SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF STRESS

IN CHILDREN

Preschoolers:  Lack of self control, no sense of time, act independently, are curious, may wet the bed, have changes in eating habits, have difficulty with sleep or speech and can not tell adults how they are feeling. Some behaviors are: irritability, anxiety, uncontrollable crying, trembling with fright, may regress to infant behaviors, become sad or angry and have nightmares and accidents.

Elementary Age:  Whine when things don’t go their way, be aggressive, question adults, complain about school, have fears, withdrawal feeling of being unloved, being distrustful, headaches or stomachaches, have trouble sleeping have a loss of appetite or urinate frequently and have nightmares.

Preteens and Adolescents:  Adolescents typically are rebellious, sleep disturbances, hurt themselves, lack self-esteem, distrust the world, show extreme behaviors ranging from doing everything they are asked to rebelling, breaking all of the rules and taking part in high risk behaviors, tendencies toward sever depression and suicidal actions.

THREE COMPONENTS OF ANGER

The First Component is the emotion itself, defined as an affective or arousal state, or a feeling experienced when a goal is blocked or needs are frustrated. Conflict offer possessions, Physical assault, Verbal Conflict, Rejection, and Issues of Compliance.

The Second Component of anger is its expression. Some children vent or express anger through facial expression, crying, sulking, or talking, but do little to try to solve a problem or confront the provocateur.

The Third Component of the anger experience is understanding, interpreting and evaluating the emotion. Because the ability to regulate the expression of anger is linked to an understanding of the emotion and because children’s ability to reflect on their anger is somewhat limited, children need guidance from teachers, parents or counselors in understanding and managing their feelings of anger.

Child Assessment   For    Stress, Anger & Abuse

Assessment of children has been utilized extensively to determine a child’s preparedness for entering the public schoolsystems, for addressing motor skills, behavioral problems and a variety of other conditions.  Currently we are aware that children are under a considerable amount of stress, carry within themselves anger and rage and in many cases have suffered severely the effects of abuse, be it physical, mental, emotional, sexual and psychological as well as the effects of neglect.  Our focus will be in the areas of stress, anger or rage and the effects of abuse.  We will leave the majority of assessments regarding educational levels etc., to other professionals.

What is assessment?

Assessment is the process of gathering information about a child in order to make a decision about his or her state of well being.  In order to assess the child’s well being it is necessary to engage the child in either a directed or non-directed manner so that indicators which help the professional determine the extent of difficulties may be observed.

2 Types of Assessments

Play based assessment within an

Office Setting.

Play based assessment within an office setting  is utilized to observes the child’s behavior while
interacting with a myriad of objects rather than with peers and noting the manner in which the child interacts with the varied objects. This method of assessment leads to an understand of the child's social level of development while allowing the child to express fears, anger, stress, rage and a wide range of other behavioral or emotional patterns.

Art based Assessment within an

Office Setting.

Utilizing art is generally thought of as a therapeutic tool however, it has been well documented that the art of children are valuable for diagnostic

purposes to a much greater extent. When left to their own devices, children will express clearly their attitudes, fears, anxieties and apprehensions within the context of their drawing, coloring, paintings, etc.  For the professional who has learned to read the art, all of the child’s work tells a story about the state of ell being and more generally is an expression which can be utilized in determining causes of difficulties and appropriate action to resolve stress, anger, trauma and more.

Our Commitment

Our concern is for the well being of your child, his or her ability to excel in all areas of their life and in their development into an emotionally, mentally and psychologically healthy young adult. We utilize a variety of techniques to aid in the assessment of your child, all of which have been designed to reach into the emotions and mind of the child so as provide us with sufficient information to fully assess any stressors which have led to the currently observed behavior.