Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is a condition which is linked to drinking alcohol in pregnancy which affects the way a baby’s brain develops.
Children with FAS have problems with neurological development, abnormal growth, and have characteristic facial features that result from their foetal exposure to alcohol.
Neurological problems are caused by damage to the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord). The problems experienced are likely to change as an infant grows up and different problems may be seen at different stages of development, from childhood, adolescence, and into adulthood.
Anger is a normal and healthy emotion, however some children and young people find it harder than others to regulate their big feelings of anger, which can lead to…
Anxiety is a blanket term that can cover a whole range of challenges children and young people struggle with. Anxiety goes beyond ordinary worries and fears though it can be difficult to determine when these cross over into anxiety requiring more support.
Body dysmorphia is where the sufferer is preoccupied with perceived imperfections and flaws in their appearance, which causes significant distress and limits quality of life. It is often perceived that people with BDD are vain for obsessive over their body, when, they often see themselves as deformed, ugly and unworthy.
There are a range of issues and conditions that can affect children and young people at different stages in their development and parents, carers and professionals can understandably feel at a loss to know what to do and how to help.
Some issues might be neurodevelopmental and so the child may be neurodiverse. Some might develop in connection with, or as a result of difficult and painful life experiences, or there may be no discernible cause. Some may be a complex mix of the neurodevelopmental factors and the impact of this on the child’s mental health and emotional wellbeing, in a neurotypical world. Sometimes it is difficult to ascertain where something becomes a concern.
It is worth talking with the child or young person, as much as is age and stage appropriate to understand from their perspective, what is going on. They might not know or want to say. Being open and available to listen is extremely important, even if you do not agree or see things differently. Young Minds have produced a useful parent guide about how to begin this conversation. Talking About Mental Health With Your Child | YoungMinds
Depersonalisation is where people feel separate from their body and feel they are observing themselves, thoughts and actions. This may occur with derealisation and be short lived or more chronic.
Children and young people can and do suffer from depression, which affects mood. They may feel sad and low, but sometimes depression and sadness can be masked by anger or another emotion.
Where the world around the person feels unreal and people in it seem unreal or lifeless. This may occur with depersonalisation or separately and may last for a short time or be more chronic.
Dyspraxia is a neurological condition that affects the coordination of fine and gross motor skills. It may also cause challenges in spatial awareness, memory, organising themselves, perception and judgement.
Involves not being able to remember specific information, times or significant events where there is no neurological reason for not being able to do so. It may also involve losing chunks of time with no recollection as to what the person might have been up to in that time.
Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly known as multiple personality disorder) involves the person having two or more separate identities that can take control of the ‘host’ body. They may or may not know about each other.
Dissociative issues exist on a spectrum, but all involve the person dissociating from their thoughts, feelings, sensations and/ or lived experiences as a means of survival and to regulate states of extreme overwhelm and distress.
Dysgraphia is a neurodevelopmental learning difficult that may result in children finding it difficult to form letters, stay ‘in the lines,’ organising and expressing themselves on paper, or struggling with illegible handwriting.
Dyslexia is the neurodevelopmental language-based learning difficulty that causes challenges with comprehension, word recognition and decoding and spelling.
Some children and young people experience significant anxiety and distress around ecological issues. As they become increasingly aware of the impact of humans on the planet and the lack of action by world leaders, increasingly young people are experiencing intense distress and despair over human inertia to act and the potential consequences for their future.
Emotionally Based School Avoidance is when a child or young person experiences extreme anxiety around school to the point where they cannot engage with it as their levels of distress are so high. There may be factors of social, performance, panic and general anxiety present.
Encopresis is repeated pooing in inappropriate places beyond the age (4) children are deemed to be able to control this behaviour in a neurotypical child. This may be due to chronic constipation which results in leakage and is involuntary.
There are a range of different eating disorders that children and young people might develop. Sometimes a child’s symptoms do not fit neatly into one category and they might have a combination of issues that fall across multiple categories, but do not quite meet the diagnostic criteria one one.
General anxiety is recurrent worries about lots of things, that can be accompanied by a sense of restlessness and edginess. This anxiety can be ‘free floating’ and ‘attach,’ itself to different things.
The term ‘developmental delay’ or ‘global development delay’ is used when a child takes longer to reach certain development milestones than other children their age.
Children or young people experiencing health anxiety are continually anxious about their or other peoples health. Sometimes parents can experience health anxiety about their children’s health.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) have repetitive obsessive, distressing thoughts and feelings. This can lead to compulsions or rituals that develop as ways to try and manage the unbearable anxiety the child or young person feels.
A panic attack is a sudden overwhelm of intense feelings of anxiety and fear. There may be no obvious trigger and they can happen anywhere. They may be noticeable due to external symptoms such as…
PDA in the UK is understood as a profile on the autism spectrum, however many children may present as demand avoidant due to anxiety generated from other unmet needs.
Some children and young people experience a significant degree of performance anxiety around the pressure of testing or having to perform. This can come from external sources such as parents, teachers, coaches etc but may also be internalised from the child’s internal expectations of themselves. This may be exacerbated by societal and familial narratives around success, failure and fear of the consequences.
During a psychotic episode people can lose touch with reality. Their thoughts might be delusional, paranoid or incoherent, such as believing people are following or out to get them or believing they are somebody else, with special powers or knowledge.
Schizophrenia is a serious but treatable and manageable mental illness of which psychosis is a main symptom. Some people believe schizophrenia is having a split personality or are violent, which is not true.
Selective mutism is an anxiety-based issue that prevents a child from speaking in certain situations to certain people. They may speak normally at home, but be predominantly or completely mute at school.
Self-harm can be something a child or young person resorts to to cope with overwhelming feelings that they don’t feel they can express in any other way. It can also be a way of punishing themselves.
Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), is a neurodevelopmental challenge that results from the brain’s inability to integrate certain information received from the body’s sensory systems.
Many children experience separation anxiety at different stages of development. For some it may be short lived until the child adjusts (a phase) For others it may be more chronic and continue beyond the baby and toddler stage. This includes extreme anxiety around the idea of being separated from a parent/carer and can lead to school avoidance and extreme distress.
Children and young people affected by social anxiety find social situations, interactions with people and fears of being scrutinised or watched by other. This can create feelings of inadequacy, embarrassment, shame, self- consciousness, judgement.
Knowing who or where to turn to for mental health support for a child or young person can feel daunting. With so many different ‘types’ of therapist, it can be really confusing as to where to start and so we have created a Sunflower Guide that might help.
