When to Take Your Kid to a Child Psychologist

Posted by child psychology on October 25th, 2016

Just like adults, children face a lot of challenges as they grow up. They suffer from things such as grief, stress and bullying. It can be a bit challenging to determine whether your child will work through some of these challenges and when they need expert assistance. Parents usually wait for long before they can take their kids to a therapist.  When parents show concern about their children, they are often told by people close to them and even pediatrics to just relax and wait as they will grow out of it. While there are times when this advice is good, there are some other times when it will not work. Kids don’t develop at the same speed.

Incase your child is suffering from emotional, behavioral and learning problems, the earlier they will be in a position to get treatment, the better it will be for them. However as a parent, it will necessary to avoid misdiagnosis and unnecessary treatment that will cost you money and time. The good thing is that there is lots of help out there for children and the earlier you seek it, the better.

When you should take action

There are moments when it will be advisable to seek intervention immediately. For instance:

•    Eating disorders. The longer the period of time that a child will have eating disorders, the harder it will be for them to recover.

•    He is having difficult at home, school and other areas. In case a child is struggling with certain emotions, he will end up doing badly in different areas of his life. He will show signs such as answering rudely to his teacher or even hitting other children.

•    Isolating themselves from friends. There are many instances when friendship will change. There are kids who will enjoy bigger peer groups as compared to others. However, when your child is avoiding making friends, this could be a red flag. You should also be on the lookout for words such as “I am a loser” or “ people hate me”.

•    He starts regressing. When children face a major challenge in their lives, they tend to regress. This could be as a result of moving to a new locality, birth of a younger sibling or divorce of their parents. There are behaviors such as clingy behaviors, bed wetting, excessive fearfulness and tantrums that are not related to the change.

•    She becomes so worried and sad.  Children will become sad and worried at one time in life. This is a part of their childhood. However when worrying gets to a point where it interfere with their ability to attend school or even enable them to care for themselves, then it should not be considered to be normal.

•    Develops self destructive behaviors. This is a major challenge because kids will at times bang their heads against the wall with no intention of hurting themselves. However, when the child shows repeated behaviors that are self-destructive like self cutting this should call for a visit to a child psychologist.

•    They repeatedly talk of death. If they are just exploring the concept of death, then this is normal. However, if the child repeatedly talks of death, this should act as a redflag.

When you notice one or more of these signs in your kid, it is time to visit a child psychologist.