Help Your Child or Teen Get Back on Track:
What Parents and Professionals Can Do For Childhood Emotional and Behavioral
Problems
Extensive Table of Contents
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Introduction
- Introduction
- Is this book for you?
- How to use this book
- What's in this book?
- Why I wrote this book
- A brief consultation
- What I mean by "back on track"
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Section I. Parents’ Interventions
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Chapter 1. What to Do When You Think Your Child Has a Problem
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- Organization of Chapter 1
- Questions and answers
- I think my child is having a problem. Now what?
- How do I know if my child's behavior and emotions are serious
problems?
- What simple guidelines will help me begin to understand
the seriousness of my child's troubles?
- How else can I distinguish between normal development and
disorder/disruption?
- What challenges in the "job" of growing up can
result in emotional and behavioral distress?
- What changes/stressors might make my child's "job"
of growing up more difficult?
- What if I've seen no sudden changes in my child, but am
concerned in general about the type of person he is "becoming"?
- What if I'm so angry, frazzled, or scared that I want my
child to "just stop it"?
- What if I cannot talk with my daughter and she won't talk
with me?
- Once I think I understand my child, is it better to do
something or say something to help her?
- What if I understand my child's problems, but do not know
how to make the changes needed?
- Can punishment lead to positive changes in my child and
promote new ways of learning to cope?
- I want to get professional help for my son, but my husband
thinks he is "just being a boy" and that I'm making
too much of it. What should I do?
- If I do seek a professional consultation, does that mean
my child will go on medication and be in treatment for a long
time?
- What if I'm waiting for an appointment with a specialist,
but I am worried about my child's safety and mine?
- Reference
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Chapter 2. The Red Flags: An Alphabetical List of Symptoms
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- Contents
- Organization of Chapter 2
- The symptoms
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Chapter 3. Disruptions in Development: The Whole Child
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Organization of Chapter 3
- The importance of a developmental perspective
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Infants and toddlers
- Disruption of bodily routine (eating, sleeping, and elimination)
- Disruption of relationships (attachment)
- Disruption of emotional modulation (mood, arousal, and
anxiety)
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Preschoolers
- Disruption of bodily routine (eating, sleeping, and elimination)
- Disruption of bodily activity (movement)
- Disruption of emotional modulation (mood, arousal, and
anxiety)
- Disruption of relationships (attachment)
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School-aged children: 6-12
- Disruption of bodily routine (eating, sleeping, and elimination)
- Disruption of bodily activity (movement)
- Disruption of emotional modulation (mood, arousal, and anxiety)
- Disruption of relationships (attachment)
- Disruption of relationships (social custom)
- Disruption of information processing (learning)
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Adolescents
- Disruption of bodily routine (eating, sleeping, and elimination)
- Disruption of bodily activity (movement)
- Disruption of emotional modulation (mood, arousal, and
anxiety)
- Disruption of relationships (attachment and sexual behavior)
- Disruption of relationships (social custom)
- Disruption of information processing (learning)
- Disruption of information processing (thinking)
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Chapter 4. Ten Steps to Help Your Child Get Back on Track
- Organization of Chapter 4
- The steps
- DO remind your child that you are both on the same side
- DO provide limits and reasonable expectations
- DO make sure your child has regular routines
- DO give your child encouragement
- DO help your child to confront fear
- DO NOT try to predict your child's future
- DO learn to see and appreciate small improvements and positive
changes
- DO NOT let intense emotions dominate your interactions with
your child
- DO remember that your child is not you
- DO take care of your own physical and emotional needs
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Chapter 5. Coping With Your Feelings When Your Child Suffers
- Organization of Chapter 5
- Your own painful emotions
- Guilt
- Shame
- Fear
- Anger
- Sadness
- Parents' serenity prayer
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Section II. Professionals’ Interventions
- Changes in child mental health treatment in recent years
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Chapter 6. Evaluation and Testing: Why, What, Who, and Where?
- Organization of Chapter 6
- Why was the evaluation or testing requested?
- What is involved in evaluation and testing?
- Psychological tests
- Non-psychological tests
- Who does the testing and who wants the information?
- Who does the testing?
- Who wants the information?
- Where is the evaluation done?
- A clinical example
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Chapter 7. Questions about Treatment: Who are the Helpers and
Where Are They?
- Organization of Chapter 7
- Before you seek professional help
- Who are the helpers?
- Pediatrician/family physician
- Child psychiatrist
- Clinical psychologist
- Neuropsychologist
- Clinical social worker
- Family therapist
- Mental health counselor
- School adjustment counselor
- Where are the treatments?
- Outpatient services
- Inpatient services
- Emergency/crisis services
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Chapter 8. Psychotherapy and Its Side Effects
- Organization of Chapter 8
- Psychological treatment
- Individual psychotherapy
- Non-individual psychotherapy
- Choosing a therapist
- Psychotherapy: frequently asked questions
- Psychotherapy and side effects
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Chapter 9. Medications and Their Side Effects
- Organization of Chapter 9
- How medications/chemicals affect behavior
- General guidelines for using medication with children
- Side effects in general
- Medications in children and side effects
- Medications, and the side effects of medications for mental
health problems
- Inattention, impulsivity, hyperactivity, and distractibility
- Depression
- Bipolar disorder and severe mood instability
- Anxiety
- Psychosis, severe mood disorder, severe anxiety, severe
aggression, severe agitation, and Tourette's syndrome
- Medications for other specific disorders or symptoms
- Pharmacotherapy: frequently asked questions
- Who is the best person to provide medication treatment
for my child, and why?
- How do I decide to have my child take medication? Does
my child take medication with, or instead of, psychotherapy?
- How do I tell whether the medication is helping?
- How long will pharmacotherapy last?
- Will medication continue without psychotherapy?
- Conclusion
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Chapter 10. Complementary and Alternative Therapies and Their
Side Effects
- Organization of Chapter 10
- The why, when, and what of alternative treatments
- Herbal treatment
- Vitamin and dietary treatments
- Meditation and relaxation techniques
- Neurofeedback
- Sensory/motor integration therapy
- References
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Chapter 11. The Role of Play in Individual Psychotherapy from
Childhood to Adolescence
- Organization of Chapter 11
- Play
- A theory of psychotherapy
- The complexity underlying feeling, thinking, and behavior
- The storage and organization of experience: memory
- Changes in memory: learning
- Learning and psychotherapy
- A discussion of psychodynamic theory, psychotherapy, and play
- Psychodynamic theories of the mind
- A theory of psychodynamic psychotherapy
- Psychodynamic psychotherapy and play
- Practical aspects of play therapy
- Parents and play therapy
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Chapter 12. Costs of Treatment: Money, Energy, and Time
- Organization of Chapter 12
- Your financial costs for treatment
- The financial costs of psychotherapy
- The financial costs of medications
- Your energy and time costs in treatment
- Costs for non-treatment: personal and community perspectives
- Personal costs of non-treatment
- Society's costs of non-treatment
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Appendix: Self Help Resources
- General books on parenting
- Specific problem/symptom focused books
- Other books on children's mental health problems
- Meditation/relaxation CDs for children and adolescents
- Magazines
- Internet
- Topic focused groups
- Index
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