Common childhood and adolescent problems include attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, separation anxiety, phobic anxiety disorder, school phobia, selective mutism, generalized anxiety disorder, childhood obsessive-compulsive disorder, childhood depression, and autism spectrum disorder.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
ADHD for short, or what we call ADHD. ADHD accounts for about 40% of the children who come to the psychology department at Guangzhou Women’s and Children’s Medical Center because of ADHD. ADHD is the most common disorder seen in psychology clinics. If parents or teachers find that their children procrastinate on homework; tend to make careless mistakes during exams; make mistakes on simple questions but get the more difficult ones right; like to interrupt adults; can’t be quiet in situations that require quietness or are restless, etc., they can go to the hospital for evaluation.
Separation anxiety
It is common in preschool children before 6 years old, but most of those who come to the psychology department are school-age children. Director Wang analyzes the possible reasons for this as separation anxiety in preschool children in kindergarten, but parents do not pay attention to it and wait until they go to elementary school or middle school where they need to live in school and then develop anxiety that manifests itself as a reluctance to separate from loved ones for fear that they will leave them or that their loved ones will be in danger. Children can be evaluated in the hospital when they develop anxiety worry caused by separation that lasts more than 4 weeks. Example: There was a 13-year-old boy who was required to stay at school. The child showed anxiety and did not want to be separated from his mother, and he called his mother every night crying about missing her and worrying that something would happen if she was home alone, thus he could not concentrate on his classes at school and had difficulty falling asleep or waking up early.
Fear-based anxiety disorder
This is a phobia. It manifests as inappropriate, persistent, and exaggerated fear of things or events that affects daily life and is often accompanied by shortness of breath, pallor, sweating, panic, chest tightness, and other symptoms. Example: There is a little girl who is especially afraid of thunder, and when it thunders, she hides under the table and does not dare to come out, and normal children are soothed by their parents’ embrace for a while, this is called exaggerated fear.
School phobia
It is a special kind of phobia in which children experience depression, anxiety, headache, stomachache, vomiting, etc. when they go to school or enter school, but everything is normal on weekends when they do not have to go to school. The peak time of onset is after school holidays, such as in September and October. School phobia is different from truancy in that truant children sneak out of school and are usually accompanied by antisocial behaviors such as lying, physical aggression, defiance and disobedience, and disruptive behaviors, whereas school phobic children do not have these annoying social behaviors. For example, a 7 and a half year old girl, who usually does very well in school, became afraid of going to school after being criticized by her teacher and did not want to go to school. Parents should not scold their children when they develop school phobia, but should send them to the hospital promptly. The earlier the intervention, the better the prognosis.
Selective mutism
This is a condition in which children aged 3-5 years refuse to speak in some situations (e.g., school) but are able to communicate normally in other situations, with normal language development and comprehension.
Generalized anxiety disorder
Manifests as chronic or excessive worry and tension; persistent and fearful anticipation of disaster in the absence of any signs of disaster. It is often accompanied by somatic symptoms such as shaking, muscle tension, headache, and nausea. Example: There is a 4-year-old girl who is always worried that she or her family will have a car accident outside, that the food outside is poisonous, and that she cannot eat outside.
OCD in children
It can be manifested as involuntary repetitive thoughts, behaviors, etc., which can be repeatedly checked for compulsive doubts about whether their homework is done or done correctly; repeatedly recalling some stories of people they have seen live, etc., and when disturbed they have to start over again, otherwise they will have anxiety, etc.; repeated hand washing, hair pulling fetish, etc. Example: One child showed sensitivity to his father’s voice. At first, he could not listen to his father’s cough, but later he developed to be unable to listen to his father’s speech and repeated his father’s words at least 3 times when he spoke.
Childhood depression
Mostly seen in adolescents, it manifests as children’s depressed mood, diminished interest, wanting to cry or crying out in bursts, difficulty falling asleep or sleeping restlessly, and even self-injurious or suicidal behavior or thoughts. When appealing manifestations occur, parents should bring their children to the hospital for evaluation.
Autism spectrum disorder
The first problems that parents notice are “non-speech” and “ignorance”. Common symptoms include not looking at people, not responding to name calls, not seeming to hear, but being particularly sensitive to certain sounds, playing with toys differently than other children, and not understanding danger. The child’s emotions change a lot, does not understand danger, hurts himself, speaks words that others do not understand or repeats the language of others, has a good mechanical memory, etc. Children with these symptoms should be evaluated in the hospital to determine if they have autism.
The above list shows some of the common manifestations of autism in children’s psychiatric clinics. When parents suspect that their children have these problems, they can go to the hospital for professional evaluation and treatment.