ADHD: Language problems common in children with ADHD

Children who have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder are nearly three times more likely to have language problems than kids without ADHD, according to new research.

And those language difficulties can have far-reaching academic consequences, the study found.

The study, published online April 21 in Pediatrics, looked at 6- to 8-year-olds with and without ADHD in Australia.

"We found that 40 percent of children in the ADHD group had language problems, compared to 17 percent of children in the 'control' group," said Emma Sciberras, a clinical psychologist and post-doctoral research fellow at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Victoria, Australia.

"Rates of language problems were similar in boys and girls with ADHD," she added.

Emma Sciberras

Children with ADHD commonly have trouble with school performance and social functioning.

The impact that language problems might have on these factors hasn't been well-studied, the study authors noted.

"The differences in academic functioning between children with ADHD and language problems, compared to those with ADHD alone, were quite large and clinically meaningful," said Sciberras.

Language problems refer to spoken language—both receptive and expressive language. Receptive language is the ability to listen and understand what's being said; expressive is the ability to speak and be understood.

In a separate study in the same issue of the journal, Sciberras and her colleagues looked at almost 400 children with ADHD, aged 5 to 13, and found almost two-thirds had one or more anxiety disorders.

When children with ADHD had two or more anxiety disorders—this was true for one-third of the kids—their quality of life, behavior and daily functioning suffered, the researchers said.

"It is very common for children with ADHD to experience additional difficulties," said Sciberras. "Both of these studies demonstrate that the additional difficulties that go along with ADHD, in this case anxiety and language problems, can make daily functioning even harder for children with ADHD."

The language study included 179 children diagnosed with ADHD and 212 without the attention disorder. Fewer than half of the children with ADHD were taking medications to help control their symptoms.

After adjusting for sociodemographic factors and other conditions, such as autism spectrum disorders, the researchers found that the risk of language problems was 2.8 times higher in children with ADHD.

When the researchers looked at how those language problems affected school work, they found lower math, reading and academic scores.

However, the researchers didn't find that language problems had an impact on social functioning.

"We were surprised that language problems were not associated with poorer social functioning for children with ADHD," Sciberras said.

"It could be that children with ADHD are already experiencing poorer social functioning due to other factors including their ADHD symptoms or other associated difficulties."

However, Sciberras cautioned that language troubles might become more problematic as these kids get older because social relationships get more complex with age.

One outside expert said the study is a good reminder for parents and physicians.

Bradley Berg

"If a child has ADHD and they're struggling in school, even though their ADHD symptoms are well-controlled, in addition to getting tested for learning disabilities, they should also be looked at for language difficulties as well. And that's not something we always think of," said Dr. Bradley Berg, medical director of McLane Children's Pediatrics at Baylor Scott & White Healthcare in Round Rock, Texas.

Whether speech-language interventions will help the youngsters with ADHD isn't clear, however.

Berg also pointed out that this issue is a "chicken-and-egg" problem.

He said "We don't know if these kids have;

• a language disorder that's causing them to not understand what's going on at school 
• and that's making them restless and fidgety because they're bored
• Or do they have ADHD and that's causing difficulty understanding the language. 
• Or is there something going on in an area of the brain that creates both of these problems?

It's possible that the findings from this Australian study might not translate to a U.S. population.

For one thing, medication trends might differ, Berg said. For children with ADHD who also suffer anxiety, Sciberras said medications might help, and a type of psychotherapy called cognitive behavioral therapy could also be useful.

The researchers are currently conducting a study to treat anxiety in children with ADHD.

"If parents are concerned that their child with ADHD has anxiety, language or any other additional difficulties that are not currently being managed, we encourage them to discuss their concerns with their child's treating clinician," she said.

Sibling Rivalry: Children are stressed when fathers play favourites

Research by Megan Gilligan, a Purdue doctoral student in sociology, and Jill Suitor, a professor of sociology, found that sibling Baby Boomers are likely to be more stressed by their fathers' favouring one over another than by their mothers' doing so. 

Credit: Purdue University photo /Mark Simons

"It didn't matter who fathers favored. When favouritism was perceived there was tension among siblings, especially daughters," said Megan Gilligan, a Purdue doctoral student in sociology who is lead author on the article.

"Often the role of fathers is overlooked in these older relationships, but what we found shows dads do matter."

This research, which is published in the July issue of the Journal of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, looked at 137 later-life families with both parents still alive when the data was collected in 2008.

The average age of the 341 siblings was 49, and they were asked about tension among each other and the perceived favouritism by their parents.

The parents were in their 70s and 80s, and the fathers were an average of three years older than the mothers.

"The importance of fathers' favouritism may come from these older adults noticing many of their friends' fathers no longer living, so they may value their dads even more than before; they realise their time together is limited," said Jill Suitor, a professor of sociology and article co-author.

Previous research by Suitor, Gilligan and Karl Pillemer, professor of human development in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University, showed that if mothers favoured a child, it caused sibling tension.

However, that work focused only on mothers' favouritism. By looking at both living parents in this recent article, the researchers were able to evaluate the consequences of favouritism from both parents.

This research is based on the survey data from the Within-Family Difference Study, led by Suitor and Pillemer to evaluate the role favoritism plays in adult family relationships.

The data for the 13-year project were collected in the Boston metropolitan area. The project is funded by the US National Institute on Aging.

"The implications of these findings will be important to practitioners," Pillemer said. "We often think of the family as a single unit, and this reminds us that individual parent and child relationships differ and each family is very complex. Favouritism from the father could mean something different than favouritism from the mother. We suggest that clinicians who work with families on later-life issues be aware of this complexity and look for such types of individual relationships as they advise families on care giving, legal and financial issues."

The difference in this research could be the result of the role fathers played in this older generation.

"Fathers are important figures in families, and the father-child relationship is sometimes more tenuous than the mother-child tie," Suitor said.

"Mothers are often more open and affectionate with their children, whereas fathers have sometimes been found to be more critical, leading offspring to be more concerned when fathers favour some children over others."

This also could play a role in why daughters experience more tension with their siblings when fathers favour them.

"The gender difference may occur because fathers, as other studies have shown, often invest more in their sons, thus, the favouritism shown toward daughters may violate these norms and result in greater sibling tension," Gilligan said.

"For these reasons, when adult children perceive their fathers as engaging in favouritism, there may be greater concern about competition for his affection and support, resulting in higher levels of sibling tension."

Gilligan and Suitor also said that these values and norms may have changed since the Baby Boomer generation.

Suitor, Pillemer and Gilligan plan to extend the present project to include interviewing the Baby Boomers about their own adult children.

More information: Differential Effects of Perceptions of Mothers' and Fathers' Favoritism on Sibling Tension in Adulthood, Megan Gilligan, J. Jill Suitor, Seoyoun Kim, and Karl Pillemer, Journal of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 2013.

ABSTRACT
Objectives. We examine the differential effects of perceived maternal and paternal favouritism in adulthood on sibling tensions in adulthood.

Method. Data used in the analysis were collected from 341 adult children nested within 137 later-life families as part of the Within-Family Differences Study.

Results. Adult children's perceptions that their fathers currently favored any offspring in the family predicted reports of tension with their siblings, whereas perceptions of mothers' favouritism did not. Fathers' favouritism was a stronger predictor of daughters' than sons' reports of sibling tension.

Discussion. These findings contribute to a growing body of research demonstrating the consequences of parental favouritism in adulthood. Equally important, they demonstrate that perceptions of fathers' current favouritism plays an even greater role in shaping their adult children's sibling relations than do mothers' favouritism.

Children effectively manage their anxiety going to the dentist

A unique child-led study by Queen Mary, University of London has challenged the common perception that children fear a trip to the dentist.

The research shows that even the most anxious child can cope well with their feelings if they are treated with honesty.

Following the research project, academics from Queen Mary's Drama department and the Institute of Dentistry are now encouraging parents and dentists to be honest with children about what their time in the dental chair will involve.

The researchers engaged with pupils aged nine and 10 years-old from Osmani Primary School in east London in the 'Do I have to go Project' using innovative drama techniques developed by Queen Mary senior drama lecturer Alistair Campbell.

Ferranti Wong

Dr Ben Roberts and Professor Ferranti Wong, and students, all from the Institute of Dentistry, were able to get the pupils to express themselves through performance and games as well as using real-life dentistry equipment to recreate a visit to the dentist.

As part of the project the schoolchildren re-designed a universal medical questionnaire for anxiety, reducing the standard eight questions down to five adding in a section to draw pictures.

They then used this new questionnaire to survey 100 of their fellow classmates to find out about their own personal experiences of going, or not going, to the dentist.

But far from fearing going to the dentist as many would expect, the majority of the youngsters expressed the fact that they didn't mind going for check ups and they understood the reasons why they should go.

Alistair Campbell, said: "We wanted to find out why some children don't go to the dentist. What surprised us was how the children we worked with emphasised that they were not 'stupid' and they knew they had to go to the dentist, but they didn't want their parents to pretend to them that it wouldn't hurt or that the mouthwash tastes nice just because it is coloured pink."

"They just wanted them to be honest. In fact during the drama role play we discovered that it was often the adult/parent that transferred their anxiety of going to the dentist onto their child."

Professor Wong added: "One pupil actually said 'I'm scared, it really hurts' but admitted they had actually never been to the dentist.

It is clear that this is more about communication. The dentist and the adult have a responsibility to communicate to the child.

Be honest and explain that the procedures may be uncomfortable. It is important that children are encouraged to go to the dentist and it's essential that they learn about oral and dental hygiene at an early age.

The key message is tell, show, do and most importantly be honest and don't lie."

The team has now put together a video which can be used in other schools to help educate children.

One in five U.S. kids has a mental health disorder, CDC reports

As many as one in five American children under the age of 17 has a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year, according to a new federal report.

Released Thursday, the report represents the government's first comprehensive look at mental disorders in children.

It focuses on diagnoses in six areas: attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), behavioural or conduct disorders, mood and anxiety disorders, autism spectrum disorders, substance abuse, and Tourette syndrome.

The most common mental disorder among children aged 3 through 17 is ADHD. Nearly 7 percent—about one in 15 children—in that age group have a current diagnosis, according to the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For other disorders, 3.5 percent of children currently have behavioral or conduct problems, 3 percent suffer from anxiety, about 2 percent have depression and about 1 percent have autism.

About two children out of 1,000 aged 6 to 17 have Tourette Syndrome. Among teens, about 5 percent had abused or were dependent on illegal drugs within the past year.

More than 4 percent were abusers of alcohol, and nearly 3 percent reported being regular cigarette smokers.

The report, which supplements the May 17 issue of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, also noted gender differences in mental disorders.

"Boys are more likely than girls to have most of the disorders overall," said Ruth Perou, the team leader for child development studies at the CDC.

Boys specifically are more prone to ADHD, behavioral or conduct problems, autism spectrum disorders, anxiety and Tourette syndrome, and are more likely to be smokers than girls, Perou said. They're also more likely to die by suicide.

"On the other hand, girls are more likely to have depression or an alcohol-use disorder," she said.

Although this is the first time the CDC has tried to compile prevalence estimates for some of the most common mental disorders in a single report, the agency has long tracked rates of many of these illnesses through population surveys.

"We are seeing increases across the board in a lot of mental disorders," Perou said. Some of the biggest jumps have been in ADHD and autism.

"We don't know if it's due to greater awareness, or if these conditions actually are going up," she said. Perou said that is a question they will try to answer as they continue to track children's mental disorders going forward.

"The good news is that mental disorders are diagnosable and treatable," she said. "If we act early, we can really make a huge difference in children's live and in families' lives overall."

Anxiety Control: A Portion of hippocampus found to play a major role

Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers have found the first evidence that selective activation of the dentate gyrus, a portion of the hippocampus, can reduce anxiety without affecting learning. 

The findings suggest that therapies that target this brain region could be used to treat certain anxiety disorders, such as panic disorder and post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD), with minimal cognitive side effects.

The study, conducted in mice, was published today in the online edition of the journal Neuron. The dentate gyrus is known to play a key role in learning.

Rene Hen

Some evidence suggests that the structure also contributes to anxiety. "But until now no one has been able to figure out how the hippocampus could be involved in both processes," said senior author Rene Hen, PhD, professor of neuroscience and pharmacology (in psychiatry) at CUMC.

"It turns out that different parts of the dentate gyrus have somewhat different functions, with the dorsal portion largely dedicated to learning and the ventral portion dedicated to anxiety," said lead author Mazen A. Kheirbek, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in neuroscience at CUMC.

To examine the role of the dentate gyrus in learning and anxiety, the investigators used a state-of-the-art technique called optogenetics, in which light-sensitive proteins, or opsins, are genetically inserted into neurons in the brains of mice.

Neurons with these genes can then be selectively activated or silenced through the application of light (via a fiber-optic strand), allowing researchers to study the function of the cells in real time.

Previously, the only way to study the dentate gyrus was to silence portions of it using such long-term manipulations as drugs or lesions, techniques that yielded conflicting results.

In the current study, opsins were inserted into dentate gyrus granule cells (the principal cells of the dentate gyrus).

The researchers then activated or silenced the ventral or dorsal portions of the dentate gyrus for three minutes at a time, while the mice were subjected to two well-validated anxiety tests (the elevated plus maze and the open field test).

"Our main findings were that elevating cell activity in the dorsal dentate gyrus increased the animals' desire to explore their environment. But this also disrupted their ability to learn. Elevating activity in the ventral dentate gyrus lowered their anxiety, but had no effect on learning," said Dr. Kheirbek.

The effects were completely reversible—that is, when the stimulation was turned off, the animals returned to their previous anxiety levels.

"The therapeutic implication is that it may be possible to relieve anxiety in people with anxiety disorders by targeting the ventral dentate gyrus, perhaps with medications or deep-brain stimulation, without affecting learning," said Dr. Hen.

Dr Hen is also a director of the Division of Integrative Neuroscience, The New York State Psychiatric Institute, and a member of The Kavli Institute for Brain Science.

"Given the immediate behavioral impact of such manipulations, these strategies are likely to work faster than current treatments, such as serotonin reuptake inhibitors."

According to Dr. Hen, such an intervention would probably work best in people with panic disorder or PTSD.

"There is evidence that people with these anxiety disorders tend to have a problem with pattern separation—the ability to distinguish between similar experiences," he said.

"In other words, they overgeneralize, perceiving minor threats to be the same as major ones, leading to a heightened state of anxiety. Such patients could conceivably benefit from therapies that fine-tune hippocampal activity."

Dr. Hen and his team are currently exploring strategies aimed at modulating the activity of the ventral dentate gyrus by stimulating neurogenesis in the ventral dentate gyrus.

"Indeed the dentate gyrus is one of the few areas in the adult brain where neurons are continuously produced, a phenomenon termed adult hippocampal neurogenesis," added Dr. Hen.

More information: The title of the paper is "Differential control of learning and anxiety along the dorso-ventral axis of the dentate gyrus."  

ADD vs APD: When an Attention Issue is Really an Auditory Issue

When your child is struggling in school, you want to get to the root of the issue as quickly as possible. Nowadays there is more awareness about a wide spectrum of learning problems.

Most teachers receive some training about the major diagnoses, and educational psychologists have a full toolkit of diagnostic assessments.

Once you have a name for the symptoms you are seeing, plans can be made to ensure that the education provided is appropriate for a child’s needs.

But what happens if you suspect that the diagnosis your child receives is the wrong

ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) is a familiar term to most parents. ADD diagnoses have been on the rise for the last few decades. However, there is a lesser known disorder, with a similar list of symptoms, which may be overlooked: APD (Auditory Processing Disorder).

APD may initially present as an attention deficit issue, but in reality it has nothing to do with a child’s ability to sit still. Rather, APD stems from a weakness in the ability of the brain to process the sounds it receives.

This specific weakness can be either acquired through brain injury or illness, or genetically inherited.

Symptoms

• ADD and APD share a number of symptoms, such as:
• Struggling to focus in a noisy environment
• Fidgety and easily distracted
• Showing some aggression or even isolation socially
• Difficulty following directions
• Lower academic performance
• Zoning out in a conversation

Each of these external symptoms has a different internal cause, depending on the diagnosis. Both can in turn cause reading problems, and both appear in the 7 Main Causes of Reading Difficulty (video).



Children with ADD struggle with the above symptoms because there is insufficient activity in the frontal lobe to regulate the strong neuronal activity in the cerebral cortex.

Without the necessary control over the cerebral cortex, the activity there is just unregulated ‘brain noise’ of neuronal chaos.

Children with APD, on the other hand, struggle with these symptoms because the world around them sounds ‘foggy’ or unclear.

A child with APD will have perfect hearing; the problem lies in the brain’s interpretation of incoming sounds, not the hearing mechanism itself.

You can imagine how not being able to properly understand what people are saying could lead to all of the above behaviours, and then some!

You can read the full article here at Easy read System

PTSD: Anti-anxiety Drug Calms Fears by Altering Brain Chemistry

An advance in understanding the brain’s fear circuitry has been revealed by a research team. They say it may hold particular promise for people at risk for anxiety disorders, including those suffering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Findings are reported in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

“What is most compelling is our ability to translate first from mice to human neurobiology and then all the way out to human behaviour,” says Ahmad Hariri, a neurobiologist at Duke University. “That kind of translation is going to define the future of psychiatry and neuroscience.”

Read the original study DOI: 10.1038/mp.2012.72

 

The common thread in their studies is a gene encoding an enzyme called fatty acid amide hydrolase, or FAAH.

The enzyme breaks down a natural endo-cannabinoid chemical in the brain that acts in essentially the same way that Cannabis, aka marijuana, does (hence the name endo-cannabinoid).

Earlier studies had suggested that blocking the FAAH enzyme could decrease fear and anxiety by increasing endo-cannabinoids, which is consistent with the decreased anxiety some experience after smoking marijuana.

In 2009, Hariri’s lab found that a common variant in the human FAAH gene leads to decreased enzyme function with affects on the brain’s circuitry for processing fear and anxiety.

In the new study, Andrew Holmes’ group at the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse tested the effects of a drug that blocks FAAH activity in fear-prone mice that had also been trained to be fearful through experiences in which they were delivered foot shocks.

Tests for the ability of those mice to get over their bad experiences found that the drug allowed a faster recovery from fear thanks to higher brain endo-cannabinoid levels.

More specifically, the researchers showed that those drug effects traced to the amygdala, a small area of the brain that serves as a critical hub for fear processing and learning.

To test for the human relevance of the findings, Hariri’s group went back to the genetic variant they had studied earlier in a group of middle-aged adults.

They showed study participants a series of pictures depicting threatening faces while they monitored the activity of their amygdalas using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans. They then looked for how the genetic variant affected this activity.

While the activity of the amygdala in all participants decreased over repeated exposures to the pictures. But people who carried the version of the FAAH gene associated with lower enzyme function and higher endo-cannabinoid levels showed a greater decrease in activity.

Hariri says that suggests that those individuals may be better able to control and regulate their fear response.

Further confirmation came from an analysis led by Duke’s Avshalom Caspi and Terrie Moffitt of 1,000 individuals in the Dunedin Study, who have been under careful observation since their birth in the 1970s in New Zealand.

Consistent with the mouse and brain imaging studies, those New Zealanders carrying the lower-expressing version of the FAAH gene were found to be more likely to keep their cool under stress.

“This study in mice reveals how a drug that boosts one of the brain’s naturally occurring endo-cannaboids enables fear extinction, a process that forms the basis of exposure therapy for PTSD,” Holmes says.

“It also shows how human gene variation in the same chemical pathways modulates the amygdala’s processing of threats and predicts how well people cope with stress.”

Studies are now needed to further explore both the connections between FAAH variation and PTSD risk as well as the potential of FAAH inhibition as a novel therapy for fear-related disorders, the researchers say.

More news from Duke University: http://today.duke.edu/

Three Messages You Should Never Give to Kids about Anxiety

Kids don’t generally develop anxiety disorders all on their own. Oh sure, genes and biology have some influence, but these factors largely just predispose kids in the direction of acquiring problems with anxiety.

The wrong messages can push both anxiously disposed kids as well as otherwise normal kids in the direction of struggling with anxiety for the rest of their lives.

If you’re a parent or someone who cares about kids, you just might want to know what type of messages instill insecurity.

Let's start by laying out three common mistakes that parents make; in other words, the kinds of messages you “don’t” want to give them:

1. Invalidating or Denying Your Children’s Feelings. If your kids seem worried, fearful, upset, or distraught, sometimes it’s tempting to tell them “there’s no reason that they should feel that way” or even that they “shouldn’t” be feeling what they are obviously feeling. Parents give these messages because they don’t want their kids to feel distress. So, they reason that their kids will understand, if their bad feelings have no real basis, they won’t feel the way they do. Big mistake. Children need to hear that it’s normal and OK to have a little fear or distress sometimes.
2. Providing Incessant Reassurance. Messages that “everything will turn out OK” sound so very much like what you should tell kids, and if you don’t say them too often, there’ll probably be no problem. However, when you frequently reassure your kids, you end up giving them the message that they need to turn to you (as an adult or parent) to help them see that things will turn out alright. They fail to learn that they can get through fear on their own. 
3. Protecting Your Kids from All Harm. No one ever wants to see a child in harm’s way. However, growing, developing and learning require kids to face challenges and even take a few small risks along the way. Parents that try to constantly clear all dangers and risks that their kids confront teach them that the world is a scary place and that they need their parents to guide them through it. That message hardly fosters the independence and maturity they’ll need as adolescents and young adults.

So what’s a parent to do instead? One of the best ways to help prevent kids from developing anxiety disorders is to model how to cope.

I recommend that parents express when they’re feeling anxious and tell their kids how they plan to cope with it. For example, you might say, “Sometimes I feel nervous when I have to climb a ladder, but I just need to take a deep breath, be careful, and do it.

If I get too nervous, I can always climb back down, but it feels good to get through difficult tasks.”

Another good strategy is for parents to praise their kids when they make efforts to do things that are a little anxiety arousing for them.

The bottom line: Gently encourage your kids to confront their fears, let them know that a little anxiety is normal, and don’t try to keep them away from all challenges and risks.

Maths anxiety: the numbers are mounting

Maths anxiety, a feeling of fear about maths, is believed to affect about a quarter of the population, which would equate to more than 2 million schoolchildren in England alone, along with thousands of teachers.

Many of us are familiar with that blind panic when faced with a maths problem we can't fathom, but maths anxiety isn't always recognised or understood.

Maths anxiety was first identified in the 1950s, but the devastating way it affects performance is only now becoming evident.

For the first time, researchers at Stanford University in the US have used scans to see what goes on inside the brains of children with maths anxiety, and discovered that they respond to sums in the same way that people with phobias might react to snakes or spiders, showing increased activity in the fear centres.

This in turn causes a decrease in activity in the problem-solving areas, making it harder to come up with the right answers.

Dr Vinod Menon, the professor who led the project, explains its significance: "Our research is important because it is the first to identify the neural and developmental basis of maths anxiety, and our findings have significant implications for its early identification and treatment.

It is also important because it shows that math anxiety in children is real. It cannot be wished away. It needs to be attended to and treated if it persists."

If maths anxiety has such a devastating effect on ability, why aren't we doing more about it? Most teachers and academics know it exists, but there are no formally established diagnostic tools to determine when worrying about maths becomes "maths anxiety".

What's more, it can be counterproductive to tell a child that they have a problem, as Mike Ellicock, chief executive of the charity National Numeracy, explains: "Labelling and categorising children into those who can and can't do maths isn't helpful.

There's nothing more certain to be a self-fulfilling prophecy … but given encouragement and the right support, everyone can meet a functional level of numeracy."

We clearly haven't been offering the right support, as almost half of the UK's adults are only capable of basic maths. It doesn't help that we often see maths as the preserve of a few geeks.

Maths is a clear-cut subject where answers are either right or wrong, and teaching methods focusing on quick recall, mental arithmetic and on answers given in front of the class are unhelpful to those who are less confident.

Most teachers understand that confidence is as important as competence when it comes to maths achievement, but Peter Lacey, of the Association of Teachers of Mathematics, says they are often constrained by a system focused on targets and attainment levels.

"If you say slow down, ministers get concerned, but if you want to build a tall and secure house, you make sure your foundations are right. Sometimes there's a rush in the earlier years of teaching that interferes with children gaining real confidence, once it goes wrong at that stage, everything afterwards is insecure.

The pressure to get children to a particular level in tests at 11 can mean teaching them tricks to get good outcomes rather than making sure they are confident in their understanding."

Experts in the field, such as Professor David Sheffield of Derby University's Centre for Psychological Research, who is one of the country's leading specialists in maths anxiety, believe it has a lifelong effect.

So what would he advise? "The first thing to say is don't do more maths. More maths is unlikely to work because it's actually an anxiety problem. Try to deal with the anxiety with simple approaches like relaxation or breathing exercises. We did one study where we got people to do a relaxation exercise and then followed them up. Their anxiety scores had dropped and they were able to solve more problems."

Drugs: Speed and Ecstasy Use Linked to Teen Depression

The use of speed and ecstasy by secondary school pupils appears to increase the risk of depression by up to 70 percent, a study claims.

Scientists at the University of Montreal carried out research on almost 4,000 secondary school pupils to explore concerns that the two drugs, which have spread from the clubbing scene into schools, could cause long-term damage.

The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, found that those students who used either drug were between 60 and 70 percent more likely to exhibit heightened symptoms of depression.

The authors tracked the mental health of a sample of 3,880 teenagers from deprived areas in Quebec between 2003 and 2008, quizzing them on their drug use and later testing their mental health on a validated scale.

The use of speed (meth/amphetamine) was found to be more common, with 11.6 percent (451) admitting taking it, while 8 percent (310) admitted taking ecstasy (MDMA).

The use of both drugs was admitted by 6.7 percent of the sample. Teenagers in this group were found to be twice as likely to have depressive symptoms as those who used neither drug.

The authors claimed this pointed toward "additive or synergistic adverse effects of concurrent use".

"Our results provide, to the best of our knowledge, the first compelling evidence that recreational [ecstasy] and [speed] use places developing secondary school students at greater risk of experiencing depressive symptoms," the researchers concluded.

While they admit that the causative contribution of drug use itself to depression is "relatively modest", they caution that even a modest contribution can have "significant clinical implications from a population health perspective".

They propose that further research should be undertaken to look into whether depressive symptoms are an effect of neurological damage, which adolescent brains could be more susceptible to, and are keen to examine the differences between adults and adolescents in this area.

Speed, or amphetamine, is a widely used drug in the clubbing and rave scene. The drug make people more awake, overactive and chatty. it is generally followed by a long comedown and can put a strain on the user's heart. It can also lead to anxiety, aggression and paranoia.

Ecstasy is popular because it makes users feel energetic and happy, allowing them to stay up partying into the early hours. Its use has been linked to liver, kidney and heart problems, while its comedown often leads users to feel lethargic or depressed.

Blood Test Diagnoses Depression In Teens

Diagnosing depression may soon include a simple blood test, according to research published Tuesday. new study. Researchers developed a blood test to identify markers for depression in teenagers that maylead to better treatments and lessen the stigma surrounding the condition.

Doctors currently rely on patients coming forward with symptoms to diagnose depression. However, differentiating between types of depression can be difficult without an objective diagnosis, researchers said. Instead, using a diagnostic blood test could allow for more personalized treatment.

"Right now depression is treated with a blunt instrument," Dr. Eva Redei, study author and professor of psychiatry at Northwestern University, said in a statement. "It's like treating type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes exactly the same way. We need to do better."

Previous studies identified 26 potential genetic markers for depression in rats. Redei and her team found 11 similar markers in depressed teens that they did not find in the control group.

"These 11 genes are probably the tip of the iceberg because depression is a complex illness," Redei said in a statement. "But it's an entree into a much bigger phenomenon that has to be explored. It clearly indicates we can diagnose from blood and create a blood diagnosis test for depression."

Some doctors remain skeptical of the findings since the study examined only 28 volunteers. Skeptics said research needs to show whether the markers can test a wider population and whether the markers are present in adults as well before the test can be considered viable.

"I think people are looking for a magic bullet, a single answer," Dr. Carol Bernstein, an associate professor of psychiatry at New York University, told ABC News. "But these disorders are much too complicated."

One in 20 Americans over the age of 12 reported feeling symptoms of depression between 2005 and 2006, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Symptoms include hopelessness, feeling like a failure, poor appetite and lack of interest in activities.

Depression affects approximately 1 percent of children under the age of 12, researchers said. But as children enter their teenage years, depression affects almost 25 percent. Depression that sets in during the teenage years has a poorer prognosis than depression that sets in in adulthood, increasing the risk of substance abuse, suicide and physical illness, researchers said.

Being able to diagnose depression with a blood test could mean more people getting treatment. None of the teens who were diagnosed with depression over the course of the study opted for treatment, most likely due to the stigma that comes with it, Redei said.

Depression is treated through a combination of medication and therapy, but many people see the disease as a defect and think it will make people view them as "broken", Dr. Jonathan Rottenberg, an associate professor of psychology at the University of South Florida, said in a Psychology Today blog post.

 The journal Translational Psychiatry published the study on Tuesday.

Sleep Apnea and Snoring in Children Linked to Behavioural Problems

Children with night-time breathing problems such as snoring or sleep apnea are more likely to develop behavioural problems such as hyperactivity, anxiety or aggressiveness and have problems with peer relationships, according to a new study in Pediatrics.

Children with "sleep-disordered breathing" such as snoring and sleep apnea were 40 percent to 100 percent more likely to develop behavioural issues by age 7 than the children who breathed normally through the night, researchers found.

The study surveyed 11,000 children over six years and found nearly over half of the children, 6,000 in total, had breathing disorders during sleep.

"This is the strongest evidence to date that snoring, mouth breathing, and apnea can have serious behavioural and social-emotional consequences for children," Karen Bonuck, lead author and professor of family and social medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University, said in a statement.

"Parents and pediatricians alike should be paying closer attention to sleep-disordered breathing in young children, perhaps as early as the first year of life," she said.

Sleep apnea and snoring decrease oxygen levels and increase carbon dioxide levels in the brain, according to the study.

The imbalanced brain chemistry interrupts the restorative process of sleep and leads to an inability to regulate emotion and impairs the ability to pay attention, plan ahead and organize, researchers said.

"We are sleeping to restore our brains, and sleep-disordered breathing interferes with that process," Bonuck reported. "For kids, these are critical periods in brain development."

Researchers saw symptoms of sleep-disordered breathing appear as early as 6 months in some children. Children who presented symptoms while very young, were between 40 and 50 percent more likely to experience behavioural problems.

"Although snoring and sleep apnea are relatively common in children, pediatricians and family physicians do not routinely check for sleep-disordered breathing," Bonuck said in a statement.

"In many cases, the doctor will simply ask parents, 'How is your child sleeping?' Instead, physicians need to specifically ask parents whether their children are experiencing one or more of the symptoms of SDB, i.e. snoring, mouth breathing or apnea." she said.

About one in 10 children snore regularly and 2 to 4 percent have sleep apnea, according to the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.

The journal Pediatrics published the study on Monday 5th March 2012.

People with sleep apnea take abnormally long pauses between breaths in their sleep. The pauses can last up to several minutes and may occur up to 30 times per hour, forcing them to wake up often during the night to take a breath, according to the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Sleep apnea can cause frequent headaches and mood swings and if left untreated increases the risk of heart attack, stroke and diabetes, according to the NHLBI. Enlarged tonsils, also commonly cause sleep-disordered breathing.

Being overweight is one of the largest risk factors for sleep apnea and snoring, according to the NHLBI. Losing weight helps to reduce the effects.

Other treatment for sleep-disordered breathing includes the use of a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine. A CPAP machine consists of a mask that fits over the user's mouth and/ or nose and blows air continuously into the throat, keeping the airway open and allowing the user to breathe easier.

Surgery is sometimes performed to remove excess tissue in the mouth and throat to reduce symptoms.

US Healthcare costs related to Sleep Apnea costs about $1,336 per year, for a total of $3 billion annually, according to a 1999 study published in the journal Sleep.

When “OK?” is not OK!

When asking a child to do something positive, like go to bed or to stop doing something negative, like whining, some mothers and fathers routinely attach the word “OK?” to the end of their response.

It sounds like this:
“It’s time for bed now, honey. OK?”
“I want you to stop whining and use your big girl voice, OK?”

This is bad practice. Why?

First of all, there’s no need for the extra comment. Requests should be kept simple, short and straightforward.

Second, the “OK?” is not a benign comment, it’s a troublemaker. The “OK?” communicates to the child that the parent is anxious about whether or not the youngster is going to cooperate.

Kids can sense this anxiety in their parent’s voice immediately, even though the child may be only two or three years old. The “OK?” tells the child right away that the parent is vulnerable and unsure of herself or himself.

Third, the troublesome “OK?” implies that at this point the child has a choice in the matter.

Now how many kids like to go to bed at night or actually want to stop whining? Not very many.

So combine the kid’s natural aversion to cooperating with the parent’s uncertainty and what do you get? You get the potential for a bad scene complete with arguing, yelling and tantrums.

So next time you want a child to cooperate and you need to make a simple request, DO NOT put “OK?” on the end of it!

Social Anxiety: Misreading faces

Children suffering from extreme social anxiety are trapped in a nightmare of misinterpreted facial expressions: They confuse angry faces with sad ones, a new study shows.

"If you misread facial expressions, you're in social trouble, no matter what other social skills you have," says Emory psychologist Steve Nowicki, a clinical researcher who developed the tests used in the study.

"It can make life very difficult, because other people's faces are like a prism through which we look at the world."

It's easy to assume that a socially anxious child would be especially sensitive to anger. "It turns out that they never learn to pick up on anger and often make the error of seeing it as sadness," Nowicki says.

"It sets up a very problematic interaction." Some socially anxious children long to interact with others, he says, and may try to comfort someone they think is sad, but who is actually angry.

"They want to help, because they're good kids," Nowicki says. "I've seen these kids trying to make a friend, and keep trying, but they keep getting rebuffed and are never aware of the reason why."

The study was co-authored by Amy Walker, a former undergraduate student at Emory, now at Yeshiva University, and will be published in the Journal of Genetic Psychology.

It is unclear whether misreading the facial expression is linked to the cause of the anxiety, or merely contributing to it.

By identifying the patterns of errors in nonverbal communication, Nowicki hopes to create better diagnostic tools and interventions for those affected with behavioural disorders.

Misreading faces tied to child social anxiety

Overprotective parents may impact heart anxiety in adults with congenital heart conditions

Adults with congenital heart disease are more likely to suffer heart-focused anxiety — a fear of heart-related symptoms and sensations — if their parents were overprotective during their childhood and adolescence.

Dr. Lephuong Ong from Orion Health Services in Vancouver, and colleagues from University Health Network and York University in Toronto, Canada, suggest that health care professionals could encourage greater independence for adolescents and adults with congenital heart disease to improve their psychosocial adjustment. Dr. Ong’s work1 is published online in Springer’s International Journal of Behavioral Medicine.

Approximately one percent of all infants are born with congenital heart defects and over 90 percent of these children survive into adulthood, thanks to recent medical advances. As well as their medical condition, these patients face mental health issues including anxiety, neurocognitive deficits, body image concerns and difficulties with relationships. Research suggests that levels of parental protection are likely to be higher in children with congenital heart disease compared with healthy children.

Ong and team investigated the relationship between patient recollections of parental overprotection — defined as intrusion, excessive contact, infantilization and prevention of independent behavior — and heart-focused anxiety in adults with congenital heart disease. The researchers assessed heart defect severity, heart-focused anxiety and perceived parental overprotection during childhood for a sub-sample of 192 adults participating in the study.

Their analyses showed that levels of heart-focused anxiety rose as levels of parental overprotection increased. Disease severity was also linked to higher anxiety levels. Surprisingly, levels of parental overprotection did not vary with disease severity.

The authors conclude: “Adults with congenital heart disease, who report their parents as being overprotective, might have learned to form negative interpretations of their symptoms and use maladaptive coping behaviors, like avoidance and fearful responding, when experiencing cardiac symptoms or when faced with situations that trigger cardiac-related sensations. Clinicians could consider providing recommended activity guidelines for parents and their children to reduce limitations on activities that are deemed medically appropriate, to encourage independence among adolescents and young adults with congenital heart defects.”

Self Esteem and Stress Management

Individuals with learning disabilities often struggle with self esteem because of poor academic performance or difficulties with social relationships.

Most parents want to help their children develop self esteem. For the child without special needs it’s a challenge—but for the youngster with extra issues, it can seem like an overwhelming task.

There are some essential facts to keep in mind. Self esteem is not static. It can fluctuate depending on one’s state of mind and circumstances. Parents can only do so much to help their child. After a certain age, a parent’s input, while still crucial, is only part of the confidence equation.

As children age, peer input as well as their ability to accomplish become an important part of how they develop self confidence. Still, it’s our job as parents to try to bolster our kids when they feel low.

Building Self-esteem and confidence

Here are 7 easy tips that will help you build self esteem.

• Be generous with affecion; lots of hugs and kisses.
• Take plenty baby pictures. Everyone wants to see how they looked as a baby. Too often parents of children who look different avoid talking pictures of their kids as babies and as they grow.
• Don’t allow your child’s condition to define him e.g. he’s not an autistic child; he’s a child who suffers from autism.
• Be a compassionate listener and do not be judgemental. Try to understand who your child is and where they are coming from, even if you initially disagree with his or her perception of a situation.
• Use honest, open communication at all times. Kids know when you’re lying and hiding things from them.
• Don’t compare your child unfavourably with other children. Be happy with and focus on, his accomplishments.
• Become aware of your own attitudes of people’s appearances and their limitations. If need be, tone down any negative comments. Parents who make positive and negative comments about other people send the message that physical perfection is important and has a high priority.

Ultimately, it’s important to parents to understand their own feelings about appearance, disability and imperfection, so they can fully accept their child for the wonderful gift he really is.

Click the link below for more articles that provide tips for parents for developing healthy self esteem in their children, as well as resources for ways to talk with kids about learning disabilities.

Full article and additional information here..........

Fathers suffering from postpartum depression.

Fathers suffering from postpartum depression. It’s a topic not usually discussed publicly, but doctors are saying the problem is more widespread than you would think.

The birth of a child is supposed to be a happy time for a new father but suddenly a screaming baby, sleepless nights and coming second in your wife's affections, makes him feel confused, helpless and out of control.

It changes their role in life and affects their sense of themselves.

“I think new fathers have indeed suffered depression for a long time, but that the equality of gender in our society now makes it a little easier to speak about,” said Dr. Keith Ablow, a psychiatrist.

There are even Web sites dedicated to the topic, which address the symptoms, treatments and support groups.

“In my own practice, I have treated many men with postpartum depression who see the birth of their children as heralding major changes in their lives, including higher levels of responsibility and commitment, which can provoke anxiety,” Ablow wrote. “Others fear that they will lose the affection of their wives as attention is (appropriately) diverted from them to their children.”

History of Depression
Men who have a history of depression are at an increased risk of developing postpartum depression, as are men whose partners are also depressed.

Like most cases of depression, symptoms include low mood, tearfulness, decreased energy, low self-esteem, impaired sleep and/or appetite and thoughts of suicide, Ablow said.

While postpartum depression in fathers usually occurs within four weeks of the baby’s delivery, Ablow said he has seen some cases develop after the three-month mark.

If you suspect your baby's father is suffering from postpartum depression, be supportive, Ablow advised. Remind him that his feelings are only temporary and they won’t last forever. Urge him to go to counseling, as psychotherapy is often an effective means of treatment.

Psychotherapy
“Psychotherapy is very effective in treating postpartum depression in men because the issues are so often tied to their own suboptimal experiences with their dads and their misgivings about marriage and commitment,” Ablow said. “Medications, including SSRIs, can also be very helpful.”

Women should try to include the new dads into the new ritual of mother-child bonding. He may feel withdrawn from the child, and encouraging him to spend time with the new baby may be helpful. Also, scheduling some time for romance — maybe a “date night” — can’t hurt either