Diagnosis is the main backbone of each treatment process. The right diagnosis of mental health issues is essential and challenging at the same time. If you are worried about your child’s mental health and suspect that your child is suffering from any mental issue then you should not overlook the diagnostic process in child psychiatry.
With the help of the right diagnosis, you can determine the actual mental state of your child. With the help of symptom identification, you can develop a therapeutic strategy to protect your child’s mental health from common mental health issues. However, if you want to determine the all factors of a diagnostic process then you should read this article thoroughly. After that, you will get a complete picture of the significance of the diagnostic process in child psychiatry and the effective strategies that parents should employ to protect their child’s mental health.
Do children suffer from multiple mental health issues?
Any individual including children, adolescents as well and adults can suffer from mental illness. But among all, children are more susceptible to the onset of symptoms of different mental health issues. In addition, they have to experience more emotional as well as behavioral challenges. One of the major challenging factors is the overlapping of symptoms in children. Moreover, as there is a diversity in symptoms of mental health issues, there are also varied causes that stem the symptoms of common mental health issues.
Most of the individuals usually misdiagnose the symptoms. For example, inattentiveness is a common symptom of ADHD. But it’s not necessary that if your child is having focus issues then he or she is suffering from ADHD. This symptom can also appear in the case of anxiety. Therefore, parents should be familiar with all concepts of mental health issues. But always remember that only professionals can better evaluate the mental state to confirm the presence of suspected mental illness.
Understanding the Pediatric or child psychiatry
Pediatric or child psychiatry is a specialized psychiatry that revolves around children. Experts focus on all social, biological as well as behavioral aspects of a child’s emotional and mental health disorders. Moreover, children can suffer from a range of psychiatric or mental health disorders which include anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia, personality and mood disorders, etc. For each mental illness, children have to experience different challenges in different areas of life.
Understand the Diagnostic process in child psychiatry
Mental health experts do not simply focus on those initial facts that are provided by the parents. Instead of this, they perform a broad evaluation to explore all the facts and gather information regarding the child’s emotional as well as behavioral challenges. If they only rely on the misconceptions provided by the parents then they can not effectively provide the diagnostic results. Therefore, they focus on getting the bigger picture of child-related issues for the effective implementation of the therapeutic strategies.
The main target factor of diagnosis is the symptoms and mental health professionals strive to find the symptoms and their extent. They get a complete overview of the present problems that your child faces. Moreover, they determine multiple things through the symptoms such as:
- When do symptoms appear?
- Is there any intensity in the symptoms?
- Is there any effect of mental illness on child development?
- Do symptoms affect the habits of children?
- Is there any previous medical history of a child?
What are the types of evaluations that are used to test mental or behavioral issues?
Different types of evaluations help the experts to decide whether the child should take mental health assistance or not. With the help of the following types of evaluations, different mental as well as behavioral issues can be evaluated and then treated accordingly.
- Psychitaric evalution
- Psychological evaluation
- Neuropsychological evaluation
- Developmental evaluation
- Psychoeduxcationbnal evaluation
- ADHD testing
- Psychosexual evaluation
- Individualized education plan testing
Do symptoms affect the personal or academic life of children?
By determining the above-mentioned and some other factors, experts then determine what kind of mental health challenges your child is facing. Moreover, they plan the next step or provide effective and reliable psychiatric recommendations. Without the diagnosis, experts can not understand what’s happening in your mind and what kind of steps in treatment they should take to protect the mental health of children.
Which tools are used in the diagnostic process in child psychiatry?
Various diagnostic tools are used by experts but some of the common ones are as follows:
Structured interviews
As the name indicates, experts simply interviewed the child and asked some questions related to the suspected mental illness as well as the resulting behavioral changes. They do not perform any other testing during the psychological interview. Then they analyze the answers and get the right direction of diagnosis. The following are the two common tools that function as structured interviews.
- Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia
- Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule
Rating scales
Rating scales are also considered the best diagnostic or screening tool. They focus on determining the symptoms and their associated extent. In addition, rating scales rate the child in a numerical order based on the symptoms. There are also different rating criteria for children that experts use to diagnose different mental health disorders in children.
For ADHD: If the child is grappling with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder then the most common tools which are used include:
- Nolan
- Pelham
- Swanson
For Autism: To detect autism spectrum disorder, the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule or A-DOS is the main diagnostic tool. This tool provides analysis based on the tasks that occur between the child and the expert who is evaluating.
How to initially discuss the process of diagnosis with your child?
As diagnosis is important, discussion with parents or caretakers with children about the diagnosis of their mental health issue is also paramount.
Encourage your child to discuss:
Most of the parents feel embarrassed in the discussion. Moreover, they also avoid discussing it too early with their child. So this thing should be avoided. Parents should never compromise on the mental health of their children. Whenever they get the report of diagnosis, they should discuss and make their children aware of their mental state. Because after the parents, children can also do something for themselves with courage and confidence. Parents should focus on developing confidence in children so they can ask multiple questions on their own if anything comes to their mind regarding their mental illness.
Sense of understanding:
During the discussion, parents should consider the age of their children and only provide the facts and information that they can easily process and do something on their own.
Stay patient:
Moreover, you should develop trust in your children. Whatever your child asks from you, you have to answer all questions and satisfy your child. Moreover, while talking about the symptoms of mental illness, you have to control your nerves and stay patient so you and your child never panic and supremely confront the mental illness.
Make the evaluation interesting
Children usually take more interest in games. If they are asked to sit quietly in evaluation then they can get bored. So parents should tell the children that they are playing games so they take more interest and answer all the evaluating questions with ease.
Make an effective schedule
If you want to see the best results of testing then you have to focus on your child’s schedule of the entire day’s activity. If your child is going to experience the testing early morning then ask him to take sleep early to remain active during the testing or evaluation process. Likewise, you should also consider the diet of your child. Give morning snacks before the evaluation so your child feels more energetic and active.
Discussion of diagnosis with different age groups of children
Different children have different levels of understanding. So parents, caretakers, or experts should first consider their age to develop a plan of diagnostic evaluation so they correctly process the conversion in their mind.
Conversation in early childhood
If your child is between the ages of 3 to 6 years, then first you have to make them feel secure. Assure them that you are here for them so they feel comfortable during the entire discussion of diagnostic evaluation. Although children of this age can better understand the diagnosis, still you should explain it in easier words. Also, guide them that they will never get harmed by evaluation and they have to simply answer a few questions. Raise the interest of your child by incorporating some play techniques in the diagnostic process. Most of the experts utilize this technique and give some toys or games to children during their conversation so they respond with ease and peace of mind.
Conversation with tweens
Tweens are the children who are between the ages of 8 to 12 years. Their level of understanding is greater as compared to the children who are in their early childhood stages. If you provide them a bit of explanation then they can better process them. Moreover, they can better understand the processes or strategies involved in the diagnostic process. At this age, children usually spend more time with their friends or loved ones so they are more familiar with all aspects. This can help them to prepare their mind easily to experience the diagnosis.
Conversation with teenagers
As compared to children and tweens, teenagers can better understand the complex factors of diagnosis. Experts can ask questions in a detailed manner and gather a bunch of information. Moreover, they do not feel any sense of shyness or embarrassment in front of experts and feel free to share their all details.
Also Read:
The Impact of Screen Time on Child Mental Health
Finding the previous life facts is essential to predetermine any future issue. Experts not only evaluate the current mental state of affected children but they also different questions related to the history. They ask the children or parents to narrate their previous life story in detail. Most of the experts prefer to get narration from their parents instead of the children as they usually feel uncomfortable sharing.
Although the behavior of children evolves and undergoes various changes, still experts can gather the information that can help them provide a complete diagnostic report. For example, if a child becomes rude and exhibits anger then there is a possibility that he has a history of separation disorder. But this can only be determined by collecting the previous life history of a child.
Identification of the exact mental illness
It’s not essential that if a child is suffering from one mental illness then can not acquire any other disorder at the same time. However, only experts can find the exact mental illness or any other co-curing mental illness. Moreover, they can better predict that the undesired emotional as well as the behavioral issues stem from a single or multiple source. Therefore, the detailed interviewing of a child is significant.
Any child suffering from ADHD can also suffer from autism or any related mental illness. As most of their symptoms usually overlap with each other that can also create the sense of misdiagnosis. Similarly, if your child is grappling with anxiety or depression then can deal with obsessive-compulsive disorder or any learning disability etc. Experts can pinpoint the exact mental illness and then continue the journey with the diagnostic process and treatment.
Do experts should gather evaluation data from multiple sources?
Absolutely yes, because children behave differently in different settings. There is a possibility that your child shows more tantrums at home as compared to school. Likewise, there can be a scenario in which your child faces only attention issues at school not at home. Therefore, experts should perform the analysis in different settings. They can also ask their teachers, friends, or loved ones with whom they spend more time together.
Is child evaluation different from the adult evaluation?
There are multiple differences between child evaluation and adult evaluation. The process of adult evaluation involves a detailed analysis or interview and experts do not overlook any single factor. In addition, they even get a complete review of all past treatments. Unlike the child evaluation, experts also ask multiple complicated questions from the adults. They even ask them to bring their all previous medical reports with them.
They gather every single information such as the date and time of the appointment, the prescribed medications, and the results of all previous psychological treatments. They do not only focus on the previous medications but also ask the adults to share their current medication regimen. Furthermore, during the adult evaluation sessions experts focus more on cognitive assessment to restore the altered framework of cognitive abilities. In addition, personality traits as well as current life circumstances are also determined.
Why you should get professional support in the diagnostic process in child psychiatry?
Be a responsible parent of your child and prepare your mind to treat the mental health issues of your child. You can self-evaluate the mental condition but if you aren’t satisfied then you can get professional support. Brainpower Wellness Institute is a leading mental health platform that provides the best psychiatric services for all individuals including children, teenagers as well as adults. Our mental health experts have a specialization in child psychiatry and are fully committed to treating or preventing the mental health conditions of your children and the entire family. Moreover, experts can better perform the diagnostic process in child psychiatry. They guide the parents on what kind of strategies they can implement to empower the mental health of children. So you do not need to take stress as we are here to provide you and your children the exceptional mental health support.
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