mental disorder in children

The likelihood of developing mental disorders in children at different ages varies. Given that the mental development of children is uneven, then at certain periods it becomes disharmonic: some functions are formed faster than others.

Signs of a mental disorder in children can manifest themselves in the following manifestations:

Feeling of isolation and deep sadness, lasting more than 2-3 weeks;

Attempts to kill or harm yourself;

All-consuming fear for no reason, accompanied by rapid breathing and a strong heartbeat;

Participation in numerous fights, the use of weapons with the desire to harm someone;

Uncontrolled, violent behavior that harms both oneself and others;

Refusing to eat, using laxatives, or throwing away food in order to lose weight;

Severe anxiety that interferes with normal activities;

Difficulty concentrating, as well as the inability to sit still, which is a physical danger;

Alcohol or drug use;

Severe mood swings leading to relationship problems

Changes in behavior.

Based on these signs alone, it is difficult to establish an accurate diagnosis, so parents should, having found the above manifestations, contact a psychotherapist. These signs do not necessarily have to appear in babies with mental disabilities.

Treatment of mental problems in children

For help in choosing a method of treatment, you should contact a child psychiatrist or psychotherapist. Most disorders require long-term treatment. For the treatment of small patients, the same drugs are used as for adults, but in smaller doses.

How to treat mental disorders in children? Effective in the treatment of antipsychotics, anti-anxiety drugs, antidepressants, various stimulants and mood stabilizers. Of great importance is: parental attention and love. Parents should not ignore the first signs of disorders developing in a child.

With the manifestations of incomprehensible symptoms in the behavior of the child, you can get advice on exciting issues from child psychologists.

Doctor of the Medical and Psychological Center "PsychoMed"

The information provided in this article is for informational purposes only and cannot replace professional advice and qualified medical assistance. At the slightest suspicion of a mental disorder in a child, be sure to consult a doctor!

Mental disorders can complicate a person's life even more than obvious physical disabilities. The situation is especially critical when a small child suffers from an invisible illness, who has his whole life ahead of him, and right now there should be rapid development. For this reason, parents should be aware of the topic, closely monitor their children and respond promptly to any suspicious phenomena.

Causes

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

genetic predisposition

This is the only completely unavoidable factor. In this case, the disease is caused initially by improper functioning of the nervous system, and gene disorders, as you know, are not treated - doctors can only muffle the symptoms.

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

Limited mental capacity

Brain damage

Another extremely common cause, which (like gene disorders) interferes with the normal functioning of the brain, but not at the gene level, but at the level visible in an ordinary microscope.

First of all, this includes head injuries received in the first years of life, but some children are not so lucky that they manage to get injured even before birth - or as a result of difficult births.

Violations can also provoke 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 health of the child.

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

A pregnant woman is strictly forbidden to drink and smoke.

Constant conflicts

When they say that a person is able to go 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 does not yet have either 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 is there most of the time, from there he has nowhere to go. However, in some cases, an unfavorable environment in the circle of peers can also play an important role - in the yard, in kindergarten or school.

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

Types of diseases

Children can get sick with almost all mental illnesses that adults are also susceptible to, but kids have their own (especially children's) diseases. At the same time, the exact diagnosis of a particular disease in childhood is much more complicated. The peculiarities of the development of babies, whose behavior is already very different from that of adults, are affected.

Not in all cases, parents can easily recognize the first signs of problems.

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

We will give 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 on a mental, intellectual level, it lags far behind its 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 a primary school student. It is much more difficult for such a child to learn, this can be caused by both a bad memory and the inability to focus on a particular subject at will.

The slightest extraneous factor can distract the baby from learning.

attention deficit disorder

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

A child with such a syndrome in mental development does not lag behind at all, and hyperactivity typical of him 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 activity that the child would love and bring to the end.

It is quite obvious that it is extremely problematic to force such a child to study diligently.

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. Many consider autism a form of retardation, but in some forms, the learning potential of such children is not very different from their peers.

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

Gaining new experience also turns out to be a serious problem, since children with autism perceive any sudden changes extremely negatively.

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

"Adult" mental disorders

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

Childhood schizophrenia affects only one child among fifty thousand, but frightens with the scale of regression in mental and physical development. Because of the pronounced symptoms, Tourette's syndrome has also become known, when the patient regularly uses obscene language (uncontrollably).

What should parents pay attention to?

Psychologists with extensive experience say 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 systematization of mental illness in childhood is complicated by the similarity of symptoms in fundamentally different disorders, it is not worth considering disturbing oddities in relation to individual diseases. It is better to present them in the form of a general list of alarming "calls".

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

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

Increased level of cruelty

Here one should distinguish between childish cruelty caused by a lack of understanding of the degree of discomfort caused, and getting 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 old pulls a cat by the tail, then he will learn the world in this way, but if at school age he checks her reaction to trying to tear off her paw, then this is clearly not normal.

Cruelty usually expresses an unhealthy atmosphere at home or in the company of friends, but it can either pass by itself (under the influence of external factors) or give irreparable consequences.

Fundamental refusal of food and hypertrophied desire to lose weight

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

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

panic attacks

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

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

Severe depression and suicidal tendencies

Sadness is common to people of all ages. If it drags on for a long time (for example, a couple of weeks), the question arises as to the reason.

Children have virtually no reason to be depressed for such a long period, so it can be considered as a separate illness.

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

By itself, depression is dangerous prone to self-destruction. Many people think about suicide at least once in their lives, but if this topic takes on the shape of a hobby, there is a risk of attempting to injure oneself.

Sudden mood swings or changes in habitual behavior

The first factor indicates the looseness of the psyche, its inability to resist in response to certain stimuli.

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

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

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 kind of occupation to which he is ready to devote a long time. Hyperactivity with signs of a disorder is when a baby cannot even play active games for a long 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 by threats, but he is faced with reduced opportunities for learning.

Negative phenomena of a social nature

Excessive conflict (up to regular assault) and a tendency to bad habits in themselves can simply signal the presence of a difficult psychological environment 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 oneself, 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 their passion, 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 - up to a full 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 the people around the child.

The choice of 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 the essence of the problem and the symptoms noticed to the doctor as accurately as possible. In this case, the main emphasis should be placed on the comparison “it was and became”, explain why it seems to you that something went wrong.

Most of the relatively simple diseases are treated by ordinary psychotherapy - and only by it. Most often, it takes the form of personal conversations of 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 hypertrophy of the cause in his mind, and if the cause is really serious, try to distract the patient from the problem, give him a new stimulus.

At the same time, therapy can take many forms - for example, autistic people who are closed in themselves and schizophrenics are unlikely to support the conversation. They may not make contact with a person at all, but they usually do not refuse close communication with animals, which in the end can increase their sociability, and this is already a sign of improvement.

The use of medicines always accompanied by the same psychotherapy, but already indicates a more complex pathology - or its greater development. Children with impaired communication skills or delayed development are given stimulants to increase their activity, including cognitive activity.

With severe depression, aggression or panic attacks are prescribed antidepressants and sedatives. If the child shows signs of painful mood swings and seizures (up to a tantrum), stabilizing and antipsychotic drugs 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 - a small patient will have to go to the hospital repeatedly. If positive changes are noticeable, such courses will become rarer and shorter over time.

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

It is absolutely unacceptable to tease or reproach the child with his disorder, and in general you should not mention it - let the baby feel normal.

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

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

You can learn more about this topic by watching the video below.