Month: July 2021

Categories
Behaviour Problems

Childhood Depression

Unhappy girl portrait, Sad child sitting on sofa at home, Upset girl hugging knees alone, Concept of lonely girl and kid with trouble and violence

Depression is an episodic, recurring disorder characterized by persistent and pervasive sadness or unhappiness, loss of enjoyment of everyday activities, irritability, and associated symptoms such as negative thinking, lack of energy, difficulty concentrating, and appetite and sleep disturbances. Just as depression is seen to disturb the adult population, in the same manner, childhood depression is a common cause of suffering for children. Quite often it is the cause of poor academic and social outcome. Depression in children puts them at risk of suicide and substance abuse. Some typical symptoms of depression can be irritability (temper tantrums, noncompliance), somatic complaints, crying, sad mood, apprehensiveness and withdrawal. A child who used to play often with friends may now spend most of the time alone and without interests. Things that were once fun now bring little joy to the depressed child.  Children with depressive features often perform poorly in studies and have difficulty enjoying the company of friends. Early diagnosis and treatment are essential for depressed children.

Worried that your child might be having depression:

  1. Does your child often refuse to go to School?
  2. Does your child express feelings of sadness, guilt, emptiness and/or worthlessness?
  3. Is your child having difficulty in maintaining concentration and completing school work?
  4. Does your child complain of physical problems like stomach ache, headache or lack of energy?
  5. Does your child prefer to stay alone or is irritable most of the time?

Treatments, we provide that can help your child and you:

Psychometric Assessment

Play Therapy

Parental Counselling

Medicine (if required)

Child – based Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

Categories
Attention Deficit And Related Disorders

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)

Children with ADD have all the similar Difficulties like ADHD, except that they are not hyperactive. They have tendencies of showing Anger, impulsivity, excitability, forgetfulness & Low- concentration. This disorder is sometimes accompanied with Depression & Learning disability.

Worried that your child might have ADD:

  1. Does your Child have trouble copying from the board?
  2. Is your child always absent-minded and unable to focus?
  3. Does your child fidget with everything he comes across?
  4. Does your child catch in boredom maximum of his time?
  5. Is your Child unable to retain any poem he learnt 1 hour back?

Treatments, we provide that can help your child and you:

Cognitive behavioural therapy

Psychoeducation( Family)

Family therapy

Behaviour Therapy

Medication (if needed)

Remedial Education

Categories
Attention Deficit And Related Disorders

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Indian cute boy making tantrums while drinking milk with mother scolding

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is characterized by difficulties that interfere with effective task-oriented behavior in children—particularly impulsivity, excessive or exaggerated motor activity such as aimless or haphazard running or fidgeting, and difficulties in sustaining attention. They are highly distractible and often fail to follow instructions or respond to demands placed on them. Children with ADHD seem to have particular difficulty controlling their activity in situations that call for sitting still, such as in the classroom or at mealtimes. When told to be quiet, they appear unable to stop moving or talking. Their activities and movements seem haphazard. They may quickly wear out their shoes and clothing, smash their toys, and exhaust their families and teachers. They also tend to talk incessantly and to be socially intrusive and immature. Children with ADHD generally have many social problems because of their impulsivity and overactivity. Their behavior problems also result in their being viewed negatively by their peers. Many children with ADHD have inordinate difficulty getting along with peers and establishing friendships perhaps because their behavior is often aggressive and intrusive. In general, however, hyperactive children are not anxious, even though their overactivity, restlessness, and distractibility are frequently interpreted as indications of anxiety. They usually do poorly in school and often show specific learning disabilities such as difficulties in reading or in learning other basic school subjects.

Worried that your child might have ADD

  1. Does your child often make careless mistakes?
  2. Does your child rarely complete an activity before moving to the next activity?
  3. Does your child try to avoid activities that require sustained concentration and a lot of mental effort?
  4. Does your child frequently forget to do things, even when constantly reminded and/or frequently lose things like homework and personal belongings?
  5. Do even the smallest distractions often throw your child off task?
  6. Does your child act as if she/he is driven by a motor and/ or have a problem remaining seated even when she/he is supposed to?
  7. Does your child have difficulty in waiting patiently to take turns, and/or blurts out answers before questions are completed?

If you have said yes to most of the above, we might be able to help you.

Treatments, we provide that can help your child and you:

Attention Skills Training

Psychoeducation

Psychometric assessment

Family therapy

Behaviour Therapy

Medication (if needed)

Remedial Education

Categories
Specific Learning Disability

Dyslexia (Impairment in Reading)

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. It involves impairment in the ability to process sounds, that is, to make connections between written letters and their sounds; written work is often characterized by reversal errors. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede the growth of vocabulary and background knowledge. It is independent of intellectual ability, and is unrelated to disorders of speech and vision that may also be present. It is not the result of lack of motivation, sensory impairment, inadequate instructional or environmental opportunities, emotional disturbances, or other such factors.

Worried that your child might have Dyslexia:

  1. Does your child overlook similarities and differences between letters or words?
  2. Does your child have great difficulty in spelling correctly and/or consistently confuses b/d: p/b/d: i/j: n/u?
  3. Is your child a slow reader or makes unexpected errors when reading aloud?
  4. Does your child have difficulty hearing sounds in words, (e.g. th/f: b/p/d etc)?
  5. Does your child have difficulty in distinguishing between right and left?
  6. Does your child show signs of mirror writing, or does he/she constantly alter the order of letters and numbers?
  7. Does your child have difficulty copying from a book or the board?

Treatments, we provide that can help your child and you:

Psychoeducation

Psychometric Assessment

Remedial Education

Attention Training

Categories
Specific Learning Disability

Dyscalculia (Impairment in Arithmetic)

Boys with glasses write books and think in the classroom

Dyscalculia is a specific learning disability characterised by difficulty in acquiring arithmetical skills. Dyscalculic learners may have difficulty understanding simple number concepts, lack an intuitive grasp of numbers, and have problems learning number facts and procedures. It includes all types of mathematical problems ranging from an inability to understand the meaning of numbers, to an inability to apply mathematical principles to solve problems. In general, people with dyscalculia have poor ‘number sense’. In a similar way that a lack of phonemic awareness causes people with dyslexia to struggle with reading, a lack of number sense causes people with dyscalculia to struggle with maths concepts. It is independent of intellectual ability. Research shows that most dyscalculia learners have cognitive and language abilities in the normal range, and may excel in non-mathematical subjects.

Worried that your child might have Dyscalculia:

  1. Does your child have difficulty with abstract concepts of time and direction?
  2. Does your child exhibit poor mental math ability?
  3. When writing, reading, and recalling numbers, does your child make common mistakes like number additions, substitutions, transpositions, omissions, and/or reversals?
  4. Is your child unable to grasp and remember math concepts, rules, formulas, and sequence?
  5. Does your child have difficulty keeping scores during games, or remembering how to keep score in games and/or often loses track of whose turn it is during games?

Treatments, we provide that can help your child and you:

Psychoeducation

Psychometric Assessment

Remedial Education

Attention Training

Categories
Specific Learning Disability

Dysgraphia (Impairment in Writing)

Dysgraphia is a specific learning disability that affects written expression. Dysgraphia can appear as difficulties with spelling, poor handwriting and trouble putting thoughts on paper. Many children have poor handwriting, but dysgraphia is more serious. There are several different kinds of dysgraphia. Some have handwriting that is often illegible and shows irregular and inconsistent letter formations. Others write legibly, but very slowly and/or very small. When these individuals revert to printing, as they often do, their writing is often a random mixture of upper- and lowercase letters. In all cases of dysgraphia, writing requires inordinate amounts of energy, stamina, and time. Dysgraphia can interfere with a student’s ability to express ideas, resulting in low classroom productivity, incomplete homework assignments, and difficulty in focusing attention.

Worried that your child might have Dysgraphia:

  1. Does your child have illegible handwriting (despite appropriate time and attention given the task)?
  2. Is your child inconsistent in writing, showing mixtures of print and cursive, upper and lower case, irregular sizes, shapes, or slant?
  3. Does your child write unfinished words or letters, omit words?
  4. Is your child very slow in copying and writing?
  5. Does your child have difficulty in organising his thoughts on paper?
  6. Does your child exhibit strange wrist, body or paper position while writing?

Treatments, we provide that can help your child and you:

Psychoeducation

Psychometric Assessment

Remedial Education

Attention Training

Categories
Developmental Disabilities

Intellectual Disability

A boy is unhappy doing homework

Intellectual disability is a condition of limited mental ability in which the individual,

(1) has a low IQ, usually below 70 on a traditional intelligence test;

(2) has difficulty in adapting to the demands of everyday life; and

(3) first exhibits these characteristics by age 18

The most distinctive feature of intellectual disability (formerly called Mental Retardation) is inadequate intellectual functioning, identified by a lack of age-appropriate skills in learning and caring for themselves.IQ scores categorize intellectual disability as mild, moderate, severe, or profound. However, limitations in present functioning is generally considered within the context of the community environment of the child, typical of the individual’s age, peers, and culture. Also noted is the fact that with appropriate personalized supports over a sustained period, the life functioning of the person with intellectual disability generally will improve. Children with Low IQ face delay or difficulty in learning new skills, studying and engaging in proper behaviours. Typically, children with intellectual impairment fail in school examinations despite genuine efforts. In between trying to perform better in academics and the lack of intellectual ability to do so, they may suffer from helplessness and low self-esteem. Our therapists design a program based on the individual child’s needs, incorporating various behavioral techniques, to improve their level of functioning, where specific behavioral objectives are defined, and children are taught skills in small, sequential steps.

Worried that your child might have Intellectual disability:

  1. Does your child experience difficulty with intellectual activities (e.g. reasoning, problem solving, planning, abstract thinking, learning)?
  2. Does your child exhibit poor adaptive functioning, failure to meet developmental milestones related to independence and responsibility, and limited functioning in one or more daily life activities (e.g. communication, social participation) across multiple environments (e.g. school, home)?
  3. Does your child experience difficulty in developing, maintaining and understanding relationships (e.g. difficulties adjusting behaviour in different social settings, lack of interest in or understanding of peers and social play activities)?
  4. Do you feel that your child does not behave adequately as per his age?

If you have said yes to most of the above, we might be able to help you.

Treatments, we provide that can help your child and you:

IQ Assessment

Behaviour Therapy

Special Education

Skill Training

Categories
Developmental Disabilities

Developmental Delay

Children reach developmental milestones at their own pace. Minor, temporary delays are usually no cause for alarm, but an ongoing delay or multiple delays in reaching milestones can lead to issues later in life. A developmental delay can occur in just one area or in a few, as enlisted below. A global developmental delay is when kids have delays in at least two areas:

  1. Cognitive (or thinking) skills or the ability to think, learn and solve problems.
  2. Social and emotional skills or the ability to relate to other people.
  3. Speech and language skills or the ability to use and understand language.
  4. Fine and gross motor skills or the ability to use small muscles (fine motor), particularly in the hands, and large muscles (gross motor) in the body.
  5. Activities of daily living or the ability to handle everyday tasks.

Developmental delay may be caused by a variety of factors, including heredity, problems with pregnancy, and premature birth. The cause is not always known. Also, Developmental delay sometimes indicates an underlying condition that only doctors can diagnosis. Early detection and intervention are important to help your child develop skills.

 Worried that your child might be having a developmental delay?

  1. Does your child have delayed cognitive skills?
  2. Does your child have delayed language or speech?
  3. Does your child have delayed development of motor skills?
  4. Does your child have delayed social and emotional skills?
  5. Does your child have difficulty performing activities of daily living?

Treatments, we provide that can help your child and you:

Paediatric Physiotherapy

Speech Therapy

Multisensory Integration

Skill Training

Categories
Developmental Disabilities

Down’s Syndrome

Young pretty girl model standing and blowing an air kiss against white wall

Down syndrome is a genetic condition in which the child inherits all or part of an extra 21st chromosome. Children with Down syndrome have 47 chromosomes instead of the usual 46. It is the most frequently occurring chromosomal disorder. The consequences of Down syndrome include mental retardation, memory and speech problems, limited vocabulary, and slow motor development. They may also have congenital eye, ear, and heart defects and are usually characterized by a number of distinctive physical features, including a sloping forehead, protruding tongue, short stubby limbs, slightly flattened nose, and almond-shaped eyes. Although intellectually impaired, these children reach many of the same developmental milestones as normal children, though at a slower pace. Most of these children learn to care for their basic needs, and some learn to read and write. Developmental progress appears to be best when parents and other family members strive to include the children in most family activities, are patient and work hard to properly stimulate them, and provide them with lots of emotional support. It is the only disorder that can be detected as early from the mother’s womb.

Worried that your child might be affected by Down syndrome:

  1. Does your child exhibit unusual facial features like short neck, flattened face and nose, small head, ears, and mouth and upward slanting eyes?
  2. Does your child experience difficulty with intellectual activities (e.g. reasoning, problem solving, planning, abstract thinking, learning)?
  3. Does your child exhibit poor adaptive functioning, failure to meet developmental milestones related to independence and responsibility, and limited functioning in one or more daily life activities (e.g. communication, social participation) across multiple environments (e.g. school, home)?
  4. Does your child experience difficulty in developing, maintaining and understanding relationships (e.g. difficulties adjusting behaviour in different social settings, lack of interest in or understanding of peers and social play activities)?
  5. Do you feel that your child does not behave adequately as per his age?

Treatments, we provide that can help your child and you:

IQ Assessment

Behaviour Therapy

Special Education

Skill Training

Categories
Developmental Disabilities

Cerebral Palsy

Portrait of boy sitting in wheelchair at library

Cerebral palsy is a disorder of muscle control which results from some damage to part of the brain. The term cerebral palsy is used when the problem has occurred early in life, to the developing brain. Children with cerebral palsy can have problems such as muscle weakness, stiffness, awkwardness, slowness, shakiness, and difficulty with balance. These problems can range from mild to severe. In mild cerebral palsy, the child may be slightly clumsy in one arm or leg, and the problem may be barely noticeable. In severe cerebral palsy, the child may have a lot of difficulties in performing everyday tasks and movements.

Spastic cerebral palsy is the most common type of cerebral palsy, where the muscles become stiff because the messages to the muscles are relayed incorrectly from the damaged parts of the brain. In children with spastic cerebral palsy, both groups of muscles may contract together, making the movement difficult. Dyskinetic cerebral palsy is another type of Cerebral Palsy with abnormal involuntary movements. Ataxic cerebral palsy is the least common type of cerebral palsy with unsteady shaky movements or tremor along with problems with balance.

Worried that your child might have CP?

  1. Does your child have delays in reaching motor skill milestones, such as rolling over, sitting up alone, or crawling?
  2. Does your child have variations in muscle tone, such as being too floppy or too stiff?
  3. Does your child have delays in speech development and difficulty speaking?
  4. Does your child have tremors or involuntary movements, excessive drooling and problems with swallowing?
  5. Does your child have difficulty walking, favours one side of the body, such as reaching with one hand?
  6. Does your child have neurological problems, such as seizures, intellectual disabilities, and blindness?

Treatments, we provide that can help your child and you:

Paediatric Physiotherapy

Speech Therapy

Multisensory Integration

Skill Training

About Caring Minds International

Caring Minds International is an OPD Mental Health Clinic. It is the first of it’s kind, state-of-the-art, multi-speciality institute of mental health in Eastern India. Sprawling across 8000 sq. ft, this one-stop shop houses a diverse team of seasoned professionals who provide their expert services to all issues related to the mind, both clinical and non-clinical under one roof. It caters to all age groups from children to the elderly.

About Caring Minds International

Monday to Saturday: – 10 am – 7 pm

Sunday: – 11 am – 6 pm

Caringminds
54A, Sarat Bose Road, Kolkata – 700025 | +91 9836403766 | +91 7044426035 Landline: +91 33 3544 0939 | Toll Free: 1800-891-3021 | Email: info@caringminds.co.in