Mental Health Matters
Mental Health Matters! is written by clinical staff at the The Lucy Daniels Center for Early Childhood in Cary, the largest and most comprehensive non-profit agency providing children's mental health services in the Triangle. The Center is devoted to promoting the healthy emotional development of young children through its preschool and kindergarten programs, mental health services, and outreach programs including Lucy's Book Club.
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Tips for Talking To Children about Sexual Abuse
November 21, 2011 10:52 am
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The appalling sexual abuse situation at Penn State University troubles all of us. The thoughts of parents inevitably turn to their children – wondering if they have educated and protected them sufficiently, and worrying if they will be able to recognize the signs of abuse if such a horror were to befall their child. We’d like to offer a few ...Read More
The appalling sexual abuse situation at Penn State University troubles all of us. The thoughts of parents inevitably turn to their children – wondering if ...Read More
Listed in: Mental Health Matters
Protect children 6 and under from Sept. 11 news
September 7, 2011 3:30 pm
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As the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks approaches, we’ve advised parents to protect children 6 years and under from information about Sept. 11, since they need to be shielded, if possible, from some of life’s most horrible aspects. But what if, despite our best efforts, young children hear about the Sept. 11 tragedies? And how can parents help ...Read More
As the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks approaches, we’ve advised parents to protect children 6 years and under from information about Sept. 11, ...Read More
Listed in: Mental Health Matters
Helping children through 9/11 anniversaries
August 16, 2011 8:03 pm
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The 10-year anniversary of the attacks that occurred on Sept. 11, 2011, is on the horizon. Many of us who were fortunate enough not to be directly involved in the events or losses were nevertheless shaken and even mildly traumatized by those events. Anniversaries have a way of re-evoking the feelings associated with the original event – we call that ...Read More
The 10-year anniversary of the attacks that occurred on Sept. 11, 2011, is on the horizon. Many of us who were fortunate enough not to ...Read More
Listed in: Mental Health Matters
Is the news hurting your child?
March 18, 2011 7:46 am
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Our Mental Health Matters Blog generally presents and discusses some new research findings in the field of children’s mental health and emotional development. This posting will be different, because we would like to provide some practical advice to parents at this time that there are so many concerning events throughout the Middle East and in Japan. Although there are important ...Read More
Our Mental Health Matters Blog generally presents and discusses some new research findings in the field of children’s mental health and emotional development. This posting ...Read More
Listed in: Mental Health Matters
Can excessive video game play contribute to ADHD?
February 4, 2011 3:26 pm
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So many of the parents that we talk with at Lucy Daniels Center are concerned with the amount of time that their child spends before one screen or another. Parents whose children have problems with attention are particularly concerned – as are we – about whether there could be some relationship between screen time and attention problems. Previous studies have ...Read More
So many of the parents that we talk with at Lucy Daniels Center are concerned with the amount of time that their child spends before ...Read More
Listed in: Mental Health Matters
Addressing language challenges is also good for mental health
December 28, 2010 10:59 am
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Some children have difficulty understanding or processing language. This range of difficulties are grouped as “receptive language” problems. It is obvious that children with unresolved receptive language problems will have difficulties fulfilling their potential in school. But are there other problems? A recent study from the University of London looked at the longer term emotional and mental health effects of receptive language ...Read More
Some children have difficulty understanding or processing language. This range of difficulties are grouped as “receptive language” problems. It is obvious that children with unresolved ...Read More
Listed in: Mental Health Matters
Parental warmth is a mental health vaccine
December 5, 2010 6:27 pm
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Psychoanalysts have long emphasized the importance of the early mother child relationship, particularly, the importance for a child of having at least one stable loving investment from at least one parent from infancy. This belief has been largely based on tens of thousands of life histories that have been studied through individual treatments. Now, an important and rather unique confirmation ...Read More
Psychoanalysts have long emphasized the importance of the early mother child relationship, particularly, the importance for a child of having at least one stable loving ...Read More
Listed in: Mental Health Matters
Do Americans discipline harshly?
November 3, 2010 5:32 pm
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Harsh discipline, including spanking, is never a good idea. Although all reputable childhood professional associations agree that that harsh discipline, including various forms of corporal punishment, is a highly problematic way to treat children, Americans continue to administer harsh discipline at high rates, providing various kinds of rationalized justifications for its supposed value. Are we a unique, particularly violent society? ...Read More
Harsh discipline, including spanking, is never a good idea. Although all reputable childhood professional associations agree that that harsh discipline, including various forms of corporal ...Read More
Listed in: Mental Health Matters
Are sleep medications for children a good idea?
October 1, 2010 12:27 pm
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Children and sleep problems – they seem to go together like horse and carriage, as the old saying goes. In recent years, there has been an explosion in the number of medications—prescription and over-the-counter—that produce sleepiness. And, expectably, these medications are being increasingly relied upon. The use of medications to help children sleep was examined through a recent survey of ...Read More
Children and sleep problems – they seem to go together like horse and carriage, as the old saying goes. In recent years, there has been ...Read More
Listed in: Mental Health Matters
Kids’ mental health affects income as adults
September 8, 2010 12:18 pm
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An important, unprecedented study from the renowned RAND Corporation has found that children with emotional challenges, such as anxiety and depression, grow up to earn less than those who did not have emotional challenges. Over a lifetime, emotionally challenged children earn 20 percent less on the average. The study revealed many other concerning findings, including that adults who had childhood ...Read More
An important, unprecedented study from the renowned RAND Corporation has found that children with emotional challenges, such as anxiety and depression, grow up to earn ...Read More
Listed in: Mental Health Matters
Are Medications for Children's Emotional Conditions Overused?
August 9, 2010 4:01 pm
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Few questions related to children’s mental health are more controversial than whether psychotropic medications are over prescribed for children. There is no doubt about the dramatic increase in their rise and the efforts of the pharmaceutical industry to market them. Are these trends helping or harming children? A recent study in the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy notes that ...Read More
Few questions related to children’s mental health are more controversial than whether psychotropic medications are over prescribed for children. There is no doubt about the ...Read More
Listed in: Mental Health Matters
Is Bipolar Disorder Overly Diagnosed in Children?
June 28, 2010 12:36 pm
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Lucy Daniels Center mental health clinicians have long felt that Bipolar Disorder is overly diagnosed in children, and it now seems that most experts in our field have come to agree with us. Many people who develop Bipolar illness—which usually appears in late adolescence or later—have had difficulties earlier in their life, such as with their mood or with controlling ...Read More
Lucy Daniels Center mental health clinicians have long felt that Bipolar Disorder is overly diagnosed in children, and it now seems that most experts in ...Read More
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Pesticides and ADHD
June 2, 2010 8:17 am
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The relationship between certain food and symptoms the ADHD symptoms of inattention, impulsivity, and overactivity has long been a source of interest, claims, and strong controversy. Despite individual testimonials, careful an unbiased scientific studies have failed to consistently show any relationship between ADHD symptoms and such commonly suspected culprits as sugar and food additives. A recent study, however, has raised ...Read More
The relationship between certain food and symptoms the ADHD symptoms of inattention, impulsivity, and overactivity has long been a source of interest, claims, and strong ...Read More
Listed in: Mental Health Matters
Spanking increases children’s aggression
April 27, 2010 11:34 am
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Many American parents use corporal punishment as discipline, despite overwhelming scientific evidence that corporal punishment has little value and many possible negative effects. Many cultures across the world do not use corporal punishment at all in their child rearing. In one representative poll from Survey USA, 72 percent of Americans felt that it was OK to use corporal punishment to discipline a ...Read More
Many American parents use corporal punishment as discipline, despite overwhelming scientific evidence that corporal punishment has little value and many possible negative effects. Many cultures ...Read More
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When does autism first appear?
April 13, 2010 9:34 am
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For some time, based on parent reports and studies, we and others in the field have believed that the very high majority of children with moderate or severe autism start showing signs at either of two times: during their first months of life or during their second year. An important new study from the University of California, Davis M.I.N.D. Institute ...Read More
For some time, based on parent reports and studies, we and others in the field have believed that the very high majority of children with ...Read More
Listed in: Mental Health Matters
Why do poor children get more antipsychotic medication?
March 18, 2010 10:26 am
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The use of anti-psychotic medication has been increasing at a stunning rate in recent years, for children and adults. Perhaps you have recently seen television ads promoting the use of Abilify if an adult depression has not “responded” to standard anti-depressant medication. Abilify and similar so-called second generation antipsychotic medications have begun to be used for a wide variety of ...Read More
The use of anti-psychotic medication has been increasing at a stunning rate in recent years, for children and adults. Perhaps you have recently seen television ...Read More
Listed in: Mental Health Matters
Watching bullying can be toxic
March 1, 2010 10:29 am
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School bullying is no laughing matter. Fortunately, schools and governmental agencies are recognizing that bullying victims often carry scars long after the event occurs. New information supports other prior research suggesting that students who merely observe bullying can be profoundly affected. Research reported in December 2009, based on a study of over 2,000 students in England, has found that children who ...Read More
School bullying is no laughing matter. Fortunately, schools and governmental agencies are recognizing that bullying victims often carry scars long after the event occurs. New ...Read More
Listed in: Mental Health Matters
School violence: Should the shrinks rush in?
February 15, 2010 9:28 am
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Few things in our contemporary world terrify parents as much as the prospect of serious violence occurring in their school. It seems that hardly a year goes by without a shooting incident at a school somewhere or other. It has become customary for mental health professionals to come to a school in mass when such tragedy strikes. The mental health ...Read More
Few things in our contemporary world terrify parents as much as the prospect of serious violence occurring in their school. It seems that hardly a ...Read More
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How many children have mental disorders?
February 1, 2010 9:14 am
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How many children experience mental disorders? Over the years, many studies have tried to answer this question. Such studies are always difficult and expensive. The best estimates in the field have been that somewhere about 10 to 15 percent of children experience substantial emotional interference in their development. If we include children who are having some clear emotional struggle but ...Read More
How many children experience mental disorders? Over the years, many studies have tried to answer this question. Such studies are always difficult and expensive. The ...Read More
Listed in: Mental Health Matters
Is autism on the rise?
January 11, 2010 10:42 am
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Twenty years ago, autism was a rare condition that parents rarely thought about. Now, most parents know or know of a child diagnosed with autism. Their children may attend a school with a special classroom for autistic children. As many as 1 in 150 children are said to have this condition. Is it an epidemic? No one knows the answer ...Read More
Twenty years ago, autism was a rare condition that parents rarely thought about. Now, most parents know or know of a child diagnosed with autism. ...Read More
Listed in: Mental Health Matters
ADHD medication & children's cardiac health
December 28, 2009 11:00 am
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About 7 percent of American children are receiving medication for ADHD. Aside from all the controversies about the diagnosis and treatment, this is the current reality. In the last several years, a small—thankfully, very small—number of children receiving one of the standard ADHD first-line medications (psychostimulants) have experienced effects on their heart, including sudden death. Because this tragic event is ...Read More
About 7 percent of American children are receiving medication for ADHD. Aside from all the controversies about the diagnosis and treatment, this is the current ...Read More
Listed in: Mental Health Matters
Parenting special needs children gets easier
December 17, 2009 11:31 am
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Parents of special needs children face special challenges, whether the children’s special needs are physical, developmental, or emotional. Marriages feel the strain, and parents often struggle to maintain their own emotional well being. A 2008 study from the University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin is the first to study, over time, the physical and mental health of parents ...Read More
Parents of special needs children face special challenges, whether the children’s special needs are physical, developmental, or emotional. Marriages feel the strain, and parents often ...Read More
Listed in: Mental Health Matters
Explaining emotions pays off!
December 4, 2009 12:24 pm
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We’ve known for a long-time that children who have close, loving relationships with their parents in their early years are more likely to relate in a caring and successful way with friends. A 2008 study in Child Development further supports this common observation and provides insight into effective parenting. Children in the study had the most successful social relationships when ...Read More
We’ve known for a long-time that children who have close, loving relationships with their parents in their early years are more likely to relate in ...Read More
Listed in: Mental Health Matters
Alert: Atypical anti-psychotics & kids
November 19, 2009 11:36 am
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Medications have their place in the treatment of emotional conditions in children. However, staff child psychiatrists at the Lucy Daniels Center have long been concerned about the extent of use of these medications. One of our concerns has been that we are using some medications that affect many systems in the body, not just the brain, and we have little ...Read More
Medications have their place in the treatment of emotional conditions in children. However, staff child psychiatrists at the Lucy Daniels Center have long been concerned ...Read More
Listed in: Mental Health Matters
TV watching a cause of childhood obesity
November 5, 2009 10:22 am
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Because TV is so much a part of many children's lives, we are returning once again to this topic. As we have said, TV used discreetly and intelligently may well benefit older children. When TV is not used in this strategic way, many problems can ensue, as a recent study, conducted simultaneously in several countries, found. Researchers with the study ...Read More
Because TV is so much a part of many children's lives, we are returning once again to this topic. As we have said, TV used ...Read More
Listed in: Mental Health Matters
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