Tag Archives: disorder

Sensory Integration Dysfunction: What is Vestibular Disorder?

The child with dysfunction of sensory integration (DSI) gets confused signals as the brain is interpreting information from the senses. This can cause all kinds of difficult or unusual behaviors in your son or daughter. (To understand the basics of sensory integration disorder, click here.) We have more than five senses, including the vestibular sense, which is input from the inner ear, along with visual, auditory, and movement receptors that travel to the brainstem, reticular formation, and cerebellum for processing. This input provides information about balance and movement, and how the size of our body relates to the sizes of … Continue reading →

Nature – deficit Disorder Plaguing Our Children

In a world where media use is on the rise causing children to spend time indoors and many children live in places where their backyard consists of a concrete slab author Richard Louv says a new disorder is affecting our children – nature deficit disorder. In his new book Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv claims that children are losing their connection with the natural world. Although not an official diagnosis, Richard Louv describes nature deficit disorder as an effect of withdrawing nature from childhood experiences. It increases stress and inattention and causes feelings of not being rooted in … Continue reading →

Side Effects of Attachment Disorders (Part 8) Feeling

Children who have attachment disorders have spent a significant amount of time thinking about survival. Many children have spent so much time just making it one day to the next that they don’t have the time or energy to even think about how they are feeling. A child with an attachment disorder is usually very out of touch with feelings in general, except for the common feeling of anger. A child who is not in touch with their own feelings may not even know when they feel sick. These children are the one’s likely to stand outside in the freezing … Continue reading →

Side Effects of Attachment Disorders (Part 7) Anger and Rage

Anger of course! Who wouldn’t be angry having their lives turned upside down? A child with an attachment disorder usually feels like life is all buck luck for them. Often a child with an attachment disorder resents all the past rejection and abandonment feelings they have learned to accept. Some children can rage for hours about things that were never really there and for things, they never got. Many attachment disorder children are completely out of touch with some of the other important emotions and feelings such as joy, sadness, pain, fear, and most other emotions, but they know what … Continue reading →

Side Effects of Attachment Disorders (Part 6) Thinking Errors

Children with attachment disorders will often draw an incorrect conclusion. The changes in caregivers and lack of control the child has had over their lives causes many children to become emotionally isolated. There is no one who has always been a part of their lives, and there are huge raps in what the child has learned along the way. A child with an attachment disorder has never experienced a close enough relationship where modeling would have played a big part in the child’s development. There has been abusive, neglectful and just different changes in their lifetime. Perceptions about the world … Continue reading →

Side Effects of Attachment Disorders (Part 4) Conscience Development

In the effort to survive, children with attachment disorders have learned to think about only themselves. Because the child hasn’t had a chance to develop a healthy long lasting attachment, the child may not have learned how to care about the way his or her behaviors affect anyone else. To a child with an attachment disorder it really doesn’t matter how the new parents or caregivers feel about the child, he or she has not had the opportunity to develop an active conscience. A healthy well-attached child begins to care about how their actions affect the other important people in … Continue reading →

Side Effects of Attachment Disorders (Part 1) Introduction.

Children with attachment disorders feel their safety is constantly threatened. Life has shown the child it is too risky to trust someone who is bigger, stronger, and smarter to protect them. These children tend to have radar tuned into keeping safe. This can interfere with usual childhood learning experiences and development. Other side effects from attachment disorders can contribute to behaviors that baffle, frustrate and drain even the most determined adoptive parents. These behaviors will be discussed at length in the next several Blogs. Some of the side effect behaviors seen in children with attachment disorders are: Opposition. Control. Conscience … Continue reading →

Social Phobia – A Case Study

Jeff is a quiet sort of a guy. He is reasonably well-liked, mainly because he doesn’t step on anyone’s toes and is always willing to go along with other people’s suggestions. His acquaintances sometimes laugh about how shy he is, and how odd it is that a grown man can blush for no apparent reason. “What color’s red, Jeff?”is always guaranteed to get a few laughs. For everyone except Jeff, of course. He’s also popular with the boss at work, as he gets on with the job without too much fuss and doesn’t waste time standing around telling jokes and … Continue reading →

Childhood Seizures: What Parents Should Know

If your child had a seizure, would you know it? And would you know what to do? What is a seizure? A seizure is a brief period of time when a person’s brain has a surge of electrical activity. The surge temporarily alters consciousness, perceptions, and/or muscle control. Children with Cerebral Palsy, Autism, mental retardation, or any neurological disorder are at higher risk for experiencing a seizure. It’s a good idea for parents to recognize the symptoms and know what to do. Possible signs of a seizure: Staring Spells. If your child has episodes of staring into space, make it … Continue reading →

Night Terrors: How to Help Your Child

I’ll never forget my brother’s phone call a few years ago. He was out of breath, and his voice trembled as he spoke to me. He explained that his young son had just gotten out of bed about an hour after being put down. The boy appeared awake, and his eyes were wide with terror. He also screamed in fear of something, and spoke with language that didn’t make sense. “His eyes looked right through me as if I weren’t there,” my brother said. The behavior chilled my brother to the bone. It was as though his son were possessed, … Continue reading →