Showing posts with label Understanding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Understanding. Show all posts
Tuesday, 30 November 2010
The Explosive Child: A New Approach for Understanding and Parenting Easily Frustrated, Chronically Inflexible Children
19:35 | 
Posted by
Sharon Underwood |
Flexibility and tolerance are learned skills, as any parent knows if they've seen an irascible 2-year-old grow into a pleasant, thoughtful, and considerate older child. Unfortunately, for reasons that are poorly understood, a few children don't "get" this part of socialization. Years after toddler tantrums should have become an unpleasant memory, a few unlucky parents find themselves battling with sudden, inexplicable, disturbingly violent rages--along with crushing guilt about what they "did wrong." Medical experts haven't helped much: the flurry of acronyms and labels (Tourette's, ADHD, ADD, etc.) seems to proffer new discoveries about the causes of such explosions, when in fact the only new development is alternative vocabulary to describe the effects. Ross Greene, a pediatric psychologist who also teaches at Harvard Medical School, makes a bold and humane attempt in this book to cut through the blather and speak directly to the (usually desperate) parents of explosive children. His text is long and serious, and has the advantage of covering an enormous amount of ground with nuance, detail, and sympathy, but also perhaps the disadvantage that only those parents who are not chronically tired and time-deprived are likely to get through the entire book. Quoted dialogue from actual sessions with parents and children is interspersed with analysis that is always oriented toward understanding the origins of "meltdowns" and developing workable strategies for avoidance. Although pharmacological treatment is not the book's focus, there is a chapter on drug therapies. --Richard FarrPrice: $14.99
Labels:
Approach,
Child,
Children,
Chronically,
Easily,
Explosive,
Frustrated,
Inflexible,
Parenting,
Understanding
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Monday, 29 November 2010
What is Asperger's Disorder? Understanding Aspberger's Syndrome
The question 'What is Aspergers?' can be answered expediently by way of definition: Aspergers disorder, also known as Aspbergers Syndrome or autistic psychopathy, is a neurobiological condition which falls within the group of childhood disorders classified as pervasive development disorders.
The namesake of Aspbergers disorder is Hans Asperger, a Viennese physician who in 1944 published a description of behavioral patters in male youths who displayed normal intellect and linguistic capacity but compromised social functioning and communication skills. It holds some parallels to autism, however children with Aspergers disorder rarely experience equivalent difficulties in language acquisition to those children who have autism.
Parents of children with Aspergers disorder are no longer left to ponder 'what is aspergers' insofar as it is now classified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (text revised) as being a developmental disorder of childhood. However, the symptoms of aspergers disorder in children or individuals can be problematic and concerning pre-diagnosis.
The primary features are as follows:
1. Severe impairment of social reasoning & interaction including:
A reduced appreciation of non-verbal communication, such as eye contact, body language, and facial expressions.
A latency in developing age appropriate peer relationships.
A lack of reciprocity, and spontaneity in engaging in shared interests with others, coupled with a notable lack of empathetic emotion.
2. Repetitive patterns of behavior including:
A pre-occupation with an interest or activity, often singular objects or parts of objects, which is extenuated by abnormal focus and intensity.
Rigid adherence to routines or rituals.
Repetative motor activities such as finger tapping, head motion, or more complex body movements.
What is often lacking in children with Aspergers disorder is any significant delay in general language capacity. Most children progress with normal development in infancy and are capable of communicating with phrases by the age of 3. Other children with Aspergers in fact display high degrees of functioning in specific areas, which can give rise to behavioral eccentricities. This at times can place additional emphasis on the social awkwardness of these children and serves to further alienate them from their peer group.
Similarly, Aspergers Disorder children can display normal cognitive development and the appropriation of self help skills, adaptive behavior and natural curiosity. However, basal motor coordination may be diminished, and as such children may present as somewhat clumsy, and lack coordination.
Focusing again on the question of what is Aspergers, it is noteworthy that the profession is somewhat divided as to whether Aspergers disorder equates to a form of High Functioning Autism, or whether it is more appropriately categorized as a Non-verbal Learning Disability.
Certainly the diagnosis of the condition has become more advanced, but if the question what is aspergers remains yet to be comprehensively answered, it begs the question as to how effectively it can be treated.
The namesake of Aspbergers disorder is Hans Asperger, a Viennese physician who in 1944 published a description of behavioral patters in male youths who displayed normal intellect and linguistic capacity but compromised social functioning and communication skills. It holds some parallels to autism, however children with Aspergers disorder rarely experience equivalent difficulties in language acquisition to those children who have autism.
Parents of children with Aspergers disorder are no longer left to ponder 'what is aspergers' insofar as it is now classified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (text revised) as being a developmental disorder of childhood. However, the symptoms of aspergers disorder in children or individuals can be problematic and concerning pre-diagnosis.
The primary features are as follows:
1. Severe impairment of social reasoning & interaction including:
A reduced appreciation of non-verbal communication, such as eye contact, body language, and facial expressions.
A latency in developing age appropriate peer relationships.
A lack of reciprocity, and spontaneity in engaging in shared interests with others, coupled with a notable lack of empathetic emotion.
2. Repetitive patterns of behavior including:
A pre-occupation with an interest or activity, often singular objects or parts of objects, which is extenuated by abnormal focus and intensity.
Rigid adherence to routines or rituals.
Repetative motor activities such as finger tapping, head motion, or more complex body movements.
What is often lacking in children with Aspergers disorder is any significant delay in general language capacity. Most children progress with normal development in infancy and are capable of communicating with phrases by the age of 3. Other children with Aspergers in fact display high degrees of functioning in specific areas, which can give rise to behavioral eccentricities. This at times can place additional emphasis on the social awkwardness of these children and serves to further alienate them from their peer group.
Similarly, Aspergers Disorder children can display normal cognitive development and the appropriation of self help skills, adaptive behavior and natural curiosity. However, basal motor coordination may be diminished, and as such children may present as somewhat clumsy, and lack coordination.
Focusing again on the question of what is Aspergers, it is noteworthy that the profession is somewhat divided as to whether Aspergers disorder equates to a form of High Functioning Autism, or whether it is more appropriately categorized as a Non-verbal Learning Disability.
Certainly the diagnosis of the condition has become more advanced, but if the question what is aspergers remains yet to be comprehensively answered, it begs the question as to how effectively it can be treated.
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