A clinician recently told me that cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) wasn’t appropriate for children because it was “too cerebral.” I asked her what she meant by this and she said that CBT just wasn’t any fun. It didn’t look fun to her so it couldn’t be fun to a kid. And, if it wasn’t fun then […]
Tourette disorder is a chronic neurological condition characterized by brief, rapid movements (motor tics) such as blinking, sniffing, or tongue thrusting) or sounds (vocal tics) such as throat clearing, grunting, humming. However, both motor and vocal tics can be quite complex, such as a girl who repeatedly and violently thrusts her index finger up a […]
Exposure appears to be the key change-producing procedure in the cognitive-behavioral treatment of anxiety and phobic disorders in children. Successful exposures depend on the clinician’s ability to engage the child in anxiety-provoking tasks. Successful exposures are both developmentally appropriate and fun for the child. Developing exposures for anxious children can be fun for the clinician […]
Imaginal exposure involves the client imagining the feared object or situation to evoke fear and anxiety. Research has demonstrated that direct in vivo exposure to feared objects or situations is more effective than imaginal exposure to the same circumstance. However, the combination of both exposure strategies has produced excellent outcomes and, at times, imaginal exposure […]
Separation anxiety disorder (SAD) is a relatively common disorder in children and adolescents and panic disorder (PD) is a relatively common disorder in adults. Investigators have suggested that SAD and PD may be related in several ways:
While most pediatricians favor pharmacologic treatments for nocturnal enuresis, there is growing interest in other treatment strategies, in part because of the limited effectiveness of medications (less than 50% increase in dry nights) and high relapse rates (most children return to their previous wetting frequency) after discontinuing the medication (Moffat, et al., 1993). A well-studied […]
Parents tend to sleep well when their children sleep well. Fortunately, things work out just fine for most kids and parents because sleep is hard wired. That is, your child’s brain will get the sleep necessary to help him or her develop into a vital and healthy human being. However, that is not to say […]
What Does the D in OCD Mean?
Obsessions (the thoughts, images, and doubts that bother and scare you) and compulsions (the things you do and think to decrease your fear and discomfort) are upsetting enough but for some kids, the D in OCD can be pretty upsetting too. So what does the D in OCD mean […]