Introduction 

It is often easier recognizing the physical needs of a child when it comes to the trying to provide adequately for nutritious food, water, warmth and so on.

When it comes to the mental health of child, the parent may not have such as easy time at all. A child mental healthy may not be as obvious as his or her physical condition or needs, thus there parent would have to be knowledgeable on the subject on mental health development before even trying to understand the child’s progress. Get all the info you need here.

CHAPTER 1

Kids Mental Health – The Basics

Synopsis

The ideal good mental health condition would be where the child is able to think clearly in social settings and learn new skills to adapt to the surrounding needs of the time and to also be comfortable with developing his or her own self confidence, high self esteem and an emotionally healthy outlook in life.

The Basics

In the quest to understand and provide well for the child’s optimal mental growth the parent should be able to provide elements such as unconditional love from the family members, teaching the child self confidence and high self esteem standards, spending as much time as possible with the child to encourage social interaction and growth so that the child will be comfortable in knowing how to extend the same to other new additions whenever and wherever introduced.

By taking the time to interact more with the child through play and other means of interaction, the parent will also be able to encourage the child to learn how to accept guidance and encouragements from other sources such as from teachers and supportive caregivers.

It will also help the child to identify safe and secure surrounding in which to interact with others. With the appropriate guidance and discipline, the child will be able to make all the various choices needed for optimal mental health growth.

CHAPTER 2

Nurturing Positivity And Confidence

Synopsis

Self-esteem if often connected to the thought process that this in an important ingredient in promoting the ideal growth of a child’s positive and confident demeanor and outlook. This will also be the contributing factor to the mental growth and corresponding social adaptability of the child.

Self Worth

One of the main contributions a parent can make to developing this in a child’s growing process would be to ensure there is also of positive nurturing styles using love, care and respects as the basis of creating a confident and sociable child.

When a child is taught to look at themselves and learn to accept and like what they see staring back at them, then the road to learning confidence will be established.

Making the child understand how important it is to be able to accept themselves and only choose positive improvements to make should there be a need for changes should be part of the nurturing process provided for by the parent.

It is important to always take the time and trouble to reinforce the need to build a strong self confidence attitude in the child, and this can be done with a lot of positive comments and encouragements.

From even as early as the infancy stage, the little one will be able to perceive its self worth when the appropriate responses are given to its various different cries.

In receiving this attention whenever the baby cries out for it, the first steps to building confidence will be made although at this point the baby really does not realize the implications to its mental growth.

Children too will eventually catch on to this as they learn how to do things according to what is acceptable and thus enjoy the resulting positive nurturing and praise that will help to also build their confidence levels.

CHAPTER 3

Identifying the Behavioral Changes In Your Child

Synopsis

Every parent should be concerned with any changes in behavior patterns a child may display as these could provide significant information to the parent on what is actually going on the in child’s mind and thus his or her world.

What Is Different

There are several benefits in being able to identify these changes and this ability to read into the changes can sometimes be the only means a parent has available to assist in how to tackle a particular situation.

Most medical experts will attest to the fact that a child main display of a particular behavior is usually formed by linking many smaller behaviors together.

Helping the child cope with or enjoy a particular situation would help very much if the parent was able to correctly identify the behavioral pattern, thus enabling the parent to give the correct corresponding assistance to the child.

In trying to understand the child, the parent would have to keenly observe the various reactions and displays of emotions as this will almost always clearly indicate the child’s thought process of needs thus contributing to an eventual more uniform set of behavioral habit that can be more easily read.

The child will also learn to use the parent as their main example by observing the parents’ different reactions and behavioral pattern and in some cases choosing to imitate these with as much similarities as possible.

Therefore the parent would have to be very careful in how they display their own behavioral patterns as they should be constantly aware of the children’s capabilities and understanding levels of copying such displays.

Through such observations the parent will be able to better cope with the different variants such as a strong will child, a child that needs to be competitive always, a child that needs a lot of encouragement and provide the corresponding lessons as needed.

CHAPTER 4

Birth Defects – Causes and Consequences

Synopsis

All parents are concerned with the various aspects of the children and this usually beginning right from the time of conception, and usually never ends. Perhaps one of the first concerns would be about any possible birth defects that child may be born with and how to cope as best as possible should this be the case.

What Can Happen

Birth defects are usually defined as any prevailing abnormalities of structure, function or body metabolism that may or may not be obvious at the time of the birth.

For the more obvious abnormalities, the relevant supporting teams will be able to assist the parent in either learning how to cope with the birth defect or help the parent explore all options available if any, to rectify the defect as soon as it is permissible.

The structural or metabolic defects would be focused mainly on specific body parts that are either missing or deformed in some way which may be caused by some problem with the body chemistry that was unable for some reason to create a complete and perfect baby in the womb.

These defects usually include cases of spina bifida, cleft palate, clubfoot and congenital dislocated hip and many other possibilities.

The defects caused by the congenital infections can usually result in abnormalities when the mother experience and infection before or during the pregnancy stage.

These infections will cause the birth defects and could be in the form of rubella, cytomegalovirus, syphilis, toxoplasmosis, Venezuelan equine encephalic, parvovirus and chicken pox.

The pregnancy period is usually a stage where precautions should be taken to limit the chances of the mother having to cope with the onslaught of deceases that might have very damaging effects on the fetus.

Unfortunately this presence of deformity is not always due to some infection as even seemingly healthy parents, are sometimes presented with a child with apparent deformities.

CHAPTER 5

Behavior Disorders – In and Out

Synopsis

All kids at one time or another have some form of behavioral problems, it is mostly quite an acceptable norm that most parent are usually able to cope with. However when a particular behavior pattern becomes consistent and destructive, help should be sort in understanding and rectifying the situation so that all parties will be able to cope.

Behavior

The more common and not really threatening or overly damaging behavioral disorders would include over active kids getting into mischief, playing pranks, being occasionally rebellious and other milder behavior patterns.

However when these seemingly milder patterns take on a more serious and sinister display of negativity then it can no longer be thought of as normal but now should be looked upon as behavior disorders.

The more common warning signs of such negative and often destructive behavior would be harming or threatening themselves, pets or others, managing or destroying property, lying or stealing, not doing well academically and even skipping school, early smoking, drinking and drug use, early sexual activity, frequent tantrums and arguments and consistent hostility towards authority figures.

All the above displays would certainly signify a problem child and the parent would almost always feel at a lost on how to cope in such situations.

The confusion and anger felt of both sides should be dealt with suitably so that progress can be made to try and overcome this negativity and help the child accept the idea of help with the goal of getting back a calmer and better behavior that others can live with.

Recent research has been able to show that it is not always outside circumstance that contribute to the negative behavior patterns but can sometimes be due to some disorder in the brain.

Lack of certain chemicals or simply the imbalances of chemical in the brain can be one of the causes for the behavior being experienced thus the need to explore this possibility too.

CHAPTER 6

Enhancing Mental Health With Fun Games

Synopsis

Working with children who have mental health problems can be quite challenging and adding to this would be the complication that most of these children would not be willing and open towards the help being given due to the mental condition. Therefore using games as a stimulating factor would be a good and encouraging tool to start with.

Some Tips

These games can easily be sourced and purchased online or at any game stores. Due to the variety available the parent would have to consider the child mental condition and what it would take to stimulate it the best way possible.

It is not always necessary to purchase these games as some can be handmade or invention just from some intuitive imagination to suit the needs at hand.

Board and card games are usually a good way to stimulate the mind. These boards’ games are usually specifically designed to address the mental health problems the child may be facing such as depression, self esteem issues, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and many more.

These board games can also be used from a therapeutic angle which would encourage the child to be involved without being pressured to face the actual mental health condition head on. It can also contribute to helping the child practice improving of the social skills that most mental health problematic children shy away from.

This will also eventually help to improve the self esteem issues the child may be going through. The parent can also use traditional games but with the added feature of getting the child to make one positive statement about themselves each turn they play.

Strategy games can also be particularly useful tools as they too help to build the self confidence of the child during the course of improving on problem solving skill and improving on working as team.

CHAPTER 7

Take Care of Yourself as Well

Synopsis

Exercise in the form of walking, running, cycling or swimming is recommended. If you are above the age of fifty, running is not recommended as it will put a strain on your joints especially on the knees. Swimming is the best form of exercise for all age groups and you can do this any time of the day. Just half an hour of swimming is sufficient.

It Takes You Too

Our body requires a certain amount of rest a day. When you have a child with you, you will find that you are easily tired due to the tension of making sure the child is fed, the child is safe and the child is getting enough rest.

You will be up at all hours to care for the child. All these activities will put a toll on you and make you feel tired. Try and get enough rest whenever possible. Even half an hour of sleep will do you good.

Another factor to maintain a healthy mind and physique is proper nutrition.

You must ensure that you get all the nutrition in the form of vitamins, fibers, carbohydrates and protein in balanced meals and supplements.

These food and supplements will ensure that your body receives what it needs and this will in turn keep the mind healthy and sharp.

IN CONCLUSION

In order to give your child the best health and mental care possible, you have to be physically and mentally healthy to do so.

When you are not one hundred percent, your mental and physical state of mind will not be able to monitor and catch any deviation of your child’s physical and mental sociability.

That is why it is important for you to have a proper regiment of exercise, rest and nutrition to maintain a good physical and mental state.