Understanding Children And Adolescents For A Happier Tomorrow
Childhood and adolescence are the two very tender and fragile stages in a person’s life. Children and adolescents often face an identity crisis and struggle to seek their individuality. As a result, they are faced with many problems and don’t know whom to reach to for their solution.
How To Identify Indentity Crises In Children and Teens
They can be saved from this unfruitful struggle by exercising a little care and attention. Given below are some of the aspects that demand attention from parents as well as from counselors.
Feelings – Children and adolescents may often seem disturbed, may cry without reason, or feel insignificant.
Drive – They may lose the drive to go to school, to do their home assignments, or to even play.
Health – If your child or teenager seems to deteriorate in health and remains constantly ill, it may need your attention.
Beliefs – Children and teenagers may believe they are not good looking, or everything they do is wrong, or that life is not worth living.
If these aspects are duly taken care of, minor misbehavior patterns may not go beyond naughtiness. To be able to identify these patterns, one must be able to recognize the following initial warning signs in one’s children and adolescents:
Constant resentment toward authority figures
Trashing and wrecking property
Premature indulgence sexual or abnormal physical display
Untimely use of substances like drugs, cigarettes, or alcohol
Throwing tantrums and arguing
Hurting or bullying others, pets or themselves
Pilfering or lying
Missing school or skipping college
These changes in their behavior happen over a period of time but are generally only noticed when they get out of hand. They can be a result of lack of attention, as well as early traumatic experiences. With ethe right type of care, teenagers can turn around their negative feelings and actions. Timely intervention is the key to resolving many other problems, like learning disorders, sleep and eating disorders, anxiety disorders, etc., which are very common in young children and teenagers.
How To Support Children And Adolescents
The first step to counseling would be to identify the cause of the child’s problem. The next step is to make their guardian understand the gravity of their situation which leads to acknowledging their condition.
Post the acknowledgement, an appropriate course of intervention is decided. The basis for the type of counseling depends upon various factors such as the teenager’s present issues, his past record, his maturity level, his level of cooperation, etc.
The therapy is used independently for milder problems and issues. However, it is combined with other forms of treatment for more severe symptoms. These methods could include conduct management, medication, or intervention by the school.
Children and adolescent counseling has generally flown under the radar because children may be sometimes taken for granted and their problems unnecessarily stigmatized. We are here to assure you, however, that issues occurring during adolescence and childhood are treatable if handled properly at the right time.
If you believe your child or adolescent may benefit from counseling, we invite you to contact us to set an appointment today. Please contact us and one of our trained counselors will be in touch with you shortly. A sliding scale is offered to those in need.
