At the Child Mind Institute, we are committed to supporting children’s mental health and well-being, including that of LGBTQ+ youth. We also recognize how profoundly social media can shape young people’s sense of identity and self-esteem. Here are some of the possible implications of Meta’s new policy as well as guidance for parents who want to ensure a safe and supportive environment for their teens.

In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association removed the term “homosexuality” from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), taking a pivotal step toward removing stigma and promoting acceptance. Modern clinical and academic research shows that sexual orientation and gender identity are not psychiatric disorders but rather fall in the realm of expected variations in human development and function.

On January 7, 2025, Meta changed its community standards on hateful language to add an exception: “We do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation.” Allowing claims that being LGBTQ+ is a mental health disorder flies in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, and these claims may lend credibility to harmful, outdated concepts.

These changes by Meta, even if unintentional, will likely shape online conversations in ways that are hostile to LGBTQ+ teens.

When platforms permit or fail to remove harmful claims, it can embolden users who might otherwise remain silent. LGBTQ+ teens are already at a higher risk of cyberbullying, and any perceived leniency in moderation may encourage bad behavior.

Exposure to negative or invalidating language can exacerbate anxiety, depression, ideas of self-harm, or other mental health issues — particularly for teens who are exploring or coming to terms with their identities.

Even those not directly targeted by bullying can feel invalidated when they see harmful statements online. Over time, these messages affect self-esteem, further marginalizing teens who already face increased, often negative, societal pressures.

Talk with your teen about Meta’s policy change and social media more broadly. Ask how they feel about what they see are seeing online. Invite your teen to share their thoughts and experiences, especially with negativity and bias.

Reiterate that their identity is valid and respected, regardless of what they encounter on social media. Highlight positive role models from the LGBTQ+ community and celebrate stories of strength and acceptance.

Keep a pulse on the platforms your child uses. It’s not always practical or advisable to cut out social media entirely. But you can suggest breaks, especially before bedtime, and help them find supportive online communities.

Help your teen develop media literacy skills. Discuss how to identify biased or inaccurate information online. Ask questions such as “Who created this post?” “What is their purpose?” and “Are there other sources that confirm this information?”

Familiarize yourself with the reporting tools on the platforms your teen uses. Encourage them to report instances of harassment, hate speech, or misinformation.

Keep up with changing policies and evolving online platforms. Know your rights and consider reaching out to platforms like Meta if you have concerns. Support legislation and advocacy that promote safer, more inclusive digital spaces.

As an organization dedicated to children’s mental health, the Child Mind Institute remains committed to ensuring that every young person can flourish in an environment free from harmful misinformation and stigma. We will continue to work together with parents, health professionals, teachers, and policymakers to safeguard the mental and emotional well-being of our children and teens.

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• Go at Your Own Pace: Use this guide at a cadence that works for you — one activity a week, every day, or in the moment you need it.
• Opt for Privacy or Sharing: Keep your journal entries private or share them with others. It’s your choice.
• Make It a Team Effort: Take the opportunity to connect and reflect as a family. Use journaling as a chance to listen to and support each other without judgment. 
• It’s Okay to Jump Around: Skip prompts that don’t feel right and return to them later if you’d like.
• Express Yourself Freely: Write, draw, or express yourself in whatever way feels comfortable.
• Explore Digital Journaling: These prompts can be used with any kind of journal. If you’re 13 or older and looking for a journaling app, check out MirrorJournal.com. It’s designed to help teens and adults explore their thoughts and feelings in a safe space. The prompts below are preloaded into the Mirror journaling app so they can be easily accessed anytime, anywhere.

Journaling can be a great way to process tough experiences, but sometimes extra help is needed. If you notice that you or a family member are struggling, it is important to seek an assessment by a doctor or mental health professional. Here are some signs to look out for:

• Nightmares or other trouble sleeping
• Being very scared or anxious most of the time
• Not wanting to do things previously enjoyed
• Having emotional outbursts
• Sadness and hopelessness
• Emotional numbness
• Having thoughts of self-harm or harm to others

Getting professional help is important when uncomfortable feelings happen more often, are intense, or are interfering with day-to-day activities, relationships, work, or school. In those situations, professionals can provide support and guidance.

Remember: It’s okay to ask for help.

It’s normal to have lots of different feelings after a natural disaster. This activity helps you figure out what you’re feeling and how your body is reacting.

• Label Your Emotions: There is no wrong way to feel. Name three feelings you’ve had today. Then reflect: What made you feel that way?
• Let It Out: What’s happening right now that you need to let out? Write, draw, or voice-record your unfiltered thoughts about everything going on.
• Listen to Your Body: Where do emotions live in your body? Take a moment to map where you’re holding  stress and what your body is telling you.

This exercise helps create a feeling of safety and calm, even when things feel chaotic.

• Imagine a Safe Place: Close your eyes and picture an imaginary place where you feel safe and relaxed. What do you see, hear, and smell?
• Ask Yourself Who Brings You Comfort: Think about a person who makes you feel good. Why do they make you feel safe and comforted?
• Reinforce Positive Thinking: Come up with three positive sayings that make you feel strong and secure. Say, “I am safe,” “I am loved,” or “I can handle this.”

These tools can help you deal with strong feelings like worry, fear, and stress.

• Take Deep Breaths: Close your eyes and take five slow breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth. How does your body feel now?
• Use Your Senses: Look around and find one thing each that you can see, hear, smell, and touch. How do you feel?
• Create a Calm-Down Kit: Make a list of three activities that help you relax. Maybe it’s listening to music, drawing, playing a game, or talking to a friend. 

Recording what’s happening right now can help you process your experience.

• Create a Record: What do you see, hear, smell, and feel right now? Write notes, take photos, draw, or record a voice memo,  whatever feels right.
• Notice the Little Details: In the chaos, what small moments stand out? Your pet’s reaction, someone’s words, or an unexpected feeling you’re noticing?
• Pay Attention to People: What do you notice about how people are acting right now — family, neighbors, first responders? How are they helping each other?

During stressful times, noticing what gives you comfort can help you feel more stable.

• Note the Positive: What’s helping you right now? Maybe calling a friend or playing a favorite playlist. What’s bringing you a bit of peace?
• Acknowledge Your Support: Who’s helping you stay grounded? Perhaps it’s a friend, a sibling, or someone who just gets it. What makes their support special? 
• Identify Small Good Things: What little thing is helping you cope through the chaos? It could be a charged phone or an absorbing book.

This activity is about looking ahead and figuring out how to rebuild, both your home and your emotional center.

• Ask Yourself What Rebuilding Looks Like: What does “rebuilding” mean to you? Getting back to a routine or feeling like yourself again? What small steps can you take?
• Gather Your Community: Who can help you rebuild? Family, friends, neighbors, teachers, or others? Remember, you don’t have to do this alone.
• Tally Your Super Strengths: What are you good at? Maybe kindness, humor, creativity, listening? How can your strengths help you and your family rebuild?

This helps families talk about their feelings and support each other.

• Get in Tune: What do you wish your family understood about you? Start with, “I wish you knew that…” Ask your loved ones to do the same.
• Share a Moment of Connection: When was a time this week when someone really listened to you? What did they do that made you feel heard? 
• Deepen Your Understanding: What’s one thing you want your family to understand about what you’re going through? How might you explain or show it to them?

It’s important to have hope, even when things are uncertain. This exercise helps you picture a brighter future.

• Imagine a Better Tomorrow: What positive change would you like to see in your life, family, or community in a year? Big or small, it counts.
• Ask Who Can Help: Think about someone who could help make that positive change happen. How might you ask for their help?
• Write a Note to Your Future Self: Craft an encouraging message to your future self. What would you tell yourself to stay strong and hopeful?

Even during challenging times, nature continues its peaceful rhythms, offering moments of calm. This prompt helps you find hope in renewal.

• Find Signs of Nature: What small signs of life do you notice today? Perhaps it’s a plant growing, a pet napping, or something else quietly unfolding.
• Cultivate Awe: What amazes you about nature? Flowers blooming, baby animals taking first steps, or coral reefs teeming with colorful fish?
• Capture Peace: What peaceful moment in nature would you like to remember? A cat in a sunbeam, new leaves on a plant, or rain on your window?

• The Disaster Distress Helpline: 1-800-985-5990 (call or text) — 24/7 support for anyone experiencing emotional distress related to a disaster.
• Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741 or.crisistextline.org — Free 24/7 support from trained crisis counselors.
• American Red Cross: www.redcross.org — Provides disaster relief and support services.
• FEMA Helpline: 1-800-621-3362 or DisasterAssistance.gov — Federal government disaster relief resources. 
• The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN): nctsn.org – Offers resources and information on helping children and teens cope with trauma.
• Local Mental Health Resources: Search online for “mental health services” or “therapists” in your county or city. Your school counselor or doctor can also be a good resource.

The following articles and exercises were sources of inspiration in developing these guides:

• Be Prepared (UCLA COE Tipsheet)
• Children & Recovery from Wildfires (CMOSC)
• Coping After a Natural Disaster (Zero to Three)
• Coping with Trauma and Stress in the Face of Wildfires (Zero to Three)
• Helping Children After a Wildfire: Tips for Caregivers and Teachers (NASP)
• How to Talk to Your Children About the California Wildfires (Parents Magazine)
• Wildfire Resources (NCTSN)
• Parent Guidelines for Helping Children Impacted by Wildfires (NCTSN)

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By Omar Gudiño, PhD, ABPP
Deputy Clinical Director and Senior Psychologist, Child Mind Institute

To help those affected, LAUSD has created an Emergency Relief Fund to provide immediate assistance to families and employees. Donations will also support the restoration of schools and classrooms to ensure students can continue to learn.

Here’s how you can help:

• Donate to the Emergency Relief Fund
• Learn more about LAUSD’s efforts

We also have a Trauma Guide available in English, Spanish, and 15 other languages. The guide was developed by psychiatrists, psychologists, and mental health experts who specialize in crisis situations. It offers simple tips on what to do, what to expect, and what to look out for in the long term. If you or your children require assistance from a mental health professional, do not hesitate to ask a doctor or other health care provider for a recommendation.

Here are a few tips from the guide:

Allow children to ask questions, and know that it’s okay to say, “I don’t know.” Children need someone they trust to listen to their questions, accept their feelings, and be there for them. Don’t presume all kids are worrying about the same things, and let your child know it’s normal to experience anger, guilt, or sadness, and express these feelings in different ways.

Breathing becomes shallow when anxiety sets in. Deep belly breaths can help kids calm down. Try holding a feather or a wad of cotton in front of your child’s mouth and ask them to blow at it, exhaling slowly. Or place a stuffed animal or pillow on your child’s belly while they lie down and ask them to breathe in and out slowly, watching it rise and fall.

Ongoing disasters and their aftermath include constantly changing situations, so children may have questions more than once. Let them know you are ready to talk at any time. Children process information on their own timelines, and questions might come up unexpectedly.

Within the first month after a disaster, kids may seem okay or exhibit behaviors like crankiness or clinginess. Once the shock wears off, children might show more symptoms, especially if they witnessed injuries or death, experienced prior trauma, or are not yet resettled in a new home.

Caring for yourself is key to supporting your child. Practice deep breathing, and if anxiety feels overwhelming, seek help from a doctor, therapist, or someone you trust. Acknowledge when you need support and seek it—if not for yourself, then for your child’s well-being.

We can’t shield our children from pain and fear when they’re exposed to tragedy. But we can help them process what they’re experiencing in the healthiest way possible.

Thank you for joining us in supporting LAUSD as their community works to recover. Your care and generosity make a difference.

The post Supporting Our Friends at LAUSD and Families Impacted by Wildfire appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

Many teens and young adults turn to social media or other public online spaces to express themselves. However, these platforms are not always conducive to genuine self-discovery. They can attract judgment, bullying, and unhelpful or even risky advice from strangers. The pressure to curate a perfect online persona can prevent teens from exploring their authentic selves.

That’s why we created the Mirror app for journaling — a secure, private digital journal where your teen can write freely, explore their emotions, and develop self-awareness without fear of external judgement or criticism. Imagine your teen coming home from a tough day at school and using Mirror to sort through their feelings and find clarity.

Think of Mirror as a trusted confidant that simply listens without judgment. Your teen can write down their feelings, hopes, fears, and dreams without worrying about “likes,” comparisons, or negative comments. There’s no pressure to perform or conform. The focus is entirely on their inner world. Our goal is to help teens find their own voice, build resilience, and become more comfortable with who they are — away from the noise and stress of other online platforms.

A key aspect of effective journaling, particularly for therapeutic benefit, is the concept of disinhibition. Disinhibition refers to the ability to express oneself freely and openly, without the usual social constraints or inhibitions. Research suggests that when individuals feel truly safe and private, they are more likely to disclose deeper emotions and thoughts, leading to greater self-understanding and emotional processing (Pennebaker, 1997). This is because the fear of judgment or consequence can hinder honest self-expression.

This is what makes Mirror so unique. By offering a truly private space, teens can explore difficult emotions, process traumatic experiences, and gain valuable insights – all without the fear of judgement.

Your family’s privacy and security are paramount. We understand that entrusting your teen’s thoughts and feelings to a digital platform requires a high level of trust. That’s why Mirror is built with the strongest privacy and security measures.

Here’s how we ensure a safe and secure experience:

Mirror is SOC-2 compliant, meaning it meets the most rigorous standards for keeping data secure and private. Regular security testing ensures that the app remains protected against evolving threats.

Your teen’s journal entries are theirs alone. No one, not even staff at the Child Mind Institute, ever reads their writing. Our system uses solely advanced AI to detect emotional tone and potential safety concerns (more on this below), with entries permanently deleted moments after analysis.

All data is encrypted, ensuring that it remains confidential and protected from unauthorized access.

Mirror is designed to give teens the autonomy to explore their emotions and make informed decisions about their well-being. While privacy is a cornerstone of the app, we also prioritize safety.

If the app detects potential safety concerns, such as mentions of self-harm or suicidal ideation, it provides support resources, such as crisis lines and reminders of real-world support networks, directly to the user. This ensures teens have access to help when they need it, while maintaining their privacy.

At the Child Mind Institute, we believe in empowering teens to explore their emotions and build resilience in a safe, supportive environment. Mirror offers a space for self-reflection and personal growth, free from the pressures of the outside world.

Source:

• Pennebaker, J. W. (1997). Writing about emotional experiences as a therapeutic process. Psychological Science, 8(3), 162-166.

About the Child Mind Institute

We are the leading independent nonprofit in children’s mental health providing gold-standard, evidence-based care, delivering educational resources to millions of families each year, training educators in underserved communities, and developing open science initiatives and tomorrow’s breakthrough treatments.

Visit Child Mind Institute on social media: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

For press questions, contact our press team at childmindinstitute@ssmandl.com or our media officer at mediaoffice@childmind.org.

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The Child Mind Institute recently explored these very questions by hosting a unique competition on Kaggle, a platform where data scientists from around the world compete to solve real-world problems. The challenge? To develop tools that could help identify Problematic Internet Use (PIU) in adolescents from easily measurable metrics of physical health.

It’s easy to get caught up in tracking the number of hours a teen spends online. But PIU is about more than that. It’s about when internet use starts to negatively impact a teen’s life — their schoolwork, relationships, sleep, and overall well-being.

Think of it this way: it’s the difference between a child enjoying a hobby and that hobby taking over their life to the detriment of everything else.

• They’re preoccupied with being online: Even when they’re not using the internet, they’re constantly thinking about it.
• They get irritable or anxious when they can’t go online: This can be a sign of withdrawal, similar to what happens with substance use.
• They try to cut back but can’t: They recognize it’s a problem but feel unable to control their usage.
• Their grades slip, they lose interest in other activities, or their relationships suffer: The internet starts to take priority over other important aspects of their life.
• They lie about or hide their internet use: They become secretive and defensive about how much time they’re spending online.

The competition provided us with a treasure trove of information from nearly 4,000 children and adolescents. This Included surveys about their internet habits, mental health, and physical activity, as well as common at-home measurements like height and weight. For some participants, data were also collected from clinical surveys and wearable devices.

The data scientists used this information to build models that could predict a teen’s PIU severity. The results were fascinating, sometimes surprising, and ultimately highlighted some of the great challenges in assessment in mental health care.

This competition highlighted the limitations of current clinical definitions and assessments of Problematic Internet Use (PIU), particularly their inability to precisely map to overall health or produce generalizable insights across populations. We have kept the competition dataset openly available so researchers can work to improve these tools.

This competition was just one step in our ongoing effort to understand and address the challenges of the digital age for children and adolescents. We’re committed to:

• Developing evidence-based resources to help parents, educators, and clinicians navigate these issues.
• Conducting cutting-edge research to improve our understanding of PIU and other mental health challenges.
• Providing high-quality clinical care to children and families who are struggling.

• Start a conversation: Talk to your teen about their internet use in an open and non-judgmental way.
• Set healthy boundaries: Establish clear expectations around screen time and digital device use.
• Be a role model: Demonstrate healthy technology habits yourself.
• Seek professional help if you’re concerned: Don’t hesitate to reach out to a mental health professional if you think your teen might be struggling with PIU.

The digital landscape is constantly evolving, but by working together — parents, educators, researchers, and clinicians — we can help our teens develop a healthy and balanced relationship with technology. Learn more about our resources and how to seek help at childmind.org.

About the Child Mind Institute

We are the leading independent nonprofit in children’s mental health providing gold-standard, evidence-based care, delivering educational resources to millions of families each year, training educators in underserved communities, and developing open science initiatives and tomorrow’s breakthrough treatments.

Visit Child Mind Institute on social media: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

For press questions, contact our press team at childmindinstitute@ssmandl.com or our media officer at mediaoffice@childmind.org.

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But when a child has outgrown the potty-training stage — and they’re still having accidental bowel movements in their underwear — it might be time to seek outside help.  

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But you can improve communication with your child by practicing skills taught in dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT). DBT was initially created by Marsha Linehan, PhD, to help adults with borderline personality disorder learn to regulate their emotions and behavior. Later, DBT was adapted for children and adolescents to address a range of mental health diagnoses, including anxiety, depression, substance use disorders, and disruptive behaviors disorders.  

An important part of DBT treatment programs for kids and teens is parent training, where adults learn some of the same skills as their children. These skills — steps to follow for effective communication and to build better relationships — helps both parties talk to each other calmly, avoid misunderstandings, and find a way to connect.

DBT skills are particularly useful in areas where parents and kids have conflict. The child does or says something that gets the parent riled up, or they ignore a request from the parent. Emotions are heightened in both, but a parent using these skills can often de-escalate a potentially explosive situation.

Understanding DBT skills as a parent or caregiver has other benefits, too. Kids watch what their parents do, and they learn by mimicking them. “The biggest priority as a parent is for you to model what you want your kids to do,” says Julie Reinhold, PsyD, co-director of DBT Programs at the Child Mind Institute.

Some of the key DBT skills that parents find helpful use these acronyms: DEAR MAN, GIVE, and STOP. Here’s what you need to know about each of them.

The DEAR MAN skill is designed to help when you’re looking for a specific outcome, Dr. Reinhold says, and it increases the likelihood of getting that outcome. That might be your child turning off a video game when asked or following the family rule of putting away cell phones at the dinner table. Following the steps in DEAR MAN makes it more likely that you will get what you want. 

Let’s say, for example, that you want your child to hang up their coat when they come home.  

Describe. Give a nonjudgmental description of the situation. “I see your coat is on the floor. Our family rule is that we hang up our coat when we come into the house.”

Express how you feel. “It would make me so happy to have the doorway area neat, so people don’t trip.” Explain your feelings in without blaming them as the cause  — for example, you can talk about how hanging up the coat makes you feel good, not how their dropping the coat on the floor makes you upset.

Assert what you want. “Please hang up your coat now.” Make sure that you are specific in what you are asking for. If you said, “Why can’t you behave properly?” or “How come the entryway is such a mess?” it may not be clear to your child what they are supposed to do.

Reinforce why this is also good for them. Explain what might motivate them to do what you’re asking for. “If you hang up your coat, you’ll always know where it is.”

Mindful. Keep your goal in mind and don’t let yourself get distracted. If your child starts arguing or tries to ignore you, keep calmly asserting what you want. “I’d like you to hang up your coat now.”

Appear confident. Maintain eye contact and use a confident tone of voice. You’re asking for something reasonable, so you have every expectation that your child can do what you’re asking for.

Negotiate. You might not be able to get everything you want at that moment, so think about where you can be flexible. Perhaps you can adjust your request so you at least get something — say, your child can put their coat on a chair when they’re in a rush and hang it up later.

When parents learn the DEAR MAN skill, they find it useful, Dr. Reinhold says. But they sometimes have a hard time putting it into action because their relationship with their child is fraught — every interaction starts off with their kid already upset or angry. That’s where the GIVE skill can help.

If you want to improve your relationship with your child, you can try using the GIVE skill. “Sometimes you’re going to prioritize the connection you have with your child over getting what you want,” Dr. Reinhold says. “So, you’ll emphasize the steps in the GIVE skill even if you’re trying to get your kid to listen to you.”

Let’s say you want your child to sit down and do their homework, but they’ve come home from school in a bad mood and want screen time right away instead. Here’s how you might talk to them in this scenario using GIVE:

Gentle. Use a gentle tone of voice when talking to your child. You might feel yourself getting upset because your child has asked for screen time when it’s not appropriate but try to stay calm.

Interested. Show interest in how your child is feeling. “It seems like you had a hard day at school, so you’re not in a good mood. What happened today?” Actively listen to what they say and ask follow-up questions, so you truly understand how they feel. You might think you already know, but getting your child to put their emotions into words helps them gain more insight into why they feel the way they do. Not only will that help them self-regulate, Dr. Reinhold says, but you might learn something that modifies what you expect from them now that you better understand the situation.

Validating. Show that you understand why your child feels the way they do, that you can see their point of view. “It makes sense to me that you’re not feeling up to doing homework because you had a really hard day at school. I probably wouldn’t feel like doing my homework if I had that kind of day.” Note that you are supporting their feelings, not agreeing to the screen time. It’s important to spend time showing that you understand your child’s perspective. There’s a natural inclination to quickly switch from validation to getting what you want — in this case, saying “but you still need to do your homework.” You want to avoid using the word “but.”      

Easy. Have an easy manner. You want to keep things light, so you diffuse any tension. Talking to your kid in an easygoing way creates a more collaborative environment, Dr. Reinhold says, and it helps makes it possible to come up with solutions together. Understanding why your child isn’t ready to do homework right away can lead to a solution you both agree on — say, having a snack first or going for a walk to give themselves a short break before tackling homework. 

“In any given situation, you can combine the GIVE and DEAR MAN skills, but you might emphasize one more than the other,” Dr. Reinhold says, depending on whether you want to reinforce your relationship with your child or reach a goal.

Sometimes, when both parent and child are emotionally dysregulated, it’s hard to use either the GIVE or DEAR MAN skills. That’s where the STOP skill comes in. 

When you’re seeing red, you can’t think straight and might say something you’ll regret. “People experience it physically in different ways, but that physiological response can be a good sort of warning,” Dr. Reinhold says. “Whenever I feel this in relation to my kid, that means I need to pause before I respond because when I’m angry or irritated, my reaction is going to be ineffective.” When you feel anger rising in your body, here’s how to pause and pivot by using the STOP skill:

Stop. Exactly what it sounds like — freeze. Stop what you’re doing and get control over yourself and your emotions.  

Take a step back. Give yourself space to take a few deep breaths so that you can calm down. 

Observe. Assess what is happening around you and within you. Note what your child is doing and saying. You want to take an objective look at the situation.

Proceed mindfully. “Mindfully has to do with proceeding in a more intentional way rather than a reactive way,” Dr. Reinhold says. “It’s helpful for parents to really understand their own emotions in response to their kid.” When you are calm enough, ask yourself what makes the most sense to do next. Do you want to repair your relationship with your child and use the GIVE skill? Or do you have a goal in mind, and DEAR MAN might help? What might make the situation better — and what might make it worse?

At the end of the day, you want to make sure that whatever you do — and what you want your kids to do — reflects your values, Dr. Reinhold says. If you get too wrapped up in the idea that you’re only a good parent if you got your kid to hang up their coat, that might lead you to be forceful and coercive. And that’s not behavior that you want to model for your child.  

“If you are skillful and responding in a way that matches your values,” Dr. Reinhold says, “then that’s a success no matter what the outcome is with your kid.”

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According to the Pew Research Center, about 4 in 10 parents and teens report regularly arguing with one another about time spent on their phone. Considering that 95% of U.S. teens report being on social media — and 46% say they are online “almost constantly” — conversations on the topic are nearly unavoidable.

Balance — both in social media use and parental monitoring — is key. “We want parents to be aware of both the positive effects of social media and the very real risks involved,” says Dave Anderson, PhD, a senior psychologist at the Child Mind Institute. “There’s likely a Goldilocks effect in the sense that there is a ‘just right’ amount of being on social media that allows that social connection, and we don’t want to go beyond that to a point of diminishing returns.”

Parents worry about their children’s exposure to inappropriate content, cyberbullying, scams, and predators, as well as social media’s impact on their mental health. But where should a concerned parent even begin?

For parents, the decision to allow your children access to social media is often about social connection. “Teens will come to their parents and say, ‘Look, my friends are on this. This is what my generation does to connect,’” Dr. Anderson says. Parents can use that as a starting point for conversation to build social capital with their child before getting to the negatives. They can say something like, “I totally understand why you want to be on social media and that it feels important for social connection.” And take it from there.

If kids are old enough to be on social media, then they are old enough to learn about the risks and what measures they can take to protect themselves. “We want them to be aware that there’s a significant likelihood of exposure to content that promotes unhealthy behaviors or is associated with racism and discrimination, and we want to be critical consumers of the content,” Dr. Anderson says. Parents should talk to their children about possible negative mental health effects, how the algorithms work, and what to do if they encounter hate speech.

If your child is tuning you out or claims to know everything — after all, they are teens — you can try alternate strategies. If there is a trusted older teen, coach, or mentor in their lives, ask them to go over some of this stuff with your kid. You can also urge your child’s school to address the topic in the classroom or a special assembly. Sometimes it can take multiple avenues to get the message to stick.

Ideally, you can agree on parameters with your teen before they set up their first social media account. For example, who is allowed to follow or friend them? How much time are they allowed to spend on social media each day? What time at night does the phone get put away? And it’s never too late to revisit the rules, whether it’s to lift or increase regulations.

Most devices have parental control settings built in to help create healthy boundaries around screen usage. Examples of features include the ability to create content filters, block apps, set time limits, manage privacy settings, and restrict purchases. These don’t allow direct monitoring of social media but can help set and enforce the parameters.

Similarly, individual social media platforms have set some boundaries. TikTok, which is used by 63% of teens, automatically places restrictions on users based on age — so it’s important that your child enter their real birthday when setting up their account. Teen accounts are automatically set to private, have a 60-minute time limit, and are unable to post “live” or have their posts recommended to people they don’t know. They have the option for “family pairing,” which allows parents to link their TikTok account with their child’s and set further time limits, restrict content, and prevent or limit direct messaging (which is already restricted for kids 16 and under).

Parents can familiarize themselves with their child’s preferred social media platforms and their individual safety and parental control features. According to the Pew Research Center, YouTube is the most popular social media site, with 93% of teens saying they use it. TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram are the next three most common social media sites.

It may be helpful to think of parental oversight as training wheels or scaffolding, with the goal of your teen building the skills to self-monitor. “We want to give them an age-appropriate level of independence and autonomy with an understanding of the risks, while also keeping a line of open communication so that they feel they can come to us,” Dr. Anderson says.

A child just starting out using social media, or who is prone to poor decision-making, may require daily checks, whereas an older or more responsible teen may need only occasional monitoring. The amount that you monitor is less about age than maturity and temperament. “There is no magical age where a kid wakes up and can suddenly utilize social media,” Dr. Anderson points out. “Just like there’s no magical age where kids just wake up at 16 and know how to drive an automobile.”

There are a number of apps on the market designed to allow parental controls and access to their children’s devices. Some popular options include Bark, Kaspersky Safe Kids, and Qustodio. Most have the functionality to do things like implement internet filters, set time limits, monitor posts, view chat history, find deleted messages, and see photos sent and received through social media.

Some parents require that their children share their login information so they can have access on demand. “I had their passwords and monitored the social media apps they downloaded as well as content they posted,” says Jenn H. from Texas. “I was not sneaky about checking on them. We had ongoing conversations about the reality of social media, scams, predators, fake accounts, etc. In high school, they earned more freedom and eventually total freedom to learn how to self-monitor.”

One way to keep tabs is to be “friends” in their preferred social media platforms. “Both my daughters (18 and 20) are okay with me following/friending them on their social media, so I don’t have to monitor as such. I also follow many of their friends, at their request, and they follow me,” says Rozlyn Carvin from New York.

Parents can ask their child to hand over their device. This can be part of an agreement — like handing over the phone every evening until morning — or can be part of a random-check policy. It allows parents to directly look at all activity from social media to text messages, and even recently deleted photos.

Though they may be less likely to publicly announce it, 50% of parents admit to looking through their teen’s phone with or without their knowledge. Peeking behind the curtain raises questions of privacy. However, if a child is being dishonest or has found ways around monitoring, parents can feel left with little choice.

A glimpse at your child’s social media feeds can give you insight into the sort of content they have been consuming, since the various algorithms will give them more of what they seem to want. Take note, too, of your child’s behavior IRL (in real life). If they seem upset after being on their phone, become increasingly secretive, withdraw, or display symptoms of depression or anxiety, it’s worth paying extra attention to their digital life to see if something there might be the culprit. There are any number of red flags that parents may find concerning:

• Inappropriate content. Keep an eye out for inappropriate content in their feeds, posts they are tagged in, or their own posts. This could be sexually inappropriate images or messaging, offensive language or hate speech, unkind language, or mature content.
• Bullying. Whether you notice your child being bullied or they’re the one doing the bullying, cyberbullying is something to take seriously. This could look like snarky or derogatory comments, making fun of someone, spreading rumors, being purposely left out, name calling, or threats. It can take place in public posts, private messages, or group chats.
• Unhealthy messaging. Social media can present such a glossy view of life that it can be easy to get sucked into trying to keep up with unrealistic standards. Look out for content or posts promoting disordered eating, unreasonable beauty standards, dubious physical or mental health advice, or anything that seems like it is negatively affecting your teen’s self-esteem or well-being.
• Revealing photos. We’ve all heard horror stories about ill-advised photos ending up well beyond just the intended recipient. Private messages and deleted photos tend to be where this sort of thing resides. This can be a very sensitive and embarrassing subject, but better for kids to confront it with their parent than the world.
• Predatory behavior. One of the most important tenets of online safety is understanding that people are not necessarily who they say they are. Parents can check feeds and messages for signs of foul play, from catfishing to financial scams to grooming.

Kids are smart and tech savvy — usually far more so than their parents — so if they want to find a way around social media monitoring, they will. Kayrl Reynoso in Michigan tried a program called OurPact — but it didn’t last long. “My oldest figured out how to disable OurPact and to be honest, monitoring it was a challenge. They can make accounts parents don’t know about, and who knows what they see on their friends’ phones,” recalls Reynoso. “The best thing I came up with was talking and teaching.”

As your teen learns to appropriately and safely use social media, there are bound to be some bumps in the road. If you come across troubling content or behavior, it’s best to address it in a calm, curious, nonjudgmental manner. You could try something like, “Hey, I was doing one of my periodic checks of your social media and noticed some of your connections saying some pretty offensive stuff. Is that always how they talk?” You can discuss why you find it upsetting, how it makes your child feel, what an appropriate response — if any — might be, when and how to block someone, and when to report such language to their school, their parents, or the social media platform itself. A similar approach can be used even when it’s your own child acting questionably. “Hey, I noticed…” is often a nonconfrontational way to open the door to conversation.

It’s easy to get frustrated when kids find workarounds to parental controls. Entering into a power struggle has rarely done anyone good, so it’s ideal to approach pushback — at least initially — with a problem-solving mindset, trying to see things from the perspective of your teen and work together to find mutually acceptable solutions.

If initial attempts to find middle ground — whether your child continues to seek out inappropriate content, engage in unhealthy conversations, or break rules — further action may be warranted. Parents may choose to limit or remove phone or social media privileges as a natural consequence for not engaging safely or appropriately. You can explain that if they were unable to drive safely, they wouldn’t be able to get a driver’s license or could have it revoked; similarly they need to prove that they can responsibly use social media to be trusted with it.

Hopefully, over time, your child will need less and less social media oversight. With a strong foundation in media literacy and online safety, they will be able to make smart and safe choices so they can enjoy the benefits of social media.

The post How Much Should You Monitor Your Teen’s Social Media? appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

Written by Dr. Catherine Cook-Cottone, illustrated by Lena Podesta

The author (a child psychologist) seamlessly — and hilariously — weaves anxiety-related coping strategies into this story about an endearing googly-eyed monster who frets about going on a school field trip. After the monster expresses his fears to readers (“What if I miss the bus?” What if I get lost? What if I need my pet dragon?”), he remembers the “Seven Mindful Moves” that his teacher showed him to help him calm down. As the monster tries each one, the book increases its kid appeal with whimsical illustrations and fun text that directly addresses the reader right up to a “dino-mite” conclusion at the museum. “The Worry Monster offers practical mindful-based coping skills for young kids with anxiety,” says an expert from the Child Mind Institute. “It’s relatable and easy to follow.” Ages 4-8. Published by Random House Books for Young Readers.

Written by Dawn Huebner, PhD, illustrated by Sabine Rothmund

This revised and expanded edition of a best-selling workbook from the American Psychological Association guides kids and parents through cognitive behavioral strategies that can be used to alleviate anxiety. Through simple explanations and metaphors, the workbook dispenses relatable advice and gives kids many drawing and writing prompts. For instance, one prompt asks children to draw or write about a time “your brain alarm went off and it turned out to be a false alarm.”  Ages 6-10. Published by Magination Press.

Written by Sally J. Pla, illustrated by Tania de Regil

Middle-school readers of this novel in verse will relate to Isabel, who is told, “You worry for no reason!” and “Don’t be so sensitive!” But Isabel has lots of reasons — “extremely important testing” coming up, school bullies, and five siblings who make her feel lost in the shuffle at home. “I like how Invisible Isabel uses the term ‘worry-moths’ to give anxiety a specific name that represents its physical symptoms,” says a Child Mind Institute expert. “Middle school can be a tricky age, and many kids feel that they aren’t special enough. They can use this book to start a conversation about seeing a professional.” Ages 8-12. Published by Quill Tree Books.

By Barbara Dee

Friendship problems lead to a big case of writer’s block for a seventh grader who used to love creative writing. Day after day, she either writes nothing in class or crosses out all her words. Anxiety about losing her best friend, who now attends a different school, is part of the problem. “Unstuck highlights the challenges that come along with overcoming something difficult in order to pursue your passion,” says a Child Mind Institute expert. Ages 8-14. Published by Aladdin.

Written and illustrated by June Tate

This lyrical story, featuring a mother bird and her baby who feels “a little bit off,” grips young readers on the first page and never lets go. Mom assures her baby that it’s okay not to feel “perfectly perfect” all the time, but she wants to try some things to “see if it makes a tiny difference.” The playful, child-like artwork pairs well with the encouraging, poetic text about breathing techniques and other mindfulness strategies. “I like that the book is accepting of things as they are and also focuses on small things to do to shift emotions and make ‘a tiny difference,’” says a Child Mind Institute expert. Ages 3-7. Published by Katherine Tegen Books.

By Gabi Snyder, illustrated by Stephanie Graegin

An interesting approach to a story about mindfulness starts when a child realizes that some days go by way too slow. (“Today stretches long when you’re counting the weeks to summer/Today takes forever when your parents yak-yak-yak with the neighbors.”) Then other days pass by in a flash and “you want to freeze the moment and stay here forever.” For those days, practicing mindfulness helps you hold on to the memories. “The story clearly depicts the ways our minds are pulled to the future or the past,” says a Child Mind Institute expert. “The ending includes an example of how to practice being mindful.” Ages 4-8. Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Written and illustrated by Tom Percival

Kids have a new role model for bouncing back after disappointment: Bea, the title character, is “shattered” when a blizzard closes the roads and spoils her birthday plans. The illustrations depict how she feels broken in pieces, even when her mom gives her a present. But then her older brother suggests sledding and “a few of the cracks fade away.” More and more cracks disappear as the siblings whoosh down the hill, demonstrating that “Bea’s day had started out badly — but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t end well.” A twist ending involving a birthday cake further builds Bea’s resilience. “Bea’s Bad Day conveys a nice message about disappointment and situations not meeting expectations,” says a Child Mind Institute expert. “It’s a realistic and fun read.” Ages 3-7. Published by Bloomsbury Children’s Books.

Written by John Dougherty, illustrated by Thomas Docherty

This is a tender story that helps kids through the grief process of losing a friend, whether the missing person has moved to a new town or died. The book begins with inseparable besties turtle and hare playing together. Then, out of the blue, hare disappears. (“She just wasn’t there. There was nothing to see. But a hole in the air where hare ought to be.”) Hare’s dark shadow is depicted on the pages as the turtle experiences the many faces of grief, from denial to anger and finally acceptance. “The Hare-Shaped Hole validates feelings of grief,” says a Child Mind Institute expert. “This story is helpful for children understanding a loss in their life.” Ages 3-7. Published by Frances Lincoln Children’s Books.

Written by Maggie Smith, illustrated by Leanne Hatch

A reassuring bedtime story can help kids have sweet dreams. Lying in bed, a girl’s mind is racing with intrusive thoughts of spiders, bad dreams, and bullies. Her astute mom compares thoughts to birds: “Some fly away quickly while others build nests in our heads.” She later adds, “Everyone worries. We need to make sure there’s room for happy thoughts.” Then the girl’s mind turns to ice cream cones, puppy cuddles, and flying kites as she pictures happy thoughts  building a cozy nest in her head. The textured illustrations give the story warmth and depth. “My Thoughts Have Wings offers a sweet, memorable image of thoughts nesting in your mind like birds,” says a Child Mind Institute expert. Ages 3-8. Published by Balzer + Bray.

Written by Phuc Tran, illustrated by Pete Oswald

Construction vehicles as characters help build kids’ social-emotional skills in this engaging, multi-layered picture book. Even though it’s a beautiful day, a crane feels cranky but doesn’t want to talk about it. (“You know what doesn’t help when you’re feeling cranky? A lot of talking.”) He dodges his friends and refuses to celebrate the completion of a bridge. But in the end his friends let him know that it’s okay to be cranky. (“You know what doesn’t make me cranky? Knowing my friends care about me … even when I’m cranky.” It’s child-friendly, accurate, and has sweet illustrations, says a Child Mind Institute expert. “It uses silly language and jokes to present a meaningful message.” Ages 4-8. Published by HarperCollins.

Written by Sara Levine, illustrated by Erika Meza

It’s hard to move to a new home — and the boy in this story is struggling. “I’m never going to fall asleep here,” he says. Still in his funk, he and his mom notice doves building a nest on top of a fence outside his window. “It’s a terrible place to build a nest!” he tells his mom. Sure enough, the movers accidentally knock down the nest. After the boy rebuilds it, the birds don’t come near it for a while. Then one day, a bird lays an egg in the nest, and the boy makes signs alerting passersby not to disturb it. The last pages featuring mom and son reading at bedtime brilliantly tie it all together: “I told them it wasn’t a great place for a nest. But we made it work.” Says a Child Mind Institute expert: “A Terrible Place for a Nest deals with the discomfort of moving to a new place in an unexpected and indirect way. But it’s not so subtle that kids won’t understand what it’s about. It’s sweet without being cheesy.” Ages 4-8. Published by Roaring Brook Press.

Written and illustrated by Jack Kurland

In this funny book, a black-and-white cat rebuffs offers from feline friends to chase a ball of string, go to a party, even jet off into space, saying over and over he can’t be bothered. Finally, he tells them all to STOP, and explains that he’s just feeling sad and doesn’t want to do anything. “The Cat Who Couldn’t Be Bothered can help to normalize a range of emotions for a child,” says a Child Mind Institute expert. “I love how the illustrations convey the cat’s mood and the frantic effort that its friends are engaging in to try to cheer up the cat. The cat accepts its emotions without succumbing to the pressure to cheer up. Instead, the cat’s friends are able to be with him.” Ages 3-7. Published by Frances Lincoln First Editions.

Written by Laura Dockrill, illustrated by Lauren Child

Comparing feelings to colors is nothing new, but this picture book does it exceptionally well. It begins with a boy who announces, “Today I am gray.” Throughout the story, which features some cleverly die-cut pages where images on other pages peek through, the boy explains what it means to be gray: “Gray is lonely. Gray is when you feel like you don’t belong.” The book doesn’t offer solutions for overcoming “grayness” but instead points out that happier feelings still exist inside in the child — and the mother in the book loves him even when he’s down. “Gray is a very comforting read about sadness,” says our Child Mind Institute expert. “Children will understand with a loving message of acceptance.” Ages 3-7. Published by Candlewick Press.

Written and illustrated by Karl James Mountford

In this deeply moving picture book that’s best suited for third graders and up, a sad rat feels she can’t share her feelings with her best friend. Saying she “needs some air,” she tries to escape her internal storm and ends up in a terrifying thunderstorm. When the rat runs into a bear, the bear helps her find shelter and and find her voice (“Just make some noise. You try — be a voice in the storm.”). She returns home to her best friend, finally able to express her feelings. The somber color palette matches the rat’s feelings, with bright accents for hopeful moments. “A Voice in the Storm addresses emotion dysregulation and encourages getting support from others,” says a Child Mind Institute expert. Ages 8+. Published by Candlewick Studio.

Written by Marin Canaday, illustrated by Agus Prajodo

The author, who has OCD, compares the condition to a little monster that is part of her, sharing that “sometimes she even forgets it’s there.” But she goes on to explain that on other days, the monster grows huge, shouting at her and ordering her around, and then she needs help from her family. “The Very Best Me is good for describing what it can feel like to have OCD, intrusive thoughts, and anxiety,” says a Child Mind Institute expert. Ages 4-8. Published by Mascot Kids.

Written and illustrated by Pan Cooke

In this graphic novel/memoir, the author shares how he dealt with compulsive counting, repetitive prayers, and eventually disordered eating during childhood, desperately searching for the solution to the “puzzle” of what was wrong with him. Readers will be relieved to find out in the book’s back matter that the author, now in his thirties, has his OCD symptoms under control and, as he writes, “thankfully it’s a secret that I no longer have to carry.” Says a Child Mind Institute expert, “Puzzled does a nice job at explaining a variety of OCD symptoms, including scrupulosity, somatic obsessions, magical thinking, and the fear of making a mistake, using real life examples and visuals.” Ages 8-14. Published by Rocky Pond Books.

Written by Kiley Frank, illustrated by K-Fai Steele

A sympathetic portrayal of how ADHD affects a child’s school and home life starts when Max misses the bus because he gets distracted by squirrels. At school, he’s lost electric pencil sharpener privileges after trying it out on a crayon, and there are tennis balls on the legs of his chair to cushion the noise he makes by moving so much. He daydreams about wearing all eight sweatshirts he’s forgotten to take home at once. But then he thinks creatively to help his group build a super-tall tower out of index cards — a feat that earns high praise from the teacher. “That Always Happens Sometimes is for students who get distracted easily throughout their day,” says a Child Mind Institute expert. “It normalizes and provides relatable experiences.” Ages 4-8. Published by Knopf.

Written by Jenn Bailey, illustrated by Mika Song

Characters with autism are few and far between in kids’ literature, making this 56-page beginning chapter book series a welcome addition. In this second book in the series, Henry, a school-age boy with autism, goes on a school field trip to a natural history museum. Not only does he face a disruption in his routine but he also has to contend with the noisy school bus and wait endlessly to get to the dinosaurs, his favorite. How he powers through and is rewarded in the end, will be relatable to children with autism and a helpful window into their world for classmates. “Henry is endearing and also nuanced — not just a cookie cutter example of a child on the spectrum,” says a Child Mind Institute expert. Ages 6-9. Published by Chronicle Books.

Written by John Schu

This novel in verse beautifully (and sometimes painfully) recounts a character named Jake’s battle with and recovery from anorexia nervosa and obsessive compulsive disorder, a story similar to the author’s own struggles that began when he was in eighth grade. “Readers may be able to relate and connect to their own experiences,” says a Child Mind Institute expert. “It’s important to read with a therapist or support person, to support a therapeutic impact.” Ages 14+. Published by Candlewick Press.

Written by John Cochran

This heartfelt novel about a seventh-grade boy who hides his father’s pain medication addiction will resonate with the 1 in 8 kids living with a parent who has a substance use disorder. After his father overdoses again, the boy and his mom move, but he keeps his father’s secret from his friends and struggles with leaving his dad. “Breaking Into Sunlight is a beautiful story of a son’s journey and commitment to radically accepting his father’s substance use disorder,” says a Child Mind Institute expert. “It accurately portrays the misplaced responsibility and guilt adolescents often experience regarding parents’ addiction, relationships, and interpersonal conflict. It also honestly describes the shame teens might experience about their own feelings and how their family is different.” Ages 10+. Published by Algonquin Young Readers.

The post The Best Kids’ Books on Mental Health of 2024 appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

Dr. Milham is an internationally recognized neuroscience researcher whose interests include investigating how functional and structural connectivity in the brain may underlie differing forms of mental illness, and seeking to chart the course of brain development in healthy and affected children. With over 250 articles published since 2005, he has been recognized on the Highly Cited Researchers™ list every year since 2014.

Analysts at the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI)™ have recognized 6,636 Highly Cited Researchers in 2024 from more than 1,200 institutions in 59 nations and regions. The rigorous evaluation and selection process draws on data from the Web of Science Core Collection™ citation index, together with qualitative analysis performed by experts at the ISI at Clarivate™.

Dr. Milham has worked to advance a Big Data research agenda in the neuroimaging community, which focuses on open data sharing as a means of achieving the large-scale samples needed to capture the broader range of presentations in psychiatry. He co-founded the 1000 Functional Connectomes Project and founded its International Neuroimaging Data-Sharing Initiative (INDI). These efforts have helped to bring major consortia to the community, including the ADHD 200, Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE) and Consortium for Reliability and Reproducibility (CoRR). He is also the founder of the Child Mind Institute Healthy Brain Network – an initiative aiming to create a large-scale (10,000 participants) resource for the scientific community to study child and adolescent mental health. In addition to research, Dr. Milham is a pioneer in Next Generation Disruptive Technologies (NGDT) to offer accessible, tailored care for children and families and to accelerate the pace of discovery across the mental health field.

About the Child Mind Institute

We are the leading independent nonprofit in children’s mental health providing gold-standard, evidence-based care, delivering educational resources to millions of families each year, training educators in underserved communities, and developing open science initiatives and tomorrow’s breakthrough treatments.

Visit Child Mind Institute on social media: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

For press questions, contact our press team at childmindinstitute@ssmandl.com or our media officer at mediaoffice@childmind.org.

The post Child Mind Institute Chief Science Officer Dr. Michael Milham Named to 2024 List of Highly Cited Researchers™ for 11th Consecutive Year appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

New York, NY — The Child Mind Institute, the leading independent nonprofit in children’s mental health, hosted its annual Child Advocacy Award Dinner last night at Cipriani 42nd Street in Manhattan. The event raised $6.9 million in support of the Child Mind Institute’s mission to improve the mental health of children and families through clinical care, scientific research and public education. The evening was hosted by actress, comedian, and advocate Ali Wentworth.

Carrie Walton Penner, youth mental health advocate, founder of Fiore Ventures, and owner of the Denver Broncos, who was presented with the 2024 Child Advocacy Award, said, “The mental health gap facing young people is an enormous, complicated challenge that leaves too many without access to care. Child Mind Institute is revolutionizing the field by bringing together care, education, and science to help young people reach their full potential.”

The event was a gathering and celebration of individuals committed to helping children and families overcome mental health challenges and learning disorders. Photos from the evening are available here.

“There are very few bipartisan issues in our nation, but we are all here because we agree on one thing: there is a youth mental health crisis. This crisis affects everyone. Mental health disorders remain the most common illnesses of childhood and adolescence,” said Harold S. Koplewicz, MD, the founding President and Medical Director of the Child Mind Institute. “The Child Mind Institute is committed to meeting this challenge with the best in care, education, and science.”

Benefit chairs included Andreas C. Dracopoulos, Elizabeth and Michael Fascitelli, Christine and Richard Mack, Brooke Garber Neidich and Daniel Neidich, Zibby and Kyle Owens, Abigail Pogrebin and David Shapiro, Linnea and George Roberts and Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).

To learn more about the Child Mind Institute please visit childmind.org.

About the Child Mind Institute

We are the leading independent nonprofit in children’s mental health providing gold-standard, evidence-based care, delivering educational resources to millions of families each year, training educators in underserved communities, and developing open science initiatives and tomorrow’s breakthrough treatments.

Visit Child Mind Institute on social media: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

For press questions, contact our press team at childmindinstitute@ssmandl.com or our media officer at mediaoffice@childmind.org.

The post The Child Mind Institute 2024 Child Advocacy Award Dinner Raises Nearly $7M to Support Families Facing Mental Health Challenges appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

Many parents worry about how their child’s diagnosis will be perceived by others, particularly other children. “Nobody wants their child to be ostracized, have a ‘label,’ or thought of as ‘different’ in their peer group,” says Alexis Bancroft, PhD, a psychologist in the Autism Center at the Child Mind Institute. However, if you’ve decided to seek an autism evaluation for your child, you may already be noticing differences in their behavior or development. Your child and their peers will soon become aware of those differences as well, if they haven’t already.

Stigma can be a problem, but kids tend to be more critical of “different” behavior when they don’t understand it, Dr. Bancroft explains. “Stigma happens when we don’t diagnose, and we don’t share.” She points to a study showing that first impressions of adults with autism spectrum disorder improved when the diagnosis was disclosed and when peers had more information about the disorder.

Kids can be harsh toward each other but similarly harsh toward themselves. Undiagnosed kids with autism may worry there’s something wrong with them, unable to pinpoint why they feel different from other kids their age. This can cause a great deal of anxiety. And not being upfront about a child’s diagnosis might also lead them to eventually believe there is something shameful about it. “When you learn about your diagnosis very early on, it becomes a natural part of who you are,” says Dr. Bancroft.

In a study of the perspectives of autistic university students, participants who learned that they were autistic when they were younger reported a better overall quality of life than students who did not learn about their diagnosis until they were older. “Findings suggest that telling a child that they are autistic at a younger age empowers them by providing access to support and a foundation for self-understanding that helps them thrive in adulthood,” the authors wrote.

However, just because it’s beneficial to share your child’s diagnosis with them early in life does not mean this is a conversation to take lightly.

“There’s no one thing that you can do to be prepared to share the information,” says Dr. Bancroft, but parents should do their own research — reading books or listening to podcasts, including some by self-advocates — before starting a conversation with their child. “Understanding different perspectives about autism and what it means, and how it presents within the community, can be helpful.”

You might need time to wrap your mind around what exactly it means to have autism, and what exactly it means for your child to have autism, notes Dr. Bancroft, because every child is different. She also recommends talking to people close to you about it and getting support when you need it, particularly if you feel overwhelmed. You may want to meet with a mental health professional yourself.

Kids pick up on a lot, so it’s important you’re able to manage your emotions and nonverbal behaviors before you talk to them. It is also helpful to pick a time and location where you and your child both feel relaxed and can focus. “They might not always remember what you say when you share the diagnosis with them, but they’re always going to remember how you made them feel,” says Dr. Bancroft.

Dr. Bancroft recommends preparing to answer questions they might have. But if you don’t know the answer to a question, you can always say, “I don’t know, I’m learning about this too. Let’s find out together.’” Just make sure you follow up.

When explaining an autism diagnosis to a child, Dr. Bancroft suggests starting with their strengths. Then acknowledge the challenges they have faced and might face in the future — framing them as differences rather than flaws and emphasizing that these challenges are not their fault. Remind them that this diagnosis will help them get the support they need, and you’ll be with them every step of the way.

“There’s nothing wrong or damaged, or really anything that needs to be changed about the way their brain works or about who they are as people,” says Dr. Bancroft. “People with autism might need some extra help with certain things, but you can also point out that everybody has challenges. All people have things that they need help with.”

If your child has a special interest, you might want to start with that strength, reminding them that they know everything there is to know about Pokémon or the New York City subway map, and that their friends don’t know those things as well.

After you talk about one of their strengths, you might then turn to one of their challenges. Dr. Bancroft gives this example: “You know how sometimes you might not understand why some kids will say the things that they do, or do the things that they do? Kids with autism might have a hard time understanding what people want and what they’re thinking if they don’t say it out loud.”

An example Dr. Bancroft gives for a reframing a challenge is: “Instead of saying, ‘Autism is characterized by lack of conversation,’ you might want to say something like, ‘Having autism means you tend to talk passionately about your special interests while you’re less excited about small talk.’”

Reminding them that these challenges are not their fault might look like this: “Sometimes kids with autism can feel out of control when they get upset, and they can have some meltdowns. It’s not your fault,” or “Sometimes you might have different ways of calming your body or showing that you’re excited. That’s OK.”

If a child is angry, scared, or has a strong negative reaction to the news, the best thing a parent can do is validate their emotions rather than trying to get them to calm down right away or see the positives in the diagnosis. In the moment, they need to know that you are going to help them navigate their challenges and get the support they need.

You can talk about the team you’re building to support them — their doctors, teachers, and family members, for example — and how that team will share strategies to address their challenges and help them feel better. Any conversation about a lifelong diagnosis will be an ongoing one, so don’t worry about fitting everything into the first discussion.

How you describe an autism diagnosis depends on your child. Dr. Bancroft suggests considering their developmental level, language level, and readiness to hear the news in addition to their age.

They might wonder about the evaluation, noticing differences between themselves and their peers, or asking questions like “What’s wrong with me?” or “Why do I keep doing that?” These are critical moments to open up a conversation about neurodivergence, and Dr. Bancroft suggests doing so by replying directly. For example, “There’s this thing called autism that’s making it more difficult for you to read social cues. It’s not that there’s something wrong with you. It’s just harder for you to pick up on those cues. We can work on that together.” The language you use during this strengths-based conversation depends on the child. Here are some suggestions for different age groups:

Children in preschool — or with similar developmental and language levels — might not be able to understand what having autism means. It helps to talk in simple terms of who they are, explaining autism as “just a fact, a way of life,” says Dr. Bancroft.

“Preschool is a time when kids are starting to learn about differences and beginning to notice differences in themselves and their peers in general.” She adds that preschool children are also very loving and forgiving. “So, the way that I like to coach parents in the pre-K years is by using different phrases such as, ‘Your brain is amazing, and it might work a little differently than some of your friends. Everyone’s brain works a bit differently.’” It might even be helpful to compare yourself to another loved one and discuss what comes more easily to each of you.

In these younger years, she says, “It’s best to keep it short, simple, and concrete. Focus on observable behaviors and other tangible examples your child can wrap their mind around. You want to normalize, ask if they have any questions, and then let them move on. Your child may be ready to move on from the conversation before you are — and that’s okay.”

School-aged children will be more aware of the evaluation process, and they might be ready for a frank conversation about the diagnosis. They will likely have direct questions as well. Otherwise, much of the approach stays the same. “It’s just that the language you use becomes more sophisticated over time,” Dr. Bancroft says. You still want to use a strengths-based approach tailored to their specific talents and challenges, follow their curiosity, and use words they understand.

Teens and young adults who are receiving a new autism diagnosis likely already have seen information about it on social media. “Maybe they’ve done the TikTok deep dive, and they’re saying, ‘Oh, some of these things, they ring true for me.’”

If not, they will probably look up the diagnosis online and on social media afterward. TikTok, in particular, is a topic of conversation among clinicians right now, since many creators are making videos about autism. Dr. Bancroft says it’s useful to remind teens that not everything on TikTok is based in fact.

There is plenty of reputable information about autism available online to direct them toward if they want to know more. Parents may also want to speak to their teenagers about how algorithms work, serving them more and more content about autism if they keep watching it, for example.

More generally, parents should pay attention to what their teens are looking at online and foster open communication about what they’re seeing, particularly as it relates to autism. “Ask them, ‘Do you see positive things? What about a negative light? What do you think?’” Dr. Bancroft says. “Teens just want you to be real with them. So, it’s really important to meet a teen where they are and ask them open-ended questions so they have the opportunity to share what they’re seeing and experiencing. Then validate those reactions as much as you can.”

“Let them know that a lot of people have autism,” says Dr. Bancroft. “And there’s a community out there.” In fact, learning about this diagnosis at a young age can help children find autistic communities and helpful social skills groups where they feel understood.

If your child with autism is interested in a specific area, it can be helpful to find a well-known individual in that same field who has autism and excelled.

For those looking to learn more about autism, there is a wealth of information online, including this blog from Sesame Street that offers more lines parents can use to describe autism to younger children, this award-winning video that explains the diagnosis, and helpful books by mental health professionals and individuals with lived experience, and more guides and articles in the Family Resource Center.

The post How to Tell Your Child About Their Autism Diagnosis appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

Watch the Recording

On November 13, the Child Mind Institute convened a panel of experts to explore how philanthropic, institutional, and venture funders consider the impact of technology on young people’s mental health as they evaluate projects and invest in new solutions.

The panel was moderated by Lauren McLaughlin, MBA, director in the Office of the Chief Scientist at the Child Mind Institute. Panelists included Kana Enomoto, director of brain health at the McKinsey Health Institute; Gaia Brignone, head of community and communications at Kokoro; and Matthew Brown, head of digital technology, discovery research and mental health at Wellcome Trust.

The panelists discussed lessons learned from the rise of social media, the need for preventative education about digital well-being, and the promise of AI and digital tools to enhance mental health interventions and research. But concerns were raised about the possibility of a “digital divide.” Given the disparities in digital literacy across populations, there’s a risk that digital approaches could “miss the same people who are always missed,” Matthew Brown observed. This conversation underscored the importance of allowing researchers to access real-world data — like data tech companies collect on users — to guide future investments.

Turning to current trends, the panelists highlighted a growing focus on participatory and youth-driven designs that reflect the values and lived experiences of users, as well as equity-centered designs, which prioritize accessibility, affordability, and availability. These approaches aim to create mental health care solutions that are inclusive and impactful for a diverse range of people.

This conversation is part of the Child Mind Institute’s webinar series on Technology and Youth Mental Health, which aims to build consensus among researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders on how to use tech to improve mental health outcomes for young people — and how to prevent negative effects. The series is made possible by our partner and funder, the California Department of Health Care Services.

The post Investing in the Future: Funder Perspectives on Technology and Youth Mental Health appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

New York, NY — The Child Mind Institute is proud to announce the appointment of Dr. Amy Margolis as a Senior Research Fellow. In her new role, Dr. Margolis will drive cutting-edge research initiatives at the Institute, furthering the understanding and treatment of learning disabilities such as dyslexia and non-verbal learning disability (NVLD). Her arrival coincides with a $1 million gift from The NVLD Project, establishing the Non-Verbal Learning Disability Research Fund (NVLD), dedicated to advancing critical research to this lesser-known, and severely underfunded, neurodevelopmental disorder. This partnership offers a transformative shift in how NVLD is recognized, understood and treated.

A 2020 study led by Drs. Amy Margolis and Michael Milham, Chief Science Officer, of the Child Mind Institute estimated that nearly 3 million children and adolescents in North America may have NVLD, which affects a person’s ability to process or integrate visual and spatial information. The Child Mind Institute aims to elevate awareness of NVLD, bringing attention to these challenges within educational, medical, and broader public arenas. Through pioneering initiatives—including advocating for the inclusion of this disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders- 5, refining diagnostic assessments, and conducting research studies—our teams are exploring the development of new evidence based treatment interventions for youth with this disorder.

Formerly Dr. Margolis was an Associate Professor at Columbia University and head of the Environment, Brain, and Behavior Lab. She has conducted pioneering research that has significantly advanced the understanding of how environmental factors affect cognitive development and learning. In her new role at the Child Mind Institute, she will spearhead innovative research initiatives exploring the intersection of neuroscience, environmental factors, and learning disorders such as dyslexia and NVLD, all while working collaboratively with the expert clinical team in the Learning and Development Center at the Child Mind Institute.

​​”I am thrilled to join the Child Mind Institute, an organization that leads cutting-edge research and sets the standard for innovative practices and treatments in child development and mental health,” said Dr. Margolis. “Together, we will map out new patterns of learning disorders and develop precision-oriented interventions to address these challenges.”

Dr. Michael Milham stated, “Dr. Margolis brings an unmatched depth of expertise in developmental and environmental neuroscience. We are so pleased that Laura Lemle, the visionary Founder of The NVLD Project is supporting her work and our collective efforts to enhance our understanding of how learning disabilities develop.”

“The partnership between The NVLD Project and the Child Mind Institute has so much potential to change the lives of people with NVLD,” said Laura Lemle, PhD, The NVLD Project Founder. “That potential will only be accelerated by the appointment of Dr. Amy Margolis.”

To learn more, see our resources about NVLD and read Dr. Margolis’s full biography.

About the Child Mind Institute

We are the leading independent nonprofit in children’s mental health providing gold-standard, evidence-based care, delivering educational resources to millions of families each year, training educators in underserved communities, and developing open science initiatives and tomorrow’s breakthrough treatments.

Visit Child Mind Institute on social media: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

For press questions, contact our press team at childmindinstitute@ssmandl.com or our media officer at mediaoffice@childmind.org.

The post Child Mind Institute Prioritizes Non-Verbal Learning Disability (NVLD) Research and Care With the Appointment of Dr. Amy Margolis appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

“First, there is the excitement of dressing up, taking on the persona of someone or something else, and acting the part for a little while. Next, there is showing off for the people around you, those who will marvel at how scary, fierce, beautiful or unique you are. And finally, there is the chance to grab as many Skittles and chocolate as you can.”

For many children, Halloween is a sanctioned opportunity to hit the town and get some major developmental work done, exhibiting mastery over their environment, testing out confident interpersonal interactions, and building a social network.

But for plenty of other kids, those same opportunities loom as huge challenges. And for their parents: As one mom we know put it, “If you have a kid who’s prone to meltdowns, Halloween is the perfect setup.” For kids who have challenges acting appropriately, dealing with surprises and disappointments, following directions, getting along with peers, or resisting the impulse to consume all their spoils on the spot, the evening can go off the rails.

How can the parents of kids with developmental or anxiety disorders or disruptive behavior problems stay cool on what has the potential to be the most anarchic holiday of the year?

For some kids, particularly those with sensory issues, the wrong item of clothing can destroy a wonderful night—for you and for them. Experienced (and tough as nails) parents of special needs children have an elegant solution: wear what suits them. No “helmets, masks, face paint, scratchy material, special shoes, sound effects or anything scary,” writes Michaela Searfoorce on The Foorce. Ellen Seidman, writing in Redbook, describes years of meltdowns and freakouts for her son Max, diagnosed with cerebral palsy. “He wailed; I cried.” And then, a revelation:

“We would do Halloween our way, in T-shirts and sweatpants. That would be our tradition, as quirky as our family itself. And so off we went, trick-or-treating. ‘Who are you?’ neighbors asked, perplexed by my costume-less children. ‘I’m Sabrina!’ said Sabrina. ‘Ax!’ said Max. Best costumes ever.”

If your child has problems with social interactions because of developmental issues or an anxiety disorder, having a clear plan of attack for trick-or-treating is key. This can be a social story to prepare a kid for the experience—what to expect, what he’ll be expected to do, what constitutes good behavior.

One mom we know suggests eating before you go out, going early to avoid the “mayhem” of later hours, and trying to give as much information about the timetable as possible. If a little chaos is unavoidable (and it probably is), kids with developmental issues will likely be reassured by a return to routine at home afterwards, like a regular bedtime or evening activity.

Or the routine can be a clear agreement about who will speak and when at the door, so that anxious kids know what’s expected of them. Should you decide to stay in, a child can still participate from a safe remove and gain some social experience, even if it’s not a lot. Remember, this night is supposed to be fun, but it can also be a learning experience for a child that allows them to enjoy it more fully in the future.

One mother we know makes the consequences of undesirable behavior very clear to her son. Reasoning that the random anarchy and scariness of Halloween should mean more emphasis on behavior, not less, she plans to spend ample time before that night making him understand that even though there is going to be a lot of activity, the same rules—about touching, moving around—still apply. “I’m trying to impress on him that he could end up getting time outs or even go home if he gets totally out of control,” she says.

Adults can forget that there are some real fears associated with Halloween. So while some parents worry over their children’s exposure to scary imagery, some blithely ignore the issue until it is too late. Young children who still have trouble distinguishing fantasy from reality could get a nasty shock, particularly if they have specific phobias or anxiety associated with Halloween images like witches or monsters. And parents shouldn’t forget that older children passing into their “tweenage” years are developing a better understanding of death, and the holiday could be unsettling for them even as it has become quite commercial.

Most of all, remember what the holiday is all about. Halloween is supposed to be fun, but fun isn’t mandatory. Parents want the best for their children, and for their children to be seen as capable and engaged in the eyes of their peers. But it is the comfort and joy of kids that should come first. If this isn’t the year for your child to break out of her shell or for him to be able to handle extended activities with peers, there is always next year.

On The Raising Socially Anxious Children Blog, a mother describes what her kids decided for Halloween, a plan she was more than happy to agree with. Activities include “Carve pumpkins the night before,” “Order Pizza for dinner,” “Make some goody bags for their friends in the neighborhood,” and “Spend Halloween together as a family warm and snuggly in our house.” Not “traditional,” but then some kids aren’t “typical,” and this night is not the be-all-end-all. If both kids and parents are less anxious or on-edge doing Halloween their way, more power to them.

The post Test Article appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

Whatever our personal feelings about the election, kids need to understand what is happening. Young people are amazingly perceptive. If we don’t help them process events, they can reach unhelpful, even harmful conclusions. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

We can’t help our kids while we are still recovering from this whirlwind of an election.

Ask kids how they are feeling without making any assumptions. They may be confused or worried or angry. Let them know it’s OK to have strong reactions to the election or the messages they’re receiving about it.

Even if your children are young, you can begin talking about elections, politics, and our democracy at a level that is appropriate and understandable. As they grow, keep the discussion going, which will make them better informed and help them learn to think independently.

Continuously checking the news or social media can keep emotions heightened. Show kids how to strike a balance between staying informed and engaging in other activities.

Getting involved in the decisions of your local community helps kids understand that they can channel uncomfortable feelings into action.

Elections, particularly contentious ones, are an opportunity to encourage engagement with the democratic process and empathy for our fellow citizens. What will happen in a new administration may not be clear, but the only path is forward.

The post Guidance for Talking to Kids About the Election appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

Chantelle French always imagined that when she had kids, she’d continue to sleep over at her parents’ house on Christmas Eve along with other relatives. But her daughter, Charli, who was diagnosed with autism at age 2, was so miserable spending the night away from home that French decided to rethink the tradition.

“I realized that we have a different kind of family, and we had to say ‘no’ to some things, even if it meant breaking tradition,” recalls French, who also has a 5-year-old daughter with ASD. “I cried a lot about it, but I think we’ve gotten used to having Christmas morning at home before heading to my parents’ house in the afternoon. My whole family has done a great job of adjusting to this.”

For parents of children with behavioral challenges, there’s another layer of holiday stress on top of the decorating, cooking, and shopping. “During this time, we hear more often from parents who are struggling with setting limits and seeing more behavioral difficulties,” says Michelle Thirkield, PsyD, a psychologist in the Anxiety Disorders Center at the Child Mind Institute.

According to Dr. Thirkield, the “most wonderful time of the year” unsettles children for a variety of reasons. Large gatherings tend to overwhelm those with autism and social anxiety. Bright lights, dressy clothes, and loud music can feel intolerable for children with sensory processing issues. And a long winter recess from school upsets students who crave routine and structure. Add to that uncommon foods (hello, noodle kugel) from cooks who don’t take “no thanks” for an answer, and it’s a recipe for a meltdown.

For each of these stressful holiday situations and others, experts and experienced parents provide their favorite tips. Even though the seasonal festivities with kids who have challenges may look different than the glamorized versions on your Instagram feed, they can be every bit as joyful.

My child lives for their routine, but we’ve got a two-week winter break coming up. How are we going to survive?

Plan in advance. “Think about how you can add a sense of structure to the break,” Dr. Thirkield says. “For instance, you could research what day camp programs are offered in your area during holiday break and sign up for one that works for your schedule and interests.” Local aquariums, science centers, gymnastic centers, youth theaters, and children’s museums may offer an interest-specific day-camp options, while those at the neighborhood YMCA or JCC tend to keep kids busy all day long with a variety of activities ranging from sports to crafts. If you don’t want a full-day program, you could look into story time at the library or a drop-in program at a museum where you have a family membership (some libraries also have museum passes you can borrow). “Going to the playground or taking a walk around at a certain time every day also helps fulfill the desire for structure,” Dr. Thirkield says.

Give a heads-up. Don’t wait until the first day of break to tell your child that school will be closed for the next two weeks. And you definitely don’t want them hearing it for the first time at school when their teachers say, “See you next year!” Around the second week of December, explain when and why school is closed in a way that is most developmentally appropriate to your child — and some of your holiday stress may be prevented.

Create a written or visual schedule for break. “Share it with your child multiple times,” suggests Nechama Sorscher, PhD, author of the forthcomingYour Neurodiverse Child: How to Help Kids with Learning, Attention, and Neurocognitive Challenges Thrive. “You want to be sure they understand and are prepared for any plan you might have made.” While some kids may enjoy surprises (“Guess what, we’re seeing the lights at the zoo tonight!”), those with autism can react poorly when activities are sprung on them. “As a constant reminder of what’s coming up, we post the schedule on the fridge so our kids can refer to it anytime,” says Alicia Trautwein, director of the blog The Mom Kind and mom of four children, ages 10 to 22, with various challenges.

Stick with school bedtimes as much as possible. Eventually, break is going to be over, and it will be more difficult to get back in the groove if the kids have been consistently going to bed several hours later than usual, says Dr. Thirkield. Of course, there can be one-time exceptions, like staying up until midnight on New Year’s Eve.

I’m worried that my child is going to have a meltdown during a holiday gathering at a relative’s house — it’s happened before, and I felt judged.

Give your kids home field advantage. After some trial and error (with the emphasis on error), Trautwein discovered that it was easier to host Thanksgiving than travel for it. “Sure it was literally two days of nonstop cooking, but I knew I’d have what the kids would eat and they’d have safe spaces in the house to hang out at when they felt overwhelmed.” To trim prep time, assign guests a dish to bring or order some premade sides from a supermarket or restaurant.

Plan ahead. Shannon Rosa, who has two children with ADHD and one with autism, hosts Thanksgiving and Christmas, but she also finds a way to visit friends and family for more casual post-Christmas festivities. Planning ahead has saved the day on more than one occasion, she says  “Tell the host ahead of time — even when you’re accepting the invitation — that your kids get easily overwhelmed and burned out, and ask where in their house can they retreat to if they’re feeling that way,” Rosa says. Then, of course, alert the kids to where the safe spot is. 

Time it right. Don’t arrive at a gathering immediately after a long car ride. Instead, research a nearby park where kids can stretch their legs for 30 minutes or so, and then make your entrance when the kids are more refreshed.

Discuss expectations with your kids. Whether you’re having company or visiting, tell your kids what you expect from them based on their capabilities. “You might tell an older child, for instance, that you’d like them to visit with guests for 30 minutes and then they can feel free to do their own thing,” says  Dr. Thirkield. If some kids can only muster, a “hi” and “bye,” that’s OK, too.

Give time to warm up. Especially if children with social anxiety aren’t on their own turf, allow them to settle in — and hang onto their toy or tablet — before they’re thrust into greetings from relatives that they haven’t seen in a year.  Also, don’t require your child to hug relatives if they don’t feel comfortable doing so. A high five, fist bump, or wave acknowledges the family member, too.

Build in time between visits. If one day is very active with lots of company or visiting, make sure the next day is restful and quiet, especially for kids with autism. “Their brains can get overwhelmed and cause autistic burnout, when they withdraw completely,” says Dr. Sorscher.

Food is the love language in my family — and my child is very sensitive to textures and has a limited diet.

Loop in family members. “Tell the host and some guests in advance that your child has eating challenges, and you’re working on them,” says Dr. Thirkield. “Doing so will hopefully make them supporters and reduce the likelihood of insensitive, hurtful comments.” French warns that children, including nonverbal ones, are aware when relatives are talking about them, so shut down any conversation at the get-together about your child’s eating habits.

Bring your child’s food. A gracious host may offer to make something special for your picky eater (“No problem, I could bake a mac ‘n cheese!”), but feel free to turn down the offer if it won’t work (“Thank you! But he really only likes a certain brand, so if we could just use the microwave to heat up a dish I bring, I’d appreciate it!”) A bento-type box filled with finger foods — like crackers, cheese cubes, and grapes — work particularly well to bring to a guest’s house. If you live nearby, feeding picky eaters at home first is another kid-friendly holiday strategy. Consider it a win (and praise them) if they nibble on anything else, even if they didn’t like it. (“I’m proud that you tasted your aunt’s pumpkin bread, even though you didn’t like it this time.”)

Give kids a comfortable space. Being squished at a noisy Thanksgiving table makes some kids with challenges too uncomfortable to eat or engage in any way. Set up a kids’ table with fidget toys and favors. You could also consider bringing your child’s favorite plate and cup.

I see kids dressed up in their matching holiday clothes, and I wish that could be us. My kids would never wear anything like that!

Choose a color scheme. “We did matching clothes for three years, and when that wasn’t working, we shifted to a red-and-green theme. It still looked festive, but each of the kids could select what was comfortable for them,” says Trautwein. If you celebrate Hanukkah, consider a combination of blue, white, and silver.

Focus on soft fabrics and tagless items. “That’s pretty much all my kids wear,” says French, who started her business Forever French Baby by making kids’ pajamas out of soft bamboo and Spandex when her daughter wouldn’t tolerate wearing any clothes.

Give kids a say. If your child is old enough, show them a few outfits online and ask them for their preference. Dr. Thirkield adds, “Finding the middle path in a way, with something that’s holiday-esque and that kids helped us pick out, is a great solution.”

Add a soft layer. For dress clothes that kids do like but aren’t the softest, add a T-shirt underlayer. “That’s been how we’ve been able to do costumes,” French adds. But try to avoid clothes that may make kids feel hot, which may further aggravate kids with sensory challenges and cause holiday stress. For instance, be satisfied if your child will wear a cute dress — and don’t push it by attempting the fancy coat. Leggings under a dress are a more comfortable alternative to tights or bare legs are fine in warmer climates. For boys, a bow tie may cause less sensory issues than a necktie.

Most of our family and friends live out of town, so we’re going to be traveling a bunch this year. I’m worried it’s going to be a nightmare.

Drive when you can. For kids with challenges, particularly autism and sensory sensitivities, a 10-hour drive is usually better than a 90-minute plane ride — especially if the drive is broken up into two days, says Dr. Sorscher. “Kids with autism typically do surprisingly well in the car because they don’t mind boring, repetitive tasks,” she says. “Planes are more challenging because there’s a lot of waiting, transitioning, and unfamiliar noises.” If you do need to fly, look at these tips to make the airport a smoother experience.

Look for bonding moments. If you’re driving together for a long period, use it as an opportunity to create traditions, suggests Dr. Thirkield. Mutually agree on a car game to play before you leave. For instance, you could create a visual scavenger hunt game card (or find a printable online) with items like an inflatable snowman, bakery, car with antlers, and other holiday-themed objects you might encounter on the road.

Pack distractions and favorite snacks. “For each child, we would pack crayons, coloring books, mini action figures or dolls, and other small fun toys in a bucket that they could easily reach,” says Trautwein. It’s also fine to relax screen-time rules for these special occasions, assures Dr. Thirkield. While some kids may be happiest watching their favorite movie over and over, you can download something new for them to enjoy.

Extend bathroom breaks. Allow kids to run around a safe grassy area at rest stops to blow off some steam before the next leg of the journey.

My child never has that jumping for joy, viral video reaction to gifts. Sometimes they don’t even care to open them, other times they’ll tell the gift giver it’s not what they wanted or liked.

Role-play opening presents. For kids who are into gifts, role-play saying “thank you” to the gift giver, even if it’s not what they hoped for. Tell your child that if they receive something that they don’t want, they can discuss with you privately at home.

Guide relatives to preferences. Telling grandparents to buy “something soccer-related” isn’t enough to go on. Parents reported that relatives appreciated a specific link to an item that your child may have seen at the store or in a catalog rather than general preferences. 

Prioritize experiences over gifts. Especially when kids are young, tell relatives that a family membership to the local children’s museum, tickets to a sensory-friendly event, or another experience would be greatly preferred over a wrapped gift that your child may show no interest in opening. “My kids didn’t open a single holiday gift for years,” says French. “But it gets better with each passing year, and you start your own traditions.  At some point, you don’t even wish it were different anymore.”

The post 24 Ways to Make the Holidays Kid-Friendly appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

Watch the Recording

In this wide-ranging panel discussion, the Child Mind Institute asked young tech and mental health advocates to share their experiences growing up with social media; weigh in on policy approaches to social media and smartphone use among young people; and talk about why it is important to center youth voices in these conversations.

“Centering Youth Voices” was moderated by Elle Kass, research projects coordinator at the Child Mind Institute. The five panelists were Saheb Gulati, a high school senior; Aavineet Pahwa, a high school senior; Edward Thomas, an undergraduate freshman; Martin Montiel, a University of California, San Diego graduate ‘24; and Daniella Ivanir, a University of California, Berkeley graduate ‘23.

This webinar has a companion piece, “What Research Tells Us About Social Media‘s Role in Youth Mental Health,” featuring youth mental health researchers and clinicians.

“As digital natives, I think [social media] is nuanced and complex,” Daniella said early in the panel, “it’s not just bad or just good — it is all of it together. It’s life.”

Through their personal stories, each panelist emphasized how social media has both enriched their lives and created challenges. As Edward shared, “[Social media is] something we are all a part of, but also something we are almost forced to be a part of.”

The complexity of engaging with social media led to a key question from Aavineet: “Should we be restricting social media — or teaching our young generation digital literacy?”

The panelists talked about banning phones in schools and other restrictions, seeing their potential for positive health impact and as a missed opportunity. Saheb neatly summarized one argument against bans: “By banning phones, are we losing out on a great opportunity for students to learn how to use these devices in a healthy way?” Martin spoke eloquently of how revelatory a “social media detox” can be for young people accustomed to life online but also noted how powerful social media can be for making connections in a new environment, like college.

“Healthy engagement is where you’re able to use technology for your benefit,” Edward said.

Phone bans also set up the potential for conflict. Saheb recalled a ban at his school, where the student response “evolved from a scathing reaction to grudging acceptance or even appreciation.” Others on the panel offered a different view. “If my school had a phone ban, I think 50% of the population wouldn’t come to school,” Aavineet said. “It shouldn’t be forced upon us. Youth should be at the forefront.”

Daniella agreed and highlighted the danger of unintentional consequences from unilateral policymaking. “If we put young people at the center of policy making, we won’t get policies that fail to do what we want them to do.”

Panelists repeatedly returned to an equity lens to evaluate policy. Not every student is privileged enough to be able to disconnect at the whim of school or government policy, they observed. “Are there kids who need to be in touch with their younger siblings?” Daniella asked. “Are there medical needs?”

Another key part of this conversation is having an open mind about how social media impacts young people from diverse backgrounds, Edward said. Because “challenges and benefits look different to different people.”

All of the panelists urged adults to approach social media — and the way it is used by young “digital natives” like themselves — with a healthy sense of curiosity. “There is a disconnect between what is understood around how youth are engaging with social media and tech, versus how people are trying to control it through policy,” Edward said. Listening to young people’s perspectives and experiences can temper the sensationalism of the smartphone debate and make space for policy based on reality.

According to the panelists, the voices of young people will have a transformative effect on the policy debate. And as for taking care of themselves online, Aavineet had this parting thought: “I like to follow K.I.S.S.” she said. “Keep It Simple, Stupid.” In other words: Use social media when it’s helpful and makes you happy and unplug when it doesn’t.

These conversations are part of the Child Mind Institute’s webinar series on Technology and Youth Mental Health, which asks how tech might be used to improve mental health outcomes for all young people. The series is made possible by our partner and funder, the California Department of Health Care Services.

The post Beyond the Hype: Centering Youth Voices in the Smartphone Debate appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

“When a parent has a learning disorder, sharing their own experiences and normalizing their child’s struggles is really validating for the child and shows them they’re not alone,” says Angela Dewey, PhD, a neuropsychologist at the Child Mind Institute.

But keep in mind that your child’s experience may be different from your own. “While their struggles may match in terms of diagnosis or day-to-day challenges, the child may have a totally different outlook.”

And they are likely to benefit from supports and skill building that weren’t available when you were growing up.

Dr. Dewey recommends that parents let kids know about their own experience with learning issues in an age-appropriate way, using language the child can relate to. At the same time, she adds, “It’s definitely important to balance that honesty and disclosure with being sensitive to the fact that the child is their own person and their struggles might not be the same.”

She also advises parents avoid framing their own experiences in a way that might make their child feel like they’re destined to fail or destined to have the same struggle. If you did have a painful experience in school, you can emphasize that you learned ways to compensate for your learning disorder. Or if you weren’t diagnosed as having an LD when you were a child, but you can see now that you had one, you can focus on how much more is known about learning disorders and how to treat them. “You want to instill hope in your child by telling them basically: ‘I know, and your teachers know, exactly how to support you with this going forward.’”

It can also be helpful for parents to share their own learning disorder diagnosis or learning challenges with their child’s clinician or teacher, particularly if their child is doing a learning assessment. Family history is one piece of the puzzle that helps clinicians and educators better understand children and what they need emotionally and academically.

If you’re seeing signs of an LD in your child, a comprehensive evaluation is important to determine what is going on. “The evaluation is a way to quantify exactly what that child’s struggles are, figure out what supports they need, and come up with a really tailored and effective intervention plan for them,” Dr. Dewey says.

You might see similarities between your own experience and that of your child, but an assessment can reveal other factors at play or other aspects of your child’s learning profile that are different. It also helps educators better understand a child’s strengths as well as their needs for support.

Advocating effectively for your child depends on gathering up-to-date information about their diagnosis and available supports. “It’s important for parents to consider that there might be strategies and interventions in place that they might not know a lot about, because the way we talk about learning disorders is very different to 20 or even 10 years ago,” says educational specialist Taína Coleman, MA, MEd.

For example, assistive technologies such as iPads, laptops, and dictation software can now help children who struggle with reading and writing keep up with their peers. And neuroscience has shown the specific kind of reading instruction children with dyslexia need to learn to read fluently, so you can make sure your child is being taught effectively.

“Another big way you can help,” adds Dr. Dewey, “is by communicating with teachers and the school to ensure that they’re receiving any available accommodations or supports.”

Sometimes, parents can feel guilty about passing learning challenges down to their child. “Try and remove blame as much as possible,” advises Dr. Dewey. “While genetics play a role, kids whose parents don’t have these challenges can also struggle.”

And remember that sharing your own diagnosis with your child puts you in a unique position to empathize with them, to understand a lot of their experiences, and to serve as a role model, Dr. Dewey adds. When you applaud your kid’s resilience and encourage them to power through setbacks, they know you’ve been through it yourself.

“Learning disorder parents tend to be awesome cheerleaders,” Coleman says.

Helping a child with homework can be challenging for parents with learning disorders.

“Homework is often a battleground for parents and kids who have learning struggles,” notes Dr. Dewey. And because kids tend to feel most comfortable with their parents, they are more likely to act out when they are overwhelmed by feelings — “’mom and dad are going to love me whether or not I flip out over reading homework.’”

That’s where it can help to set them up with a tutor, learning specialist, or just another adult, Dr. Dewey says. “It can help kids focus and just removes some of that stress and interpersonal dynamic that comes along with parents trying to help their kids with homework because it’s more neutral ground.”

A learning specialist will also know specific approaches to teaching needed skills. “That could be an opportunity for a child to get some remediation and support for their areas of challenge as well as help with homework.”

Coleman suggests parents help “make the invisible visible” by sharing their own learning strategies and then asking their child what works for them.

“I’m a dyslexic parent, and my child has their own learning stuff,” Coleman says. “I tell my daughter what I know about myself as a learner: ‘The morning is a better time for me to read and do all of my work. Sometimes I’ll use audiobooks. These are the things that help me. What are the things that help you?’” This approach allows parents to make the most of their own experiences while also keeping the focus on their child’s needs.

Children with learning disorders benefit from strengths-based conversations. For example, instead of telling a dyslexic child that school will be hard for them, but they’ll make it through, Coleman recommends parents emphasize the unique, positive aspects of the dyslexic brain: “There are so many talents and skills that dyslexic brains naturally manifest. So many artists, musicians, and athletes are dyslexic. Your brain is built in a way that makes a lot of things feel natural for you, such as making connections, imagination, creativity and problem-solving. What comes easily to you?”

Dr. Dewey advises encouraging, and making time for, kids to get involved in activities that play to their strengths. “It gives them an arena that they do feel successful and helps them build confidence in themselves.”

It’s not uncommon for a child’s learning disorder diagnosis to prompt their parents to consider their own school experience in new ways. If you struggled with reading or math as a child and did not get a diagnosis, your child’s experience can shed light on your own. “Parents start reflecting on themselves and they’re like, ‘Oh, whoa, this was something that was an issue for me. There simply wasn’t much language around it,’” explains Coleman.

Parents can use this as an opportunity to seek their own learning evaluation. Receiving a learning disorder diagnosis in adulthood may help you demystify your academic and work experiences and find helpful strategies to navigate daily life. “There are university centers, hospitals, and independent clinics where parents can go and get an adult learning or neuropsychology evaluation,” says Dr. Dewey. She suggests parents consider local universities with graduate mental health programs, which might be looking for participants for their students to perform evaluations on.      

One advantage to realizing you have a learning disorder as an adult, Dr. Dewey adds, is that it can help you be gentler toward yourself and your own difficulties. “Getting that diagnosis for your child can sometimes put into perspective some of the things that were hard for you,” she notes. “In the same way that it can be validating for your child, you can benefit from that same validation.”

The post When Parent and Child Both Have a Learning Disorder appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

Watch the Recording

In this conversation, Yuki Kotani of the Child Mind Institute talks to Rebecca Weintraub Brendel, MD, JD, director of the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics, about the ethics of artificial intelligence, consent, and privacy in digital youth mental health research and interventions. This discussion is part of our webinar series on Technology and Youth Mental Health, which asks how tech can improve mental health outcomes for all young people.

Notably, Dr. Brendel highlights the ethical concerns of not pursuing research in this controversial, quickly evolving, and potentially transformative space that might lead to new interventions, screening tools, and improved access. “It would be a mistake ethically to say the risks are too great, we’re not going to do this research,” she says.

Dr. Brendel notes some of the major ethical considerations that must be taken into account as technology finds its way to market. One is equity. “We need to make sure it’s not just the people who live in urban centers and have broadband access who are getting treatment,” she says. Another is privacy. “The risk is being complacent and thinking that our old safeguards for our core values are going to work in the age of big data, not to mention AI and subsequent technologies.” A third is choice. “Some people love their Oura Rings and biofeedback and watches,” she says, “and other people are very happy having small fluctuations in heart rate and blood pressure be a mystery.”

Above all, Dr. Brendel says, researchers and clinicians must adhere to the “underlying principals and ethical commitments” of the field, including “respecting people and making sure we have permission to do things or take things from them, including their data” and ensuring that “people aren’t harmed by research or interventions.”

This video is part of a series of discussions on the ethical and equity challenges to accessing and leveraging real world data in youth mental health research. View more videos on this topic:

• Christa Studzinski, PhD, of the Ontario Brain Institute
• Amy Green, PhD, of Hopelab
• Stephen Scheuller, PhD, of the University of California, Irvine
• Casey Pick, JD, of the Trevor Project

The Child Mind Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donate and support work like the Technology and Youth Mental Health Series.

The post Promise and Responsibility: Big Data and AI in Youth Mental Health appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

When you take care of yourself, you’re better able to parent with patience, joy, and presence. You’ll also be setting a positive example for your children, demonstrating that it’s important and healthy to take care of yourself. Focusing on self-care for parents shows kids how crucial this habit is.

These mental health tips for parents can help you better care of yourself as you care for your child.

Take a moment to acknowledge that raising kids is one of the hardest jobs there is — even on a good day. Give yourself some grace and remember that you are doing your best. Self-care for parents starts with self-compassion. Learn more about how toxic stress impacts us and how we can build resilience.

In the chaos of caring for kids, it’s easy to forget to tend to your own basic needs. Remind yourself to get enough sleep, stay hydrated, and eat regular, healthy meals.

Taking care of yourself doesn’t have to be expensive or take a lot of time. Start small — take a bath after the kids are asleep or meditate for five minutes. Self-care for parents can be anything you do for yourself that makes you feel good.

Friends and family members can be great helpers — but they likely won’t know how to support you unless you ask them directly for what you need. Practicing self-care for parents means recognizing when and how to seek support.

Yes, taking good care of yourself will help you to be more available for your children. And it will teach them to make healthy habits, too. Self-care for parents has a rippling effect on the family.

Part of avoiding burnout is to understand that you can’t do everything yourself. Figure out your stress limit and try not to feel ashamed to know when you hit it. Learn more about managing burnout and creating a relapse prevention plan.

Whether through social media, support groups, or after-school activities try to find people who are in a similar parenting situation. Hearing what other families are going through can give support and perspective. Self-care for parents includes building a supportive community.

Surround yourself with other adults who understand your challenges and can offer a helping hand. This network could include your partner, family members, friends, or fellow parents in your community. Share responsibilities, delegate tasks, and ask for help when you need it.

It can also feel good to make time for friends who know you outside of your role as a caregiver. A phone call, a walk, or a coffee date with a friend can be good reminders that being a parent is a part of who you are as a person, but not your whole identity. Pursue self-care for parents to sustain your well-being and balance.

The post 8 Self-Care Tips for Parents: Practical Advice appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

R-OCD is a subtype of obsessive-compulsive disorder in which a person fixates either on their romantic partner or on the relationship itself. It might look like someone who asks, “Do you really love me?” over and over again. Or a person with R-OCD could worry that they’ll cheat on their partner if they catch themselves thinking someone else is attractive, even if it’s a celebrity they’ve never met. But while R-OCD might manifest a little differently than other types of OCD — the fear of contamination, for example, which can cause people to wash their hands over and over — it follows the same pattern.

“OCD is about having extreme discomfort with uncertainty,” says John Wyetzner, LCSW, a social worker in the Anxiety Disorders Center at the Child Mind Institute. “It’s all about the need to know, the need to have an answer to things.”

People with any type of OCD, Wyetzner says, seek answers to things “in a multitude of ways. Whether it’s tapping something until it feels ‘right’ or asking someone the same question 100 times — people do it to gain some semblance of control over it.”

R-OCD can show up in different kinds of relationships, including parent-child. But for teens, it’s particularly important to understand in the context of romantic relationships because it can be so difficult to spot.

“R-OCD in teens can get missed pretty often,” Wyetzner says. “A lot of teenagers are new to relationships, and they’re kind of learning as they go.” But teens’ romantic missteps and mistakes make it easier for OCD to be overlooked because obsessing over a relationship doesn’t seem that unusual. “It can come off as just being more ignorant or not being sure about certain things,” Wyetzner says, “when in reality it could be this more concerning factor that’s bubbling beneath the surface.”

Meanwhile, Wyetzner says, it’s common for people to write off their own symptoms of R-OCD as personal failings. Over time, people often feel that there is something wrong with them that they can’t identify. They may feel unworthy of their romantic partner or wonder if they are incapable of trusting them — anxieties that can take a serious toll on their relationships and self-esteem.

Clinicians group symptoms of R-OCD in two categories: relationship-focused R-OCD and partner-focused R-OCD.

People with relationship-focused R-OCD might ask questions like, “Is this relationship right?” As in other forms of OCD, where people repeat rituals to achieve a “just right” feeling, Wyetzner explains, “people with R-OCD are searching for a feeling of comfort or certainty, for the ‘just right’ feeling in a relationship sense.” 

Partner-focused R-OCD tends to involve a lot of intrusive thoughts. “They kind of get stuck in a cycle of, ‘Oh, do I really like this person?’ Or they start to think of negative attributes and wonder, ‘What else do I not like about them? Is this person good enough for me?’” Wyetzner says.

For people with R-OCD, the relationship or the partner are the obsession. That obsession gets expressed in compulsions that can include:

Mental compulsions: These are endless loops of negative thinking that occur entirely in the mind — replaying past conversations, for example. Mental compulsions can be debilitating for those who experience it but invisible to everyone else. In the context of R-OCD, Wyetzner calls this compulsion “rumination.” “Rumination is just someone sitting and having a lot of thoughts,” he says, “and trying to find a certain answer or a certain way through all the discomfort of their thoughts by thinking more.”

Reassurance-seeking: Reassurance-seeking can be motivated by rumination. It might look like asking your partner the same questions over and over again: “Are you cheating on me?” “Should we break up?”

Confessing: Confessing, meanwhile, is often a compulsion for those who worry about their own behaviors. Wyetzner gives this as an example: “I have to go and tell my boyfriend right away that I thought someone else was attractive, so I’m not keeping any secrets from him.”

Left unchecked, R-OCD can hurt people you care about — and leave you feeling really bad about yourself.

“It’s such a powerful thing that you cannot imagine a time in which you will not be standing in the shower thinking about these things over and over and over again, and then meeting up with your girlfriend and then talking to her about it over and over and over and over again,” says Travis, a man in his 40s who requested a pseudonym.

Travis first struggled with intrusive thoughts about his partners’ past relationships — sometimes described as retroactive jealousy — when he was a teenager. Experiencing these thoughts was excruciating. “It’s an unease that’s physically painful, mentally anguishing,” he says. “It’s a feeling of being out of control.”

Travis’s constant rumination — about whom his partner had dated, or even kissed, or about what that other person was like — led him to compulsively seek reassurance. He asked his partners questions, not so much for specific answers, but in hopes that any answer would somehow make the pain of thinking about those questions stop.

“What you believe is that by questioning, by getting another detail, it’s going to make it all right and make it make sense, and therefore the thoughts are going to go away. But it is actually the opposite,” Travis explains. “What happens is, you ask the question, you get more information, and it just leads to more questions.”

His compulsion to ask girlfriends prying questions about their past was inevitably painful for them and destroyed several relationships.

One ex described these encounters as stressful and exhausting. But also confusing, she told him later, because no amount of information ever seemed to be enough.

“In many ways, it’s a humiliating thing because, if you see yourself as a confident person and a strong person, then this is the behavior of a weak person. A man who’s insecure,” Travis says.

“But I never identified it as an actual thing with a name, nor knew that name. I saw it as nothing more than a particular personal weakness.”

Travis’s behaviors are common among people with R-OCD, but it’s important to note that R-OCD compulsions can also be more insidious. In an essay for the International OCD Foundation (IOCDF), Michael Rudden writes that while he knew he had OCD, he didn’t recognize how it manifested as an obsession with being “good enough” for his partner. He ruminated on self-improvement and compulsively exercised and scrutinized what he did and said around his partner. “For a while, my relationship OCD escaped even my own notice,” he writes, “because my mental compulsions seamlessly embedded themselves into my everyday behaviors.”

While OCD is a formal diagnosis, R-OCD isn’t. So if you haven’t been diagnosed with OCD, or even if you have, how do you know if what you’re experiencing is R-OCD? Unfortunately, there is no official rubric or standard to be met, Wyetzner says. But he encourages teens and parents to consider one important factor: time.

“How much time are you spending thinking about the relationship? Are you spending hours a day just thinking about the relationship or talking with people about it? Or asking people about it? One of the main metrics we use when determining severity of OCD is the amount of time that’s taken up by the OCD — whether it be obsessions or compulsions,” he says.

Also consider the intensity of your emotions. How distressing are your thoughts? Does this distress interfere with your daily life? Your relationship? Is it hard for you to spend time with your partner because all you do is ask them questions about the relationship, or all you do is worry? If any of this sounds familiar, a mental health professional can help you find the right support.

Travis first sought a therapist to help him deal with his retroactive jealousy — though he didn’t have a term for it at the time — when he was 14 or 15. Therapy has helped Travis in other facets of his life, he says, but it never successfully addressed this particular issue. (Traditional talk therapy can sometimes be counterproductive for people struggling with their OCD because it can lead to further rumination.)

But after entering a new relationship several years ago, Travis was compelled to try again. A Google search revealed the term “retroactive jealousy,” and he was struck by how many people appeared to relate to an anxiety he had assumed no one else shared. The discovery alone was a huge relief — just to have a video to show his partner, “to say, ‘Hey, this is what’s going on,’” he says.

Then, with his partner’s support, he began a more targeted therapy. Like other types of OCD, R-OCD is best treated through exposure with response prevention (ERP), or exposure therapy.

People with R-OCD can spend a lot of time engaging with distressing thoughts, but for them, thinking itself (rumination) is an attempt to resolve their distress. Exposure therapy — something done with the support of a specially trained therapist — asks the patient to sit with small amounts of stress or uncertainty without attempting to think their way through or otherwise resolve it. The goal is to understand that anxiety can gradually dissipate on its own.

Exposure therapy, especially for R-OCD, is tailored to an individual’s needs. If it’s beneficial, partners can be involved. In one session, Wyetzner recalls, his 19-year-old client was able to explain R-OCD to her boyfriend — a helpful discussion for both parties.

As Wyetzner explained, identifying R-OCD in the context of teens can be tricky. But you know yourself best. While Travis has had success with exposure therapy, he says he wishes he had known he wasn’t alone much earlier — a large reason behind his desire to speak with the Child Mind Institute about his experience.

“I would have saved a lot of strife and heartbreak and tears with teenage partners if I had known that.”

The post What Is Relationship OCD (R-OCD)? appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

By Giovanni Salum, MD, PhD
Vice-President, Global Programs, Child Mind Institute

&

Zeina Mneimneh, PhD, MS, MPH
Director, Global Landscape Mapping Program, Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Global Center for Child & Adolescent Mental Health at the Child Mind Institute

In recent years, mental health has emerged as a crucial component of global health discussions. However, much of the focus has traditionally been on high-income countries, leaving low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) with limited resources and tools tailored to their needs. This disparity especially impacts the child and adolescent population, as 90 percent of them live in LMICs (United Nations, 2011, Shinde, et al., 2023).

Children and adolescents in LMICs face severe challenges that greatly affect their mental health, including high levels of poverty, exposure to child labor, violence, conflict, and limited access to education. Moreover, access to specialized mental health care and support services is limited or non-existent in many of these countries. Yet data on their mental health needs are severely lacking. Without such data, planning services, allocating resources, and assessing mental health programs are impossible.

Reliable data require reliable tools. While there are many existing tools tailored to children or adolescents, they are mostly focused on specific conditions and a particular age group. Most importantly, the majority are developed in the English language and do not necessarily address the need for cultural sensitivity. Currently, assembling an instrument that assesses a comprehensive list of mental health conditions and is tailored to both children and adolescents, would require multiple instruments to be stitched together. Furthermore, this endeavor would have to be repeated if respondents age out of a specific age group and follow-up data are needed. Many of these instruments use different terminologies and necessitate harmonization of content and language. Even if harmonized, many of them use words such as “distress”, “uneasy”, or “agitated” that are difficult to translate and convey the same level of emotional intensity in different languages. And what about the calibration of scores across instruments?

This is the current landscape. And there is another essential limiting factor that is part of the definition of LMIC. Income. Cost is a serious barrier. How much does it cost to design or use any of these “specialized” instruments? For an LMIC with limited to no data, the answer is much more than what is available.

So, what do we need to mitigate these significant barriers to having relevant data that is needed for better mental health care for children and youth in LMIC? A free multicultural and comprehensive tool that measures a wide range of mental health conditions for children and adolescents. The tool must be designed by a diverse set of experts with a cross-cultural lens using terminologies and

definitions that can be translated into multiple languages. Such a tool would embrace cultural diversity, promote equitable access, provide reliable and comparable assessments, and empower local researchers and professionals. The benefits of such a tool are enormous for the research and practitioners community facilitating their work and advancing policies and practices that will ultimately reduce stigma and health disparity, improve mental health outcomes, and increase productivity and resources within the community.

To develop such a tool, collaboration among mental health professionals, linguists, methodologists, technology developers, and youth is essential. Engaging youth, who have lived experiences, is paramount to accurately representing their cultural contexts and needs. And it will ensure the tool’s comprehension.

This is what the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Global Center at the Child Mind Institute (CMI) in partnership with the International Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists and Allied Professionals (IACAPAP) has already embarked on. More than 300 international mental health experts from 76 countries in all the 14 UN regions have been working together to design a tool that assesses 17 common mental health conditions, plus suicide and functioning for children and youth across their life span (3-24 years old). This tool has also been assessed by 12 linguists. This is only the beginning of its development, with the essential involvement of youth and psychometric assessments to follow.

We hope you follow our journey and keep advocating for mental health solutions that embrace cultural differences and are accessible to all, so that we can make strides toward equitable mental health care that spans the globe.

The post Addressing the Silent Mental Health Crisis of Children and Youth Around the World appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

Groundbreaking Initiative Empowers Future Leaders to Bridge Youth Mental Health Gaps in Low-Resource Settings

New York, NY —  The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Global Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health at the Child Mind Institute named Dr. Syed Usman Hamdani and Dr. Christine Musyimi as the inaugural 2024 SNF Global Center Research Fellows. Their projects will lead research advancement and capacity building to address child and adolescent mental health gaps and needs in their home countries of Pakistan and Kenya.

The SNF Global Center Research Fellowships are an innovative funding and career development program. They include an award equivalent to approximately USD $550,000 over a 4- to 5-year period. The Fellowships target exceptionally creative, early-career scientists with records of conducting innovative projects with high impact in local communities in their region. These are projects that demonstrate potential to revolutionize the field of child and adolescent mental health in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Awardees will be provided a unique international platform for mentorship, training, career development, and networking alongside SNF Global Center Clinical and Communication Fellows participating in sister Fellowship programs.

“Designed to cultivate future leaders in child and adolescent mental health research within low- and middle-income countries, the SNF Global Center Research Fellowship supports early-career researchers with a proven track record of innovation, impact, and leadership potential. Fellows will receive funding for projects, along with mentorship, networking opportunities, and ongoing collaboration provided by the SNF Global Center,” said Peter Raucci, Program Director of Global Fellowships at the SNF Global Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health at the Child Mind Institute.

Dr. Syed Usman Hamdani is Founding Director of Global Institute of Human Development at Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University in Islamabad, Pakistan. His research focuses on addressing inequities in evidence-based child and adolescent mental health (CAMH) services in low-resource settings. His project will utilize low-cost technology to scale up the training and supervision of non-specialist school counsellors in the delivery of evidence-based cognitive behavior therapy. The project will apply the World Health Organization’s Early Adolescent Skills for Emotions (EASE) intervention to improve outcomes for young people with mental illnesses. The non-inferiority, single-blind, individual randomized controlled trial (RCT) will be conducted in eight middle- and high schools.

“I am thrilled by this opportunity to make contributions towards a real-world impact in global CAMH,” said Dr. Hamdani. “The fellowship will allow me to network and learn with the global community of CAMH professionals, especially in low-resource settings, and to create opportunities for increased collaborations to study, implement, and scale up evidence-based, preventive, promotive, and treatment CAMH services in a sustainable manner.”

Dr. Christine Musyimi is an early-career researcher at the Africa Mental Health Research and Training Foundation in Nairobi, Kenya, where she currently works on the NIHR Global Health Research Group on Homelessness and Mental Health in Africa (HOPE) project. Her project will focus on reducing self-stigma and improving service engagement among adolescents experiencing homelessness in Kenya. Her project will explore lived experiences of homelessness, mental illness, and stigma within the Kenyan context and ways of adapting the Honest, Open, Proud (HOP) intervention for this vulnerable population.

“I have always been interested in understanding disparities in health and enhancing mental health in low-resource community settings,” said Dr. Musyimi. “This fellowship marks a significant milestone in advancing my career as an adolescent mental health researcher in Kenya.”

While only two Research Fellowships could be awarded, the SNF Global Center also named an honorable mention. Florencia Assaneo is affiliated with the Instituto de Neurobiología de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Her proposal focused on enhancing cognitive skills in children in Mexico through auditory-motor synchronization using a video game intervention. She will receive networking and mentorship support from the SNF Global Center.

About the SNF Global Center at the Child Mind Institute

The SNF Global Center brings together the Child Mind Institute’s expertise as a leading independent nonprofit in children’s mental health and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation’s (SNF) deep commitment to supporting collaborative projects to improve access to quality health care worldwide. The center is building partnerships to drive advances in under-researched areas of children’s and adolescents’ mental health and expand access to culturally appropriate trainings, resources, and treatment in low- and middle-income countries. This work is conducted by the Child Mind Institute with support from SNF through its Global Health Initiative (GHI).

About the Child Mind Institute

We are the leading independent nonprofit in children’s mental health providing gold-standard, evidence-based care, delivering educational resources to millions of families each year, training educators in underserved communities, and developing open science initiatives and tomorrow’s breakthrough treatments.

Visit Child Mind Institute on social media: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

For press questions, contact our press team at childmindinstitute@ssmandl.com or our media officer at mediaoffice@childmind.org.

The post Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Global Center at the Child Mind Institute Awards Inaugural Research Fellowships to Trailblazing Researchers in Pakistan and Kenya appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

But not all kids (or screens) are alike, and there is a growing conversation about the positive role screens can play specifically for children who are neurodivergent. Benefits for neurodivergent kids — including those who are on the autism spectrum or have ADHD or a learning disorder — range from the social to the academic. In a world that wasn’t built for neurodivergent thinkers, technology can provide a safe and comforting space for differently wired kids to explore, learn, be themselves, and find their niche.

“There’s certainly a lot of benefit to screens,” notes Cynthia Martin, PsyD, senior director of the Autism Center at the Child Mind Institute. But she cautions against leaning too heavily on technology: “There’s a lot of benefit, and then there’s simultaneously this vulnerability for a high level of addiction and for getting in situations where you actually do have risk to your safety.”

Understanding both the benefits and risks can help guide families to find the right balance for their child’s individual needs.

“What the research shows is that screen-based activities, whether it’s playing games online with other kids or using screens for education, have clear benefits for kids,” says Dave Anderson, PhD, a senior psychologist at the Child Mind Institute.

These benefits can significantly enhance learning, socialization, and overall well-being:

• Regulation: For many neurodivergent children, screens can offer a sense of safety and predictability in an overwhelming world. Engaging with familiar content can be soothing and help manage anxiety.
• Social connection: Technology allows children to connect with like-minded peers from near and far, fostering friendships that may not be possible in traditional settings.
• Communication without pressure: Many neurodivergent kids find it easier to communicate through screens, as it removes some of the neurotypical social norms and pressures of face-to-face interactions. In one study, autistic students reported higher quality friendships because of social media.
• Social skills: By removing some of those pressures, technology can help neurodivergent kids build social skills, whether it’s learning customs and etiquette from a television show or collaborating and working through conflict while chatting and playing a video game.
• Exploration of interests: Screens provide opportunities for children to dive deep into their passions — from Pokémon to aviation — helping them develop skills and confidence in areas where they excel.
• Gamified learning: For kids who have learning challenges or have a hard time sitting through traditional lessons, gamified educational programs can often engage them in ways the classroom can’t.
• Accessibility: Technologies such as speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and augmentative and alternative communication devices (AACs) provide much-needed accommodations for students who may have trouble with reading, writing, or verbal communication.
• Sense of control: Choosing what to watch or what video game character to play can give neurodivergent kids a much-needed sense of control, which has been shown to be protective against depression and anxiety.
• Executive function: Technology — from online calendars and planners to being able to set multiple alarms and reminders — can be a lifesaver for anyone who struggles with executive function.
• Life skills: Technology like gamified learning, virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence has been shown to be effective in teaching autistic kids life skills ranging from personal health and hygiene to transportation and map reading.
• Vocational: A child who spends a lot of time on the computer may actually be building their marketable job skills. “Things like coding, programming, computer science, video game design — being really good in certain screen-based things can lead to functional vocational paths for kids with a variety of different profiles,” observes Dr. Martin.

“One problem with screens is that most of the critical developmental tasks for young kids are dependent on face-to-face interaction with the world,” explains Dr. Anderson. “So, it’s not that we think that the screens are inherently harmful. It’s more that we’re worried about what screen time displaces in the rest of the child’s life.”

Screen time is negatively impacting a child if it is interfering with basic life functions like personal hygiene, physical activity, schoolwork, or personal relationships. Maladaptive screen use can also be indicative of depression or burnout. “Basically, screens become a problem when they’re a problem,” says Dr. Martin. “I’ve seen some kids who are so engrossed in their screen-based activities that they’re not doing anything else that they need to be doing.”

Some common concerns include:

• Addiction: A recent survey from the Child Mind Institute revealed that parents of tweens and teens are now more concerned about internet addiction than substance addiction. And studies have shown that individuals with ADHD may be at a higher risk for screen-related addiction, and that in turn excessive screen time may exacerbate ADHD symptoms.
• Decreased focus: Excessive screen use can impair attention spans, making it difficult for children to concentrate on non-preferred activities.
• Sleep issues: The blue light emitted by screens can disrupt circadian rhythms, making it harder for kids to fall asleep. Overuse of screens, particularly before bedtime, can interfere with sleep quality and duration, leading to fatigue and mood disturbances.
• Cyberbullying: Neurodivergent kids are at a higher risk for both in-person and cyberbullying, which can severely affect their mental health. For autistic and other neurodivergent kids who are often concrete, literal thinkers, the realm of text messages and social media can be trickier to navigate. Kids may not realize that others are making fun of or taking advantage of them.
• Risky situations: If adults can experience catfishing and other internet deceptions, then kids are also at risk. Especially for kids who are prone to vulnerability in in-person situations, Dr. Martin says, “there needs to be really clear rules and monitoring around the screen usage,” warns Dr. Martin.
• Physical activity: If a child is spending too much time with a device, then they may not be getting a healthy amount of physical activity, which is essential for both overall wellbeing.

Finding the right balance for a particular child is not as simple as deciding on a certain amount of time. Even the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has rejected recommendations for specific time limits in favor of a more nuanced approach. “We might wish for a simple solution or set of rules to follow, like the 2-hour screen time limit recommended in years past,” says the AAP. “But these don’t address all of the things children and teens need to have a healthy relationship with media and to maintain emotional well-being.”

• Observe: Before jumping to judge a child’s screen usage, take some time to observe their habits and how they respond to different types of media. Perhaps YouTube produces addictive behaviors and dysregulation, while talking on Discord while playing video games makes them feel more connected.
• Play or watch with them: Get a Roblox or Minecraft account, or watch that YouTube clip or their favorite show together. It will give you helpful insight into their interests and motivations and offer a bonding opportunity — plus you may be pleasantly surprised to see them actually learning and practicing skills.
• Communicate: If you have concerns, try addressing them first so they understand the reasoning. Something like, “Hey, I’ve noticed that you get really sucked into TikTok. Platforms like that are designed to deliver a constant stream of dopamine hits, so it’s understandable. It can be hard to strike a healthy balance and it seems like you haven’t been outside as much.”
• Scaffold: Rather than making strict limits, try help the child learn to recognize their own limits. When they’re grown, you won’t be around to monitor their usage so it’s important they gain the ability to self-monitor.
• Establish stopping points: Collaborate with your child to establish agreed-upon stopping points for screen time, so they feel involved in the decision-making process.
• Provide warnings: Offer clear warnings as screen time approaches its end, giving children the opportunity to prepare for the transition.
• Flexibility: Allow some flexibility as children find their natural stopping points, respecting their autonomy while guiding them toward balance.
• Set an example: Kids aren’t the only ones who have a hard time setting screen limits. If you are glued to your phone, it can look hypocritical to ask your child to put down theirs. Model the habits you’d like them to learn.

• Monitor activities: Keep track of what your child is engaging with online, to ensure that they are interacting with age-appropriate and safe content.
• Encourage alternative activities: Promote a variety of activities beyond screens, such as sports, art, and social gatherings.
• Recognize emotional needs: Understand that children may use screens as a coping mechanism and work together to find healthy alternatives when possible. But if they’ve been working extra hard to keep it together all day at school, for example, screens may offer a welcome and helpful reprieve.

By fostering open communication, setting boundaries, and recognizing individual needs, parents can help their children build a healthy relationship with technology. “We just want to be thinking about balance,” says Dr. Anderson. “If kids are academically engaged, involved in extracurricular activities, and getting enough sleep and exercise, we can often become a lot less worried about the screen time issue.”

The post Neurodivergent Kids and Screen Time appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

If you’re looking for a free bipolar disorder test, you can use our Symptom Checker to explore whether your child might have bipolar disorder. By answering a few simple questions about your child’s behaviors, you’ll receive a personalized list of behaviors and traits. If they correspond with the symptoms and behaviors associated with bipolar disorder, it will let you know. If your answers to the quiz suggest another disorder, you’ll see that, too.

The Symptom Checker was developed in partnership with expert clinicians and is aligned with the Child Mind Institute’s rigorous editorial standards.

If you think your child may have bipolar disorder or some other mood disorder, it’s important to get a diagnosis from a medical or mental health professional. But if you’re looking for an online bipolar test to get started, our Symptom Checker can help you know if the behaviors you notice in your child could be signs of bipolar disorder, or something else. You’ll also find links to articles where you can learn more about bipolar disorder and help you prepare for a conversation with a professional who can diagnose your child.

Bipolar disorder is a mental health disorder that causes cycles of extreme mood changes.  

Children and teenagers with bipolar disorder have periods of time where they are extremely happy and energetic, called mania, and other periods where they are very depressed. Mania can cause kids to be highly impulsive and make risky decisions and actions. Psychotic episodes, where the child loses touch with reality, can also be part of mania at its most severe. Some kids experience a less intense form of mania called hypomania.

Bipolar disorder usually begins when children are in their mid-to-late teens. 

To identify signs and symptoms of bipolar disorder in children and teens, try using our free Symptom Checker.

Most children and teenagers with bipolar disorder will go through separate periods of time, called episodes, of mania and depression. 

Signs of mania include: 

• Extreme changes in personality  
• Being very excited  
• Being easily annoyed or aggressive (especially in younger children) 
• Having lots of energy 
• Believing they are much smarter or better than others  
• Doing wild or dangerous things 
• Not needing much sleep 
• Talking too much 
• Having many thoughts racing through their head 
• Significant difficulty paying attention 
• In its most extreme form, losing touch with reality, which is called a psychotic episode or break 

Signs of depression include: 

• Being very sad or easily annoyed  
• Losing interest in things that make them happy  
• Gaining or losing a lot of weight 
• Sleeping more or less than usual 
• Feeling consistently sad for at least 2 weeks
• Not being able to sit still 
• Not wanting to move 
• Being extremely tired 
• Thinking they cannot do anything well 
• Feeling very guilty or hopeless
• Not seeing or talking to friends 
• Not thinking clearly 
• In its most extreme form, losing touch with reality, which is called a psychotic episode or break 
• Focusing on death or suicide, or making a suicide attempt

Some experience something called “mixed episodes,” in which they have a depressed mood as well as racing thoughts and speech, agitation, and anxious preoccupations.

The biggest difference between the two main kinds of bipolar disorder, bipolar I and II, is the severity of the manic episodes. Kids with bipolar I experience episodes of mania that can be extreme, including periods of psychosis. They can also have what are called mixed states, a combination of mania and depression at the same time. Instead of mania, kids with bipolar II experience less intense hypomania.  

If a teenager only has depressive episodes, but doesn’t have a manic episode, they will be diagnosed with depression instead of bipolar disorder. 

Schizophrenia is another disorder that often develops during the teenage years and causes psychosis, so it can be confused with bipolar disorder. Schizophrenia causes psychotic episodes, which can include hallucinations and delusions, but not alternating episodes of depression and mania.

If you’re looking to learn more about your child’s symptoms via an online bipolar test, try our Symptom Checker. However, our test cannot diagnose bipolar disorder, it can only help you identify possible signs.

Bipolar disorder is diagnosed by a medical doctor or psychiatrist. To get a diagnosis, the child has to have at least one manic or hypomanic episode.  

Bipolar disorder is usually treated with a combination of medication and therapy. 

Children and teenagers with bipolar disorder are often prescribed a type of medication called a mood stabilizer, which helps reduce episodes of depression and mania.  If the mood stabilizer doesn’t help the child’s depression, they may be prescribed an antidepressant as well.  

Bipolar disorder can be treated with several types of therapy. They include:

• Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): CBT is the most common type of therapy for bipolar disorder. In CBT, the therapist helps the child understand what triggers their manic and depressive episodes. Kids also learn how their thoughts can cause their feelings, and how to manage them.  
• Family-focused therapy (FFT) for bipolar disorder:  The treatment consists of sessions for the patient and family members to learn about bipolar disorder, communication enhancement training, and problem-solving skills training.

The Symptom Checker is a free to use bipolar test that can help you identify possible signs of bipolar disorder.

People with bipolar disorder have a heightened risk of suicide. If you think your child or teenager is suicidal, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing 988 or 1-800-273-8255, or 911 if there is an emergency.

The post Bipolar Test for Kids and Teens appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

If you’re looking for a free depression test, you can use our Symptom Checker to help you determine if your teen might have depression. By answering a few simple questions about your teen’s behaviors, you’ll receive a personalized list of behaviors and traits. If they correspond with the symptoms and behaviors associated with depression, it will let you know. If your answers to the quiz suggest another disorder, you’ll see that, too.

The Symptom Checker was developed in partnership with expert clinicians and is aligned with the Child Mind Institute’s rigorous editorial standards.

If you think your teen may have depression, it’s important to get a diagnosis from a medical or mental health professional. But if you’re looking for an online depression test to get started, our Symptom Checker can help you know if the behaviors you notice in your teen could be signs of depression — or something else. You’ll also find links to articles where you can learn more and help you prepare for a conversation with a professional who can diagnose your teen.

The biggest sign of depression is a change in mood. A depressed teen will feel sad or irritable for no reason and lose interest in things they normally enjoy. These changes will last at least two weeks. Other symptoms include:  

• Being easily annoyed 
• Feeling hopeless 
• Trouble concentrating 
• Trouble making decisions 
• Struggling in school 
• Low self-esteem or saying negative things about themselves 
• Having trouble talking to friends 
• Thinking about or attempting suicide 

To identify signs and symptoms of depression in teens, try using our free Symptom Checker.

Since children, and especially teens, do not always share how they are feeling — or may even go out of the way to hide how they are feeling —it can be hard for parents to identify depression. But some signs of depression are visible. Physical signs of depression include:

• A change in eating habits — eating conspicuously more or less
• A change in weight — either gaining or losing weight
• A change in sleeping habits — sleeping either more or less than usual
• Having low energy or seeming tired all the time
• Spending a lot of time alone in their room, avoiding friends
• Seeming listless or lazy

The key to spotting depression in teens and preteens is to be alert for changes in behavior. For example:

• Being irritable when they are typically easygoing
• Getting into fights or breaking rules at school when they’ve never done that
• Becoming highly sensitive to mistakes or criticism, when they used to shrug it off
• Withdrawing from things they used to enjoy, like skipping classes or dropping sports
• Frequent stomachaches and headaches

It’s common for a teenager to struggle with both anxiety and depression. Scientists think it may be because the regions of the brain affected by anxiety and depression are close together, and mutually affected. But one disorder can also lead to another.

When depression leads to anxiety, it may be because the negative state of mind results in uncertainty. If you’re not feeling good about yourself — or don’t feel confident, secure, or safe — anxiety may take root.

It’s also possible that a very anxious teenager begins avoiding many of the things they used to enjoy, so their life becomes extremely limited — and that leads to depression.

If a teenager has both anxiety and depression, it’s important to seek professional help for both disorders. Untreated, they lead to serious problems, including self-injury (or cutting), substance abuse, and suicidal thinking (or behavior).  

The most prevalent depressive disorders include: 

• Major depressive disorder: Severe symptoms that last between two weeks and several months 
• Persistent depressive disorder (also called dysthymia): Less severe symptoms that last for a year or more 

Depression usually begins during the teenage years, but younger kids can also be diagnosed. Girls are diagnosed with major depressive disorder twice as often as boys are.  

If you’re looking to learn more about your teen’s symptoms via an online depression test, try our Symptom Checker. However, our test cannot diagnose depression, it can only help you identify possible signs of depression.

Depression can only be diagnosed by a mental health or medical professional. To make the diagnosis, the clinician will speak to the teen, family members, and other adults in the teen’s life.  

To be diagnosed with major depressive disorder, a teenager must be depressed most of the time for at least two weeks and have several of the symptoms listed above. Their symptoms must be a change from their typical behavior.  

To be diagnosed with persistent depressive disorder, a teen must be depressed or annoyed most of the time for at least one year. They must also have at least two of the symptoms getting in the way of their daily life.

The Symptom Checker is a free to use depression test that can help you identify possible signs of depression.

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It might be tempting to assume that children are too young to be touched by this and needn’t be involved in conversation at home around the election. But it’s important to engage your kids in discussion around elections to help them process information they’re hearing.

Whether or not we are proud of the state of our democracy and the 2024 election, kids need to understand why it’s happening, and form an understanding of the significant role each citizen has in our democracy.  Learning early that one day it will be their civic duty to vote for the candidate they feel best represents what they believe in is a powerful lesson for a child to understand.  

Here are a few key things to recognize as we move toward election day:

Having discussions early and continuously about a fundamental principle of our democracy teaches kids about civic responsibility.   “Having these conversations teaches kids about the importance of making critical and informed decisions,” says Janine Domingues, PhD, a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute.  “This investment has long-term benefits with engagement in civic duty because children who learn that voting matters are more likely to vote when they are older, and engage in community activities.” 

These talks encourage kids to be critical thinkers in evaluating what’s important to them, their family, and  the larger community. It also teaches them to consider where and how they receive their information.  Children benefit from hearing discussion of differing points of view, and understanding that dialogue between competing ideas is the basis of democracy. “It’s helpful to discuss ways in which people can respectfully, and thoughtfully, converse around different points of view,” Dr. Domingues explains. As they get older, they can hone their own discussion skills. 

Of course parents also need to monitor how much information kids are absorbing, and from where.  “Anxiety can build from the “doomsday” message that some news outlets, and social media, have a tendency to emphasize,”  Dr. Domingues notes. And monitoring the message you are sending is also important:  You don’t want a highly anxious child losing sleep worrying that the family is relocating out of the country if their preferred candidate loses.  

Another way to ease concern is to get active on the local level. “Local level involvement helps kids feel like they have influence on their communities. That sense of doing and action can be helpful when anxiety is based in feeling like things are out of control or too big to make a difference,” says Dr. Domingues.

Many parents may find behavior and language from candidates and their surrogates to be inappropriate or objectionable at times. Let your kids know when you think campaign rhetoric crosses the line. Children need to hear from parents that our standards of behavior at home and at school don’t change because of politics.  The vote is wonderful because we have the right to express our opinion, not because we always win. Elections are always good times to model fairness, graciousness and resilience.

Elections, particularly contentious ones, are a great opportunity to encourage engagement with the democratic process and empathy with our fellow citizens who have different opinions.  Children take guidance from their parents, and other adults in their lives also have a significant role to play in demonstrating these values.

Cutting through the campaign noise, the goal is to direct a child’s focus to the importance of elections and how they provide us with an opportunity to express what we value through casting our vote on Election Day.

The post Guidance for Speaking to Kids About the Election appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

Communicator Fellowship Program sheds light on underreported stories on child and adolescent mental health in low- and middle-income countries

New York, NY —  The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Global Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health at the Child Mind Institute named journalist Avit Ndayiziga of Bujumbura, Burundi, as the inaugural 2024 Communicator Fellow in partnership with the Carter Center.

Mr. Ndayiziga will take part in the Carter Center’s Climate Change Mental Health Fellowship thanks to the support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) as part of its Global Health Initiative (GHI). The fellowship is an initiative of the Carter Center Human Rights and Mental Health programs and aims to support journalists’ efforts to explore the impacts of climate change on mental health in countries with low socioeconomic status. During the innovative two-year fellowship, Mr. Ndayiziga joined three other international journalists from Uganda, the United Arab Emirates, and the Republic of Ireland and nine U.S. fellows for the annual meeting of Carter Center Mental Health Journalism Fellows this week Fellows receive stipends, training, and mentoring to assist them while they conduct research and interviews for use in a project related to their chosen topic. As an SNF Global Communicator Fellow, Mr. Ndayiziga will also travel to the Child Mind Institute in New York City to receive training and mentoring in reporting on child and adolescent mental health.

“We are delighted to announce Mr. Avit Ndayiziga as our inaugural SNF Global Center Communicator Fellow. His work in effectively communicating the intersection of climate change and child and adolescent mental health is crucial, and we are excited to support him through this fellowship to further his efforts,” said Peter Raucci, the program director of global fellowships at the SNF Global Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health at the Child Mind Institute.

Mr. Ndayiziga is the editor in chief of Community Voice, a French- and English-language community-based media outlet in Burundi that investigates and publishes stories on underreported topics, shedding light on issues such as climate change, health, corruption, and human rights. He has previously reported on climate change and health-related topics through the Excellence in Health Journalism Fellowship from Internews Health Journalism Network and Aga Khan University.

“Mental health is an underreported and often taboo issue in Burundi,” said Mr. Ndayiziga about his proposed project, which was selected from a pool of 250 applicants. “My reporting project aims to raise awareness and urge prompt actions to safeguard future generations. By reporting on this matter, I want to achieve a clear guide on dealing with the mental health impacts of climate change for young people.”

Burundi is ranked 22nd in the list of countries most vulnerable to climate change by the World Bank. Ripple effects of trauma from a civil war that ended in 2005, endemic poverty, and internal displacement due to climate-related floods has increased the prevalence of mental health disorders in the country, particularly among its young — and 47% of the country’s population is under 18 years of age.

“Thanks to the SNF Global Center at the Child Mind Institute, we’re empowering talented journalists to shine a light on the real and threatening mental health effects of climate change. We’re eager to see these important stories told about the impact of climate change on mental health and solutions to address it,” said Eve Byrd, director of the mental health program at the Carter Center.

The SNF Global Center Communicators Fellowship is part of one of the six core initiatives of the SNF Global Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health at the Child Mind Institute, which harnesses the Child Mind Institute’s commitment to transforming the lives of children struggling with mental health and learning disorders.

About the SNF Global Center at the Child Mind Institute

The SNF Global Center brings together the Child Mind Institute’s expertise as a leading independent nonprofit in children’s mental health and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation’s (SNF) deep commitment to supporting collaborative projects to improve access to quality health care worldwide. The center is building partnerships to drive advances in under-researched areas of children’s and adolescents’ mental health and expand access to culturally appropriate trainings, resources, and treatment in low- and middle-income countries. This work is conducted by the Child Mind Institute with support from SNF through its Global Health Initiative (GHI).

About the Child Mind Institute

We are the leading independent nonprofit in children’s mental health providing gold-standard, evidence-based care, delivering educational resources to millions of families each year, training educators in underserved communities, and developing open science initiatives and tomorrow’s breakthrough treatments.

Visit Child Mind Institute on social media: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

For press questions, contact our press team at childmindinstitute@ssmandl.com or our media officer at mediaoffice@childmind.org.

The post The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Global Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health at the Child Mind Institute Announces Inaugural Communicator Fellow in Partnership With the Carter Center appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

New York, NY —  The youth mental health crisis has many causes, but one rising concern is technology. Mobile phones and social media are front and center in bestselling books, alerts from the US Surgeon General, and discussions in local school districts. The internet is a vital tool for education, entertainment, and connection. On the flip side, tech addiction—or problematic internet use (PIU) — is associated with family dysfunction, substance use, and mental health problems like anxiety and depression.

Identifying young people who are vulnerable to PIU and connecting them to care are central to recent research on this topic. But current methods for measuring PIU are complex and require professional assessments. To accelerate this work, the Child Mind Institute and Kaggle are launching a competition, using deidentified data from the Child Mind Institute Health Brain Network study, to develop a predictive model that can identify early signs of PIU using physical activity and fitness measures. The competition, sponsored by Dell Technologies and NVIDIA, will launch on September 19th at 11:30AM and run for 3 months.

“Physical and fitness measures are extremely accessible and widely collected,” explains Michelle Freund, PhD, director of Strategic Data Initiatives at the Child Mind Institute. “If we can use these biosignatures to create tools that help clinicians identify young people at risk and encourage healthier digital habits, it could have a population level impact. And I think Kaggle community members will be incredibly excited to dig into the Healthy Brain Network dataset, which is a uniquely rich resource that makes this kind of work possible.”

The Child Mind Institute Healthy Brain Network is the most comprehensive study of child and adolescent brain and behavior in the United States, built on a community recruitment model that has provided thousands of families with mental health and learning evaluations. Over 350 papers related to the Healthy Brain Network have been published. For this competition, users will focus on Internet Addiction Test (IAT) scores and physical activity and fitness assessments, including questionnaires (e.g., sleep length and quality), clinical measurements (e.g., weight, heart rate, body composition), physical fitness (e.g., grip-strength) and objective physical activity measured through a wearable device. Contestants working with this rich dataset will have wide latitude to identify the most effective measurements or combinations of measurements for predicting IAT scores.

“Open Science principles have been central to the impact of the Child Mind Institute on global scientific accessibility, reproducibility, collaboration, and innovation,” says Michael P. Milham, MD, PhD, Phyllis Green and Randolph Cowen Scholar and Chief Science Officer at the Child Mind Institute. “Transforming the culture of mental health research — including by opening up our rich datasets to a massively inclusive science and engineering collaboration — is the key to accelerating scientific innovation and discovery in child mental health and learning, bringing the very best insights immediately and directly into the care of children.”

“Improving teen mental health is one of today’s greatest challenges, and NVIDIA is collaborating with Dell Technologies and the Child Mind Institute to equip the Kaggle community with cutting-edge data science libraries and tools to help tackle this critical problem,” said John Zedlewski, senior director for accelerated data science at NVIDIA. “NVIDIA accelerated computing has long bolstered efficient, creative solutions to Kaggle challenges. Accelerated data science enables faster build and test cycles, so Kagglers can get to their solutions faster.”

Kaggle is the world’s largest data science community, offering tools and resources to develop data science projects. Kaggle competitions are open to all participants, regardless of their level of experience or expertise, leading to a broad spectrum of solutions and approaches. And the data resources and solutions become part of a learning community, contributing to innovation and problem-solving long after the competition has closed. The Healthy Brain Network dataset has previously been used in a Kaggle competition to detect sleep onset from accelerometer data, with more than 38,000 submissions.

About Kaggle

Kaggle is the world’s largest online data science competition community. With more than 4 million members across 194 countries, the Kaggle community uses its diverse set of academic backgrounds to solve complex data science problems. Working as individuals or in teams, the winning competitors are awarded prizes and industry recognition for their accomplishments.

About the Healthy Brain Network

The Healthy Brain Network is a community-based research initiative of the Child Mind Institute. We provide no-cost, study-related mental health and learning evaluations to children ages 5-21 and connect families with community resources. We are collecting the information needed to find brain and body characteristics that are associated with mental health and learning disorders. The Healthy Brain Network stores and openly shares de-identified data about psychiatric, behavioral, cognitive, and lifestyle (e.g., fitness, diet) phenotypes, as well as multimodal brain imaging (MRI), electroencephalography (EEG), digital voice and video recordings, genetics, and actigraphy.

Visit the Healthy Brain Network community website and scientific data portal.

About the Child Mind Institute

We are the leading independent nonprofit in children’s mental health providing gold-standard, evidence-based care, delivering educational resources to millions of families each year, training educators in underserved communities, and developing open science initiatives and tomorrow’s breakthrough treatments.

Visit Child Mind Institute on social media: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

For press questions, contact our press team at childmindinstitute@ssmandl.com or our media officer at mediaoffice@childmind.org.

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San Mateo, CA – The Child Mind Institute hosted its 2024 Fall Luncheon and panel discussion on Thursday, September 12 at the Sharon Heights Golf and Country Club in Menlo Park. The annual event raised more than $600,000 to help support youth and families struggling with mental health and learning disorders in California.

Moderated by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, an outspoken advocate for youth mental health and First Partner of California, the discussion centered on how the constant push to perform takes a toll on our children’s mental health. Award-winning journalist, author, and mom of three Jennifer Wallace shared insights on how parents can help children value themselves from her book, Never Enough: When Achievement Pressure Becomes Toxic – and What We Can Do About It.

“This is an issue that won’t go away anytime soon,” said Dr. Harold Koplewicz, President and Medical Director of the Child Mind Institute. “At the Child Mind Institute, we see parents and their kids come up against this toxic achievement culture and try to help them cultivate a healthy approach to school, extracurriculars, and online communities. We’re thrilled to be able to bring an expert like Jennifer Wallace to our community.”

Wallace was joined by Dr. Omar Gudiño, Deputy Clinical Director and Senior Psychologist at the Child Mind Institute, San Francisco Bay Area. Dr. Gudiño has dedicated his career to advancing evidence-based and culturally responsive services to meet the needs of children, families, and communities—and is a board-certified child and adolescent psychologist with particular expertise in anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and trauma- and stress-related disorders.

The Child Mind Institute is dedicated to transforming the lives of children and families struggling with mental health and learning disorders. It also supports youth mental health fitness through initiatives such as the California Healthy Minds, Thriving Kids Project, and helps build the mental health workforce of tomorrow through mentorship programs like the Youth Mental Health Academy.

Luncheon co-chairs included Devon Briger, Lisa Domenico Brooke, Abby Durban, Kristin Noto, and Linnea Roberts. The host committee included Megan and Harris Barton, Karen and Ronnie Lott, Jennifer Sills, and Danna and Alex Slusky.

About the Child Mind Institute

We are the leading independent nonprofit in children’s mental health providing gold-standard, evidence-based care, delivering educational resources to millions of families each year, training educators in underserved communities, and developing open science initiatives and tomorrow’s breakthrough treatments.

Visit Child Mind Institute on social media: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

For press questions, contact our press team at childmindinstitute@ssmandl.com or our media officer at mediaoffice@childmind.org.

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During the summer, YMHA students participated in five weeks of academic enrichment activities and project-based learning, culminating in the presentation of group capstone projects on a chosen mental health focus.

Over the final weeks of August, YMHA participants and staff reviewed the capstone projects and selected those they would like to award with special recognition.

Congratulations go out to the 2024 winning teams and their projects:

The Over-Normalization of Mental Health
Sama Alfakieh, Calari Bradford, Paul Chen-li, Seerena Griffin, Janice Lee, Rowyn Zupo

How Do Pre-Existing Stigmas Influence Generation Z Women’s Self Perception
Katelyn Trieu, Millaray Gonzalez, Isabelle Su, Alan Ho

Injustice of Substance Abuse in Minority Communities
Melissa Garcia, Gertty Nolasco, Yanellie Gonzalez, Genevieve Paz-Vitela

The Stigmatization of Mental Health Within Minorities
Mike Guerrero, Haydee Dominguez, Sabrina Ayala, Daniel Hernandez

The Neuroendocrinology and Plasticity of Parental Cognition
Aanya V. Shenoi, Adya Krishna, Anika Kurkut, Cathy Chen, Srimythri Gandhi, Tatiana Tinnin

Solitary Confinement and Inmate Mental Health
Ayleen Zavala, Carolina Nguyen-Garay, Gianyna Brantley, Amanda Siao, Ashley Vazquez, Isaiah Perry

COVID-19 Pandemic Mental Illness During Isolation
Breanne Arrieta, Reese Sarmiento, Luis Medina, Adalyn Yang

Effects of Trauma on Four Types of Memory
Cooper Morris, Emily Laws, Kaylene Boyer, Nicole Pataluch, Nikita Anand

Social Media and Body Dysmorphia
Gabby Shore, Joyce Ling, Joshita Mothi, Emily Sison, Heidi Storey

Stress-Related Disorder in High School Students
Amy Seo, Joanne Lee, Jiwoo Lee, Jeana Hong, Priya Khalsa

The Bright Side of Being Blue: How Latinos Teens Feel Hue
Gensis Quiroz, Giselle Rocha, Myriam Gonzalez, Elaine Picado, Rachel Orozco

Effects of Added Sugar on the Brain
Nithiyashri Chandran, Kali Ho, Harini Iyer, Katie Rockwell, Nicolas Womack

Substance Abuse in California: An Analysis of Drug Use and Its Relationship to Mental Health
Alex Mariscal, Serena Koopmans, Siwoo Rhie, Taylor Tran

How Racial Injustice Impacts Mental Health in the U.S.
Ja’niaya Berry-McMillan, Lynn Hwang, Yairy Martinez, Mari Rodriguez-Ramos, Evangeline Terrill

Relationships Between Psychopaths and Non-Psychopaths
Alejandra Albizar, Audrey Fuentes, Leslie Avelar, Kassandra Gutierrez, Tania Guardado

Gambling Addiction and Socioeconomics
Sera Kim, Ayden Pargal, Avery Ruff, Amanda Yan, Jax Zeevi

With support from California’s Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) and the Child and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative (CYBHI), the Youth Mental Health Academy aims to inspire and cultivate the next generation of diverse and culturally sensitive mental health care providers.

The post Youth Mental Health Academy Announces 2024 Student Capstone Awards appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

The Child Mind Institute is proud to have founded several programs that increase mental health equity worldwide by fostering the next generation of mental healthcare professionals. One such program is our Child Mind Institute Youth Mental Health Academy (YMHA) — an innovative program funded by California’s Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) and the Child and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative (CYBHI). YMHA helps to further our Science mission goals by empowering marginalized and disadvantaged communities.

The Youth Mental Health Academy is a 14-month program that delivers knowledge and experience to teens from structurally marginalized California communities through paid training, paid summer internships, and year-round support from mentors working in the industry. The program’s goal is to increase representation in the mental health field amongst groups who have historically lacked access to mental health care services — including young people of color, LGBTQIA+ youth, and those who have experienced foster care, the juvenile justice system, homelessness, or poverty. It also aims to cultivate a future generation of diverse and culturally sensitive mental health care providers.

YMHA was first piloted in Los Angeles in 2023 with a 160-student cohort. One participant from that cohort spoke with Jocelyn Meza, PhD, Director of the Youth Mental Health Academy Evaluation Core. They said, “Thank you again for taking the time to speak with my mom and I regarding the program and your experiences with being a Latina in the field of psychology. Our conversation inspired me to take charge of both my college and career path, and I have decided I want to become a school psychologist for a high school.”

Representation matters in all areas of our field. And this student’s comment demonstrates the positive impact this program can have on our youth, leading to the rise in diversity among child mental health professionals and more equitable mental health care for all communities.

Throughout late 2023 and early 2024, the YMHA team began forming key partnerships to facilitate program expansion into the San Francisco and San Diego metro areas for its 2024-2025 program. One such partnership is with Bring Change to Mind (BC2M), a national non-profit that operates peer-led mental health clubs in high schools in 42 states across the US, including California. This partnership supported the expansion of both organizations, with BC2M California members having the opportunity to apply for the YMHA and the YMHA team committing to opening 21 new BC2M clubs in Southern California.

This strategy paid off. In spring 2024, ahead of the program’s official launch, we received almost 1,400 completed applications from students across the state of California. And on June 24, 2024, the 2024-2025 Youth Mental Health Academy cohort of over 900 talented and culturally diverse students officially began the program! This year, we also welcomed 165 mentors to our 39 classrooms at the 19 different site locations across the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and San Diego.

In the last week of July, students completed the first leg of their YMHA journey by wrapping up the 5-week summer academy, which included hands-on learning experiences such as capstone projects. During the final week of the academy, students presented those capstone projects to their peers, mentors, instructors, and families. Projects covered a range of topics including the impact of social media, generational trauma, various mental health conditions, and the effects of stigma and bias on mental health.

In August, YMHA participants and staff reviewed the capstone projects and selected those they would like to award with special recognition. View the 2024 winning groups and their projects. 

Diya Kulkarni commented on their experience with the Summer Academy, saying, “I am a rising senior at Dublin High School and have been part of multiple programs throughout my high school years, but this is the first [program] that genuinely helped me on my journey to become a clinical psychologist. This program allowed me to not only learn about various mental health disorders but also to speak to professionals in various fields of psychology and research.”

But the YMHA journey is far from over for students like Diya. Students will continue to participate in mentorship, workshops, and networking opportunities throughout the coming school year, before completing a paid internship next summer.

125 of the 160 students who began the 2023-2024 pilot program last summer participated in paid internships this summer, completing the final leg of the program. Over the course of their summer internships, they gained real-world experience working with community-based organizations and research institutions. And in mid-August, those 125 high school students became the first class of graduates from the 14-month program, marking an important milestone for the Youth Mental Health Academy. The skills the graduates have acquired throughout the program will not only set them up to pursue degrees in the mental health field, but also equip them with the tools necessary to become mental health advocates within their communities. The graduation ceremony, covered by local Spanish-language news channel Univision 34 Los Angeles, celebrated the students’ achievements and highlighted their potential as the future leaders of mental healthcare.

As with all Child Mind Institute Science programs, the Youth Mental Health Academy has a research component, and that sets it apart from other career development programs for teens. Participants consent to taking surveys about their experiences in the program and having that data used for research purposes. That feedback loop from both students and their families fuels validation studies for the program’s curriculum and has led to two presentations at the “Association for Psychological Science” conference in San Francisco in May of this year.

The poster that was presented, Feasibility and Acceptability of the Youth Mental Health Academy in Structurally Marginalized High School Students, focused on the implementation of our five-week YMHA summer academy and included the entire team as coauthors. Jocelyn Meza, PhD, also gave a flash talk titled, “Increasing Critical Consciousness in Structurally Marginalized Adolescents Interested in Pursuing Mental Health Careers”, which discussed the summer academy’s impact on students’ career choices. Research findings tied to the program will not only lead to future improvements in this program, but can also spark the creation of other programs that will help increase mental health equity and diversity in our communities.

The post The Youth Mental Health Academy — One Year Down the Path Toward More Accessible and Equitable Mental Health Care appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

Watch the Recording

In this conversation, Yuki Kotani of the Child Mind Institute talks to Casey Pick, director of law and policy at The Trevor Project, about the impact of policies limiting youth access to social media — particularly for minoritized groups such as LGBTQ+ teens. This discussion is part of our webinar series on Technology and Youth Mental Health, which asks how tech can improve mental health outcomes for all young people.

Pick cautions that basing policy decisions only on negative aspects of online spaces plays into a harmful bias. She cites research from The Trevor Project and others on where LGBTQ+ youth say they feel safe. “Only about a third of LGBTQ+ young people will tell us that their home feels like a safe and accepting environment for their identity,” she says. “About half will say that their school is a safe and affirming environment. But it rises to nearly two-thirds when we’re talking about access to an online environment.”

These stats may surprise people aware of online bullying against LGBTQ+ youth. “But they experience negative input — bullying, discrimination, etcetera — everywhere, online and offline,” Pick says. “Sometimes the online environment is the only place where they will find that affirming environment, learn about their own identities, communicate with their peers, or see representations that give them hope for a future that they can strive for.”

Kotani contextualizes this insight succinctly. “Listening to the data — what the youth are saying — writes a whole different narrative than what the general populations is seeing.”

The interview touches on TrevorSpace, “a moderated community intentionally designed” for LGBTQ+ young people from The Trevor Project.

This video is part of a series of discussions on the ethical and equity challenges to accessing and leveraging real world data in youth mental health research. View more videos on this topic:

• Christa Studzinski, PhD, of the Ontario Brain Institute
• Amy Green, PhD, of Hopelab
• Stephen Scheuller, PhD, of the University of California, Irvine
• Becca Brendel, MD, JD, of the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics

The Child Mind Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donate and support work like the Technology and Youth Mental Health Series.

The post Ethics & Equity: Tech Access and Mental Health Equity in Marginalized Groups appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

Watch the Recording

On August 20, over 950 viewers tuned in as Dave Anderson, PhD, vice president of public engagement and education at the Child Mind Institute, moderated a roundtable discussion on what the research says about the perils and promise of social media for our kids. The panel was made up of Pete Etchells, PhD, who studies evidence-based approaches to screen and social media policies at Bath Spa University in the United Kingdom; Candice Odgers, PhD, a researcher on social media and mental health at the University of California, Irvine; Mitch Prinstein, PhD, ABPP, chief science officer at the American Psychological Association; Kelly Ninh, a rising college freshman and research intern at the Child Mind Institute; and Jessica Schleider, PhD, who develops online, single-session mental health interventions for underserved youth at Northwestern University.

This conversation is part of the Child Mind Institute’s webinar series on Technology and Youth Mental Health, which asks how tech might be used to improve mental health outcomes for all young people. The series is made possible by our partner and funder, the State of California’s Department of Health Care Services.

Dr. Anderson began with this big question: Is social media causing the youth mental health crisis? “Stress is one of the strongest predictors of mental health difficulties for youth,” Dr. Prinstein responded. “If you ask kids where they’re experiencing stress, they’re talking about academic pressures, school shootings, climate change and existential threats. So, it doesn’t seem like we can jump to the conclusion that technology is the cause.”

Then why are social media and technology so often held up as the culprits? It’s the lack of robust, replicable scientific research coupled with our gut feelings about tech, Dr. Etchells said. Much of the research seeking to explain the negative trend of youth mental health since 2012 is “atheoretical,” he said — searching for links between mental health and the environment without a plausible theory as to why one causes the other. “Eventually you’ll get a statistically significant finding and run away with it and say, ‘Look, this is the one, everybody! You can’t deny this!’”

“It’s just the wrong way to do the science,” Etchells continued. “But this sort of narrative plays into that fear that we’ve got — that there’s something not right about technology, that it feels unnatural and unwholesome.” Partly, he said, adults are biased towards thinking that social media is harming kids “because we’ve all developed bad habits with our tech.”

But “just because two things happen at the same time doesn’t mean that one causes the other,” Dr. Prinstein added.

Other fears play into the dynamic. Dr. Odgers commented on the tendency to focus on the perceived negative effect of social media on girls. “There’s nothing more terrifying to society than little girls becoming women,” she said. Conversations about “saving” young women by banning access reflect “bigger structural issues about how we support young people coming of age in this world,” she continued. But, in reality, social media allows youth the opportunity to create communities based on shared identity that “are so much more diverse and rich” than what was available just 20 years ago.

Dr. Schleider agreed: “The groups of young people who often need social media most for these connections are the first ones to lose access to critical resources when we put up walls,” she said. “So not just young girls, but sexual minority and gender minority young people often don’t have anywhere else to go for community understanding and connection. It’s a crucial resource and refuge for a lot of kids — and the most disenfranchised kids are the ones that are going to be harmed first by controlling social media access from top down.”

(Other groups including Black and Latinx youth use social media at higher rates than their white peers to access information and care; learn more in our conversation with Amy Green from Hopelab, also part of the Technology and Youth Mental Health series.)

The panelists agreed that parents and caregivers need to understand the risks and rewards of social media for each individual child and support their development and autonomy accordingly. “We need to see past the phone and really see our kids and what they need,” Dr. Odgers said. “That’s going to differ across kids within a family and might differ across how they’re doing” at each developmental stage. At the same time, tech companies and social media platforms need to be “accountable for things they know are likely causing harm,” Dr. Prinstein said, and to support collaborative, open research to improve the science.

Providing the youth perspective, Kelly Ninh summed up the panel: “A lot of my friends and peers are experiencing negative mental health effects right now, and almost none of them have mentioned that social media is the sole cause. They say that, yes, it is kind of an exacerbating factor that can worsen certain symptoms and certain effects, but none of them have ever reflected that this is the main thing that is leading to all of their problems that they’re facing right now.”

At the conclusion of the event, the panelists suggested resources that youth, parents, and professionals can use to help kids navigate social media:

• Mitch Prinstein: Common Sense Media curriculum on digital literacy and citizenship
• Candice Odgers: the blog TechnoSapiens and an op-ed from Ian Russell, who argues for tech reform after his daughter died by suicide
• Pete Etchells recommended the research of the other panelists; he also has a new book, Unlocked: The Real Science of Screen Time (and how to spend it better)
• Jessica Schleider: free, online single session interventions providing mental health tools for youth
• And articles on screen time, social media, and mental health at the Family Resource Center on childmind.org

The Child Mind Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donate and support work like the Technology and Youth Mental Health Series.

The post The Science on Social Media and Youth Mental Health Is Incomplete — So What Can Parents Do? appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

Watch the Recording

In this conversation, Yuki Kotani of the Child Mind Institute speaks with Stephen Schueller, PhD, Professor of Psychological Science at the University of California, Irvine. They discuss how new digital mental health interventions offer opportunities to bridge gaps in the continuum of care and address challenges to equitable access for underserved or excluded groups — and the work required to make these promises reality. The conversation is part of our webinar series on Technology and Youth Mental Health, which explores how tech can improve mental health outcomes for all young people.

“There is a lot of excitement about digital mental health interventions and digital therapeutics being able to expand access and overcome challenges that have impacted equity,” Schueller said. “But it’s not an emergent property of using technologies that they’re going to automatically overcome access issues. If you don’t think about access issues from the start — about what population you’re trying to reach — and involve them early on, you’re not going to make things more equitable.”

This video is part of a series of discussions on the ethical and equity challenges to accessing and leveraging real world data in youth mental health research. View more videos on this topic:

• Christa Studzinski, PhD, of the Ontario Brain Institute
• Amy Green, PhD, of Hopelab
• Casey Pick, JD, the Trevor Project
• Becca Brendel, MD, JD, of the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics

The Child Mind Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donate and support work like the Technology and Youth Mental Health Series.

The post Ethics & Equity: Youth-Specific Digital Therapeutics and the Continuum of Care appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

For many years, the most common treatment for tic disorders has been a form of cognitive behavioral therapy called habit reversal training (HRT). In HRT, a therapist will first train patients to be more aware of their tics and the feeling they get when they’re about to happen. The next step is to come up with a competing response that makes it difficult to carry out the tic. HRT has been extensively studied and has proven to help reduce tics. But CBIT, which evolved from HRT, takes things a step further. CBIT is widely recommended as the first line of treatment for tics, before trying medication or other strategies. It has been found to be as effective as antipsychotic medication, without the undesirable side effects.

Like HRT, CBIT also focuses on when, where, and why the tics occur before coming up with alternative actions. But as its name implies, CBIT is more comprehensive in its approach. “It incorporates habit reversal training — that’s the core piece of the treatment — but it’s an overall treatment package,” explains Amanda Greenspan, LCSW, training coordinator and social worker in the Anxiety Disorders Center at the Child Mind Institute. CBIT adds several elements to treatment, including identifying situations that trigger or can make tics worse and finding ways to alter them, providing relaxation techniques to cope with stress, and offering behavioral incentives to help kids learn skills to reduce tics.

CBIT is effective for both kids and adults, vocal and motor tics, and varying levels of impairment. Greenspan says that kids as young as five might be able to learn the skills. “The first step is helping kids be motivated to do it and work on it,” says Greenspan. If it’s not really bothering the child, she adds, and they don’t care about it, the treatment isn’t likely to be as effective.

CBIT starts with someone who is motivated to make a change. If they are seeking treatment, then tics are likely interfering with their life in some way. CBIT is a collaborative process with a few key steps:

In CBIT, the first focus is on helping families understand what tics and Tourette’s are, and the science behind them. They learn what sort of things trigger and reinforce tics, how they manifest in kids and adults, and how they evolve over time. The hope is that by establishing a baseline understanding of how tics work, learning how to treat them will be more productive.

Next, a person undergoing CBIT starts to zero in on the details of their tics. “That’s where you work with the family on getting a sense of factors and situations that make the tics worse and reinforce them,” says Greenspan.

Kids work on developing an awareness of the chain of specific sensations that they experience leading up to the tic and where they are feeling it in their body.

“It’s helping them be able to identify first when the tics are happening and then being able to identify what’s called the premonitory urge, which is the feeling that people get before the tic happens,” explains Greenspan. “It’s kind of like when you’re about to sneeze, where it just feels like tension in the body. It’s helping them catch those moments.”

The child, often with the support of parents and teachers, will then begin to keep track of when and where the tics occur. Perhaps they tend to happen whenever the child feels anxious or excited, or when they’re on the way to school, waiting to get called on in class, or simply watching TV. By noting when and where tics occur, kids can start to see patterns.

Once there is a good sense of the antecedents to the tic, the next step is teaching the child to develop a competing response — a different behavior or action that prevents the tic from happening. It’s best to focus on one tic at a time. Here, the therapist and patient will work together to brainstorm. When coming up with a competing response, therapists will make sure it checks all these boxes:

• Is it less noticeable than the tic?
• Is it something they can do for a minute or longer?
• Is it something they can do anywhere?
• Is it something that will block the actual tic?

If the suggested behavior doesn’t meet the criteria, it’s back to the drawing board. Holding your breath, for example, won’t work because doing it for over a minute is unrealistic. When Greenspan worked with a child whose tic was jerking his head to the side, they came up with the competing response of having him put his chin down; this checked all the boxes and proved to be effective. The therapist may offer some suggestions and guidance but it’s important that the child plays a big role in the process and has a sense of ownership over the plan.

Typically, the child and therapist will have weekly check-ins to monitor progress. “If we’re seeing that it’s hard for them to physically do or hold for a long time, then we might switch that up and be like, all right, let’s try something different,” says Greenspan.

A reward system can be used to help with motivation and boost engagement. The therapist and family can work together to provide small rewards when the child practices building awareness and then using their competing response.  Typically, rewards should be given for practicing skills, not based on having less frequent tics.

Changes to the environment or routines associated with the tic can also contribute to reducing tics. For example, if a child tends to tic when they are studying for an exam, they could try taking short movement breaks at predictable intervals. If tics are more common when a child is stressed, then the therapist may teach them relaxation strategies such as deep breathing, mindfulness, listening to music, visualizations, or progressive muscle relaxation.

Sometimes kids will be excused from an activity that is associated with tics, but experts argue that this actually reinforces rather than extinguishes the tic. The idea is not to let the child off the hook, but rather to give them the tools to participate in the activity without the tics.

When kids are undergoing CBIT, families play a crucial role. “We want the parents to really understand exactly what we’re doing in session so that they can implement the practice at home,” says Greenspan. Parents typically join their child during therapy sessions to offer their observations, and to learn alongside their child.

Parents are coached to gently remind kids to use the skills they are working on and practice the competing response. They’re encouraged to actively assist their child in practicing and mastering new skills, even if it’s just a focused 15 minutes each day so they can really get into the habit of doing it. Additionally, they may need to be coached to ignore, rather than draw attention to tics, as that can make them worse.

And according to Greenspan, when parents see their kids using their learned skills, they can provide positive reinforcement by giving a thumbs up or an acknowledgement of the child’s hard work. And then for even younger kids it can often be helpful to incorporate some kind of extrinsic reward or motivator.

When possible, therapists will speak with their patients’ teachers to get a more complete picture of when and where tics occur. They will also advise teachers against calling attention to the tic or allowing the child to avoid certain situations (for example tests or class subjects they dislike) due to their tics. Ideally, Greenspan notes, the teachers will be informed of the CBIT strategies and can help the child implement them.

School accommodations through a 504 plan or IEP can be helpful as well. Rather than sending a child out of the room when they tic, for example, teachers can provide planned breaks. Specific accommodations will vary by the type and severity of the child’s tics, but may include extended test times, reduced homework, the option to type assignments, or testing in a separate room.

While it varies from person to person, the typical format for CBIT is eight 60-to-90-minute sessions over the course of 10 weeks. The first six sessions occur weekly and the final two sessions are two weeks apart. “This can vary depending on how many tics there are to target,” says Greenspan. For someone with a single, simple tic the treatment process should be straightforward. Someone with a variety of complex tics will probably take longer.

The biggest treatment challenge with CBIT is the child following through on the plan and staying motivated. “It’s definitely hard work. It requires them practicing on their own between sessions, not just in session,” says Greenspan. “I would say that’s usually the biggest barrier for kids.” Motivation and consistent practice may be particularly difficult for kids with co-occurring conditions like ADHD that affect attention and motivation.

If kids aren’t practicing, the therapist may review why the child wanted to make a change in the first place. Was it because it prevented them from doing desired activities? Were other kids teasing them about their tics? Helping them remember their initial motivation is sometimes enough to help them re-commit. Parents play a big role as well. “If parents are having a hard time following through with the practice, then understandably it’s going to be a lot harder for the child too,” says Greenspan. For these kids, reward systems may be particularly important as well.

CBIT has shown to have typically long-lasting results. “It’s not a cure, in that it doesn’t mean that tics are fully going to go away. But what the research has shown is that there’s a significant reduction in tics and a significant reduction in the impairment and intensity,” says Greenspan. Ideally, patients who’ve completed treatment will have built the skills to know how to tackle new challenges as they come up.

“The tricky thing with tics is that they do really wax and wane so new ones can come up at different points,” notes Greenspan. “It’s pretty common for a patient to come back and get more support on a specific tic, if it reemerges. But usually, it’s a faster process because it’s more of a booster session.”

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Watch the Recording

Watch the Child Mind Institute’s Yuki Kotani, MBA, interview Amy Green, PhD, the director of research at Hopelab. They talk about how including youth in research on tech and mental health can improve access to care by making digital care solutions fit the needs of more diverse populations. This conversation is part of our webinar series on Technology and Youth Mental Health, which asks how tech can improve mental health outcomes for all young people.

Dr. Green and Kotani echo our recent conversation with Christa Studzinski of the Ontario Brain Institute by discussing the value in engaging youth at all stages of research for the utilization of digital mental health supports. Unfortunately, any research study involving participants under the age of 18 is rare because it is difficult to ethically do. “We’re missing data,” says Dr. Green. That data is vital for understanding how to culturally adapt interventions to make them “enjoyable and effective” and fit the needs of all youth. “Access,” Dr. Green explains, “is making sure the services available do not further alienate groups like Black, Latinx, and LGBTQ+ youth.”

Click here for more on “Getting Help Online”, the 2024 survey from Hopelab and Common Sense Media mentioned in the interview.

This video is part of a series of discussions on the ethical and equity challenges to accessing and leveraging real world data in youth mental health research. View more videos on this topic:

• Christa Studzinski, PhD, of the Ontario Brain Institute
• Stephen Scheuller, PhD, University of California, Irvine
• Casey Pick, JD, the Trevor Project
• Becca Brendel, MD, JD, of the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics

The Child Mind Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donate and support work like the Technology and Youth Mental Health Series.

The post Ethics & Equity: Studying Social Media’s Impact Through Youth-Centered Participatory Research appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

New York, NY — The Child Mind Institute has released a paper detailing their pioneering study in the journal Nature Human Behaviour titled, “Moving Beyond Processing and Analysis-Related Variation in Resting State Functional Brain Imaging.” The research identifies significant challenges in the reproducibility and standardization of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) used to understand brain function and behavior — and proposes concrete solutions to move the field towards results that translate into real world impact.

Along with a diverse team of international collaborators, the study was led by Michael P. Milham, MD, PhD, Child Mind Institute chief science officer, and Gregory Kiar, PhD, research scientist and director of the Center for Data Analytics, Innovation, and Rigor at the Child Mind Institute. The paper critically evaluates preprocessing pipelines in fMRI data analysis, widely used software tools that have increased participation in the field of fMRI research by automating basic analytical tasks.

The study found only moderate agreement between five popular pipelines — Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development fMRI Pipeline (ABCD-BIDS); Connectome Computational System (CCS); Configurable Pipeline for the Analysis of Connectomes default pipeline (C-PAC:Default), developed by the Child Mind Institute; Data Processing Assistant for Resting-State fMRI (DPARSF); and fMRIPrep Long-Term Support version (fMRIPrep-LTS) — when given identical data. This variability significantly affects the reliability of findings in brain-wide association studies, which are essential for understanding individual differences in brain function and behavior. This is particularly concerning since researchers often assume these pipelines are interchangeable.

“Critically, we found that what we learn about the brain can change significantly based on which pipeline we choose,” says Dr. Kiar. “The most poignant finding was that low agreement between pipelines also compromises the conclusions we make with this preprocessed data. If we want our work to translate to understanding and care in the real world, we must recognize this and take action.”

• Moderate agreement across pipelines: The study demonstrated that different preprocessing pipelines produce varying outcomes, even when the same data is used. This is a significant challenge in achieving reproducibility in fMRI studies.
• Impact on scientific insights: Differences in preprocessing steps can lead to inconsistent results in identifying brain-behavior associations. This inconsistency is particularly concerning, as the neuroscience community aims to translate these findings into clinical applications.
• Data quality and pipeline differences: Analytical differences are more apparent with high-quality data. Pipelines will be the next hurdle towards generating findings, which can be reproduced across studies as data collection is optimized.
• Recommendations for standardization: The field must adopt standardized methods and transparent reporting practices. This involves detailing all data processing steps, including software versions and specific parameters used.

“This study underscores the importance of reliability and standardization in data processing,” said Dr. Milham. “Reproducibility is critical to scientific progress, and it has been fiendishly difficult to achieve in brain imaging. This study represents a huge amount of time and effort to reveal common threats to reproducibility, and reproduce the common tools used in the field. This will lower the barrier for everyone and push us to the next step.”

Dr. Milham, Dr. Kiar, and their team propose that improving inter-pipeline agreement (IPA) through standardization and clear methodological reporting is crucial for the field’s advancement. They advocate for the documentation of all pipeline-related decisions, settings, and versions in every publication, as well as using alternative pipelines in analyses to determine if inter-pipeline variability is affecting research results. The Child Mind Institute’s C-PAC configurable pipeline allows multiple pipelines to be compared together in one package and can be used for this purpose.

Creating a robust consensus and taking proactive action now on this “next frontier” in the reproducibility crisis for the fMRI field will make researchers better prepared to harness the power of improved data quality — and usher in an era of robust and continuous insights about the brain and human behavior.

ABOUT NATURE HUMAN BEHAVIOUR

Launched in January 2017, Nature Human Behaviour is an online-only monthly journal dedicated to the best research into human behaviour from across the social and natural sciences. All editorial decisions are made by a team of full-time professional editors.

ABOUT THE CHILD MIND INSTITUTE 

We are the leading independent nonprofit in children’s mental health providing gold-standard, evidence-based care, delivering educational resources to millions of families each year, training educators in underserved communities, and developing open science initiatives and tomorrow’s breakthrough treatments.

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For press questions, contact our press team at childmindinstitute@ssmandl.com or our media officer at mediaoffice@childmind.org.

The post Child Mind Institute Paper Reveals Next Frontier in Reproducible Brain Imaging for Neuroscience Discovery appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

By Kathryn L. Keough, PhD
Psychologist, Anxiety Disorders Center
Child Mind Institute

Pretend play, also known as imaginative play, includes a range of imaginative behaviors and actions that become more complex over early childhood (Lillard et al., 2011). Two-year-old children begin to act out scenarios with stuffed animals, dolls, or figures, and they initially gravitate towards realistic toys, using them to mimic familiar events (Smith, 2009). For instance, a two-year-old may play by having their stuffed dog walk and drink out of a bowl.

Symbolic play emerges around age three. This involves using one object as another or pretending an object has different properties than it actually has (Lillard, 2015). This might look like a child pretending a box is a crib for their babydoll, having their block creation “meow” as a cat, or imagining an empty bowl is full as they feed their animal figurines.

Beyond age three, pretend play becomes more complex and social in nature. Children begin to incorporate imaginary objects, create more detailed narratives and fantasy worlds, and engage in dramatic role-play with peers (Smith, 2009). Ages three to five are considered the “high season” of imaginative play, though pretend play continues into middle childhood (Singer & Singer, 2009; Smith & Lillard, 2012).

Pretend play has the potential to create a context in which young children can develop various emotional skills through exploration and practice. Research suggests that emotion knowledge and regulation skills are better developed among young children who engage in more frequent pretend play and demonstrate a stronger preference for fantasy-based play and thoughts (Bauer et al., 2021; Galyer & Evans, 2001; Gilpin et al., 2015; Lindsey & Colwell, 2013). These findings support the notion that pretend play provides an opportunity to exercise emotional control skills. Children may develop these skills through role-playing in pretend play, for instance, by expressing differing emotions than those they are feeling in order to stay in character or fit the play situation.

A study examining the neural activity during play in young children found that the brain region associated with social processing and empathy was more active in children playing alone with dolls than on a tablet, whereas the neural activity level did not differ between doll or tablet play when children played with someone else (Hashmi et al., 2020). This suggests that pretend play with dolls provides a way for children to practice social and empathic skills even when playing by themselves.

In consideration of the potential emotional skill benefits, a program incorporating dramatic pretend play has been developed for children at risk of social-emotional and regulation skill delays, and results indicated that emotion control was improved among children who participated in the program (Goldstein & Lerner, 2018).

Pretend play also provides opportunities for children to build and practice social skills. Children who engage in more frequent and higher-level pretend play have been found to have more advanced understandings of other’s mental states, or theory-of-mind (Lillard et al., 2011; Youngblade & Dunn, 1995). There is also research that suggests that pretend play with peers is positively associated with social skills like cooperation and assertiveness (Li et al., 2016). Pretend play with peers also supports social competence and the development of other prosocial skills like turn taking, perspective taking, and friendship formation (Smith, 2009; Smits-van der Nat et al., 2024).

Pretend play appears to facilitate the creative thinking process in children (Russ & Wallace, 2013). A review of the evidence on the play-creativity hypothesis examined the impact of either pretend play training or pretend play time on a subsequent creativity task. Siverman (2016) found that the play-creativity hypothesis, which posits that one function of pretend play is to facilitate the creative thinking process in children, is likely true.

Recent evidence suggests that pretend play can improve executive functioning, which are the skills that help people self-regulate, plan, and achieve goals (White et al., 2021). Children who engaged in pretend play have demonstrated improvements in inhibitory control, memory span, cognitive flexibility, and task persistence (Bauer et al., 2021; White & Carlson, 2021, White et al., 2017, White et al., 2021).

A study examining the impact of play on executive function developed a five-week fantasy-play intervention in which small groups of children were encouraged to come up with a fantastical script and act it out (Thibodeau et al., 2016). Compared to children in the non-imaginative play and control conditions, children who engaged in fantastical pretend play showed improvements in working memory and attention shift performance. This suggests that fantasy-oriented play can directly enhance children’s executive functioning skills.

Pretend play appears to support children’s language development. Symbolic play has been related to expressive and receptive language development (Lewis et al., 2000). Elaborative pretend play and use of symbols in play in preschool was found to predict semantic organization skills, which include categorization, comparison, classification and analogical reasoning, and narrative retelling abilities in up to five years later in the elementary years (Stagnitti & Lewis, 2015).

Pretend play begins to emerge around age two, and it peaks in the preschool years. As pretend play becomes more complex, children use objects symbolically, role-play, create extended narratives, and engage with their peers through sociodramatic play activities. Pretend play has been associated with better developed emotion regulation, social, creativity, executive functioning, and language skills, but further methodologically rigorous research is needed to investigate the role pretend play has on development of these skill areas.   

Bauer, R. H., Gilpin, A. T., & Thibodeau-Nielsen, R. B. (2021). Executive functions and imaginative play: Exploring relations with prosocial behaviors using structural equation modeling. Trends in Neuroscience and Education, 25, 100165.

Galyer, K. T., & Evans, I. M. (2001). Pretend play and the development of emotion regulation in preschool children. Early Child Development and Care, 166(1), 93-108.

Gilpin, A. T., Brown, M. M., & Pierucci, J. M. (2015). Relations between fantasy orientation and emotion regulation in preschool. Early Education and Development, 26(7), 920-932.

Goldstein, T. R., & Lerner, M. D. (2018). Dramatic pretend play games uniquely improve emotional control in young children. Developmental Science, 21(4), e12603.

Hashmi, S., Vanderwert, R. E., Price, H. A., & Gerson, S. A. (2020). Exploring the benefits of doll play through neuroscience. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 14, 560176.

Lewis, V., Boucher, J., Lupton, L., Watson, S. (2000). Relationships between symbolic play, functional play, verbal and non-verbal ability in young children. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 35(1), 117–127.

Li, J., Hestenes, L. L., & Wang, Y. C. (2016). Links between preschool children’s social skills and observed pretend play in outdoor childcare environments. Early Childhood Education Journal, 44, 61-68.

Lillard, A. S. (2015). The Development of play. In L. S. Liben, U. Müller, & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology and developmental science: Cognitive processes (7th ed., pp. 425-468). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Lillard, A. S., Pinkham, A. M., & Smith, E. (2011). Pretend play and cognitive development. In U. Goswami (Ed.), The Wiley-Blackwell handbook of childhood cognitive development (2nd ed., pp. 285–311). Wiley Blackwell.

Lindsey, E. W., & Colwell, M. J. (2013). Pretend and physical play: Links to preschoolers’ affective social competence. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 59(3), 330-360.

Russ, S. W., & Wallace, C. E. (2013). Pretend play and creative processes. American Journal of Play, 6(1), 136-148.

Singer, D. G., & Singer, J. L. (2009). The house of make-believe: Children’s play and the developing imagination. Harvard University Press.

Smith, P. K. (2009). Children and play: Understanding children’s worlds. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.

Smith, E. D., & Lillard, A. S. (2012). Play on: Retrospective reports of the persistence of pretend play into middle childhood. Journal of Cognition and Development, 13(4), 524-549.

Smits-van der Nat, M., van der Wilt, F., Meeter, M., & van der Veen, C. (2024). The value of pretend play for social competence in early childhood: A meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 36(2), 1-26.

Stagnitti, K., & Lewis, F. M. (2015). Quality of pre-school children’s pretend play and subsequent development of semantic organization and narrative re-telling skills. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 17(2), 148-158.

Thibodeau, R. B., Gilpin, A. T., Brown, M. M., & Meyer, B. A. (2016). The effects of fantastical pretend-play on the development of executive functions: An intervention study. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 145, 120-138.

Timmer, S. G., Hawk, B., Usacheva, M., Armendariz, L., Boys, D. K., & Urquiza, A. J. (2021). The long and the short of it: a comparison of the effectiveness of Parent–Child Care (PC–CARE) and Parent–Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT). Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 1-11.

White, R. E., Prager, E. O., Schaefer, C., Kross, E., Duckworth, A. L., & Carlson, S. M. (2017). The “Batman Effect”: Improving perseverance in young children. Child Development, 88(5), 1563-1571.

White, R. E., & Carlson, S. M. (2021). Pretending with realistic and fantastical stories facilitates executive function in 3-year-old children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 207, 105090.

White, R. E., Thibodeau-Nielsen, R. B., Palermo, F., & Mikulski, A. M. (2021). Engagement in social pretend play predicts preschoolers’ executive function gains across the school year. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 56, 103-113.

Youngblade, L. M., & Dunn, J. (1995). Individual differences in young children’s pretend play with mother and sibling: Links to relationships and understanding of other people’s feelings and beliefs.  Child Development, 66, 1472–1492.

The post How Pretend Play Helps Children Build Skills appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

Two-year-old children begin to act out scenarios with stuffed animals, dolls, or figures, and they tend to use these realistic toys to mimic familiar events. For instance, a two-year old may play by having their stuffed dog walk and drink out of a bowl.

Around age three, symbolic play emerges. This involves using one object as another or pretending an object has different properties than it actually has. This might look like a child pretending a box is a crib for their baby doll, having their block creation “meow” as a cat, or imagining an empty bowl is full as they feed their animal figures.

Beyond age three, pretend play becomes more complex and social in nature. Children begin to incorporate imaginary objects, create more detailed narratives and fantasy worlds, and engage in dramatic role-play with peers. Ages three to five are considered the “high season” of imaginative play, though pretend play continues into middle childhood.

Research shows that while kids have fun creating fantasy worlds and acting out stories they are developing their skills in key areas.

Kids who play pretend more often have stronger skills in a number of important areas.

• Creativity: Pretend play is open-ended, which means that there is no limit to the stories or worlds that kids can create. They can also think creatively about ways to use objects for new purposes or use the magic of their imaginations, like putting an invisible crown onto a friend to make them a king. This kind of play can support skill development in creative thinking and problem solving.
• Emotional skills: When playing pretend, kids get the chance to explore emotions in a unique way. They might practice soothing a crying baby doll or act out an angry monster. Kids who engage more in these kinds of play have stronger emotion knowledge and emotion regulation and control.  Role playing may help them develop these skills by expressing differing emotions than those they are feeling in order to stay in character or fit the play situation.

• Social skills: Pretend play with siblings and other children provides a natural opportunity for kids to build upon their social skills, as they work to pick roles, create a shared world and storyline, and resolve any conflicts that arise. Pretend play appears to support the development of theory-of-mind, which is the ability to recognize that other people may have different beliefs, intentions, thoughts, and feelings.
• Executive functioning: In pretend play, kids actively use their executive functioning skills to understand and maintain the boundary between make-believe and reality. Kids who play pretend have stronger skills in areas like short-term memory and flexible thinking, and they are more able to keep up their efforts to achieve a goal.
• Language and communication: Pretend play appears to support kids’ language development. Kids whose play involves elaborative make-believe stories and worlds have more advanced vocabularies and story retelling skills.

Pretend play is a way for children to work on important areas of development, while also building specific skills that have potential long-term benefits for socially, emotionally, academically, and beyond!

You can promote pretend play and embrace the magic of your child’s imagination through the materials you provide and by playing along!

• Materials and toys: Realistic toys, like dolls and playsets, are the most helpful for getting toddlers and younger preschoolers engaged in pretend play. From about age 3 and up, dramatic play can be encouraged by providing a range of costumes and life-sized props. Kids can use these play materials, along with their imaginations, to take on endless roles and create their own fantasy worlds.  
• Playing along: Grown-ups can encourage pretend play by joining in the fun! Though it is important for children to learn to play alone and with other children, there are also many benefits to parent-child play. Just 5 minutes a day of playtime can strengthen the parent-child relationship, especially if the parent joins the child’s play world and follows their lead. Parents can also encourage pretend play by modeling how to use objects creatively and by acting out characters.

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Watch the Recording

The Child Mind Institute’s Yuki Kotani, MBA, recently sat down with Christa Studzinksi, PhD, director of business development and partnerships at the Ontario Brain Institute, to talk about equity and participatory research in digital therapeutics as part of our webinar series on Technology and Youth Mental Health. This initiative asks how tech can improve youth mental health outcomes — which includes gaining access to real world, or “ecological” data.

This wide-ranging conversation centers around the idea that inclusion and “authentic engagement” is transformative when researchers collaborate on study aims and design with participants. Dr. Studzinksi notes that many challenges to validating digital tools or interventions can be resolved by building a dialogue with end users who are “out in the community where people are living with and receiving care for their brain disorders.” This is particularly important when developing and testing tools with the potential for “creating alternate care pathways” and improving access in rural or under-resourced communities.

The Ontario Brain Institute has developed a one-pager on building authentic engagement and dialogue between researchers and participants; you can find it here.

This video is part of a series of discussions on the ethical and equity challenges to accessing and leveraging real world data in youth mental health research. View more videos on this topic:

• Amy Green, PhD, of Hopelab
• Stephen Scheuller, PhD, University of California, Irvine
• Casey Pick, JD, the Trevor Project
• Becca Brendel, MD, JD, of the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics

The Child Mind Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donate and support work like the Technology and Youth Mental Health Series.

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Watch the Recording

Recently, the Child Mind Institute convened Breaking Barriers: Public Policy and Researcher Access to Data as part of our webinar series on Technology and Youth Mental Health. This initiative includes conversations with researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders, who provide different perspectives on how to leverage tech to improve mental health outcomes for children and adolescents — in part by gaining access to real world, or “ecological,” data like what tech companies collect on users.

Breaking Barriers featured Kate Blocker, PhD, director of research at Children and Screens, and Brandon Silverman, a Knight policy fellow at George Washington University and co-founder of the social analytics tool CrowdTangle (which was acquired by Facebook), in conversation with the Child Mind Institute’s Yuki Kotani, MBA. The group discussed the potential of tech company data to open new research pathways, the current state of policy on data transparency in the United States and Europe, and the practical considerations of opening the floodgates to huge amounts of data in a rapidly changing industry.

Blocker touched on the innovative but limited ways researchers have been trying to fill in the gaps while they work to gain access to data from platforms like Facebook or X. Self-reports are subjective, she said, while “data mining only uses what is available in public spaces” and misses private experiences. “What is most striking is that we know this data is available, and it’s just inaccessible,” she said. “The tech companies have been collecting and studying this data for decades. It’s at a level of granularity and richness that most researchers could only dream of having access to.”

How will researchers gain access? “There is a lot of regulatory interest around the world in data access,” Silverman said. The European Digital Services Act will soon have a mechanism for access or sharing of data from large online platforms with independent, vetted researchers.

But noting the glacial pace of policy development, Silverman urges nimbleness in the study of the fast-paced tech industry. Researchers should not attempt to get all available data, since most organizations would be inundated by the sheer volume of data. “We need to be strategic and thoughtful and smart about what datasets we actually want,” Silverman said. “And we have to have a fast turnaround. The half-life of how meaningful this research is on platforms that are changing constantly is not the same as the normal half-life for most academic research.”

Sign up on our event page to stay informed of future webinars and expert interviews in our Technology and Youth Mental Health series.

The Child Mind Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donate and support work like the Technology and Youth Mental Health Series.

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Procrastination is a particular challenge for college students, who are expected to complete longer-term projects and are responsible for their own use of time. More than a few college freshman find that they have procrastinated so much during their first semester that December presents an impossible academic lift.  

Kids with learning or mental health challenges are especially prone to procrastination. Anyone who has struggled with anxiety or depression or a learning disorder has probably had a bad experience with schoolwork — trouble understanding an assignment, worries their work wasn’t good enough, or a grade they were ashamed of. Bad experiences can trigger discomfort when we’re presented with new tasks and a powerful urge to avoid them.

Because avoiding discomfort makes us feel better, even in the short-term, it’s a behavior we tend to want to repeat. But stalling on school projects until they are due — and panic mode sets in — continues the cycle of bad experiences and leads to more procrastination.

When we procrastinate, we sometimes alleviate anxiety by getting busy with other things, telling ourselves that we’re really being productive. Procrastination doesn’t always look like doing something fun or mindless — it can also look like doing work that’s unrelated to something more important. 

Here are some signs of procrastination:

• Filling your time with low-priority tasks so you can check something off on your To-Do List, or coming up with new tasks, even as the time you have for something more important runs out.  

• Reading e-mails, texts, or assignment descriptions multiple times without responding or putting pen to paper because you don’t know how to respond, or you’re worried you might make a mistake.

• Starting a big assignment, and then heading out to get something to eat, going to get some coffee, texting with friends, or watching videos.

• Telling yourself you need to be in the right mood — there’s never a “right mood” or “right time” to get a tough task done. 

The first step towards combating procrastination is recognizing you’re doing it in the first place. The more you get to know yourself and your motivations, the better you can work towards your goals. 

The downside of procrastination isn’t just that it leaves you with less time to write a good paper or study for a test. It also increases stress.

• Stress makes it harder to concentrate and more likely that what you need to know will “go in one ear and out the other.” 
• It’s more effective and less daunting to study for short periods of time more frequently than it is to study during one exhausting, marathon session.
• With writing, waiting until the last minute ensures an inferior final product. You don’t get a chance to test-drive your ideas by discussing them with classmates or professors or fine-tune them by writing several drafts.

One powerful way to fight procrastination is to withhold what you want to do until your more stressful tasks are completed first. That way, desirable tasks become a motivating reward. 

Whether it’s answering an email, calling someone, reading a report, or writing a paper, your goal should always be to dispense with your most difficult tasks first. When you lift the burden of a more difficult task, it eases your stress, leaves you feeling accomplished and good about yourself, and gives you motivation to do the next thing.

Other ways to fight:

• Eliminate distractions. The reality is that when you want to be distracted, you will be.  Shut off the push notifications on your smartphone. Keep your web browser closed. If you find you need help resisting temptation, some software programs will prevent you from using it for pre-set intervals. You can even set your phone to airplane mode. Once your study period or task is complete, then open your texts and other messages. 

• Ensure you have adequate energy. You cannot concentrate or think well if you are tired or undernourished. Get at least 7-8 hours of sleep each night. Eating well releases serotonin, which helps you regulate your sleep, think more clearly, and boost your mood. When you study, bring snacks and drinks to stay energized and hydrated. 

• Understand your discomfort. Think about all the reasons you don’t want to complete a task, as they may not be immediately obvious.  Keep asking yourself: Why don’t I want to make that phone call? Why don’t I want to write that book report? Why don’t I want to go to class? Whatever your reasons, bringing awareness to them lessens their power to induce procrastination and control your thinking. 

• Remind yourself why a task is important. In your mind, walk through the consequences of not completing the task. While too much anxiety can be paralyzing, a little can be motivating.

• Rehearse the steps. Before you go to sleep, remind yourself of what you want to accomplish the next day. Then envision yourself completing those tasks. Rehearse the steps you will take to do it. When athletes and other professionals rehearse what they need to do to be successful, it helps them to achieve their goals.

• Plan rewards for yourself. Looking forward to a reward creates a craving that can be motivating. The challenge is resisting that craving in the moment. If you want to jump to the reward before you’ve earned it, try your best to stop and remind yourself of why the task at hand is important. 

• Tell other people about your plan. You don’t have to struggle in isolation. Take advantage of the people around you! Make a dealwith your friends to complete homework together or get together after you’ve finished your assignments. You’ll be more likely to follow through if you’ve made those promises. Also, if you’re having trouble motivating yourself, talk to a friend about what you’re feeling and ask for their support. 

Finding ways to get the support you need to have good experiences with schoolwork is the key to breaking the procrastination cycle. The more you can overcome the temptation to avoid tasks, successfully complete work, and get positive feedback for it, the less likely you will be to associate schoolwork with discomfort. And getting the academic support you need to produce work that reflects your actual ability will make that work easier, improve your self-esteem, and ensure you get the grades you deserve! 

The post How to Avoid Procrastination appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

The Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM), a group of scientists dedicated to advancing the understanding of the anatomical and functional organization of the human brain using neuroimaging, hosted its annual conference in Seoul, South Korea this past week, June 23–27. The OHBM conference is the premier event in the brain mapping field and the Child Mind Institute is proud to have contributed to an astounding 34 presentations, symposia, courses, roundtables, and social events at OHBM 2024! Furthermore, a Child Mind Institute staff member was a first author, presenter, organizer and/or key supporter for 19 of those activities.

The Child Mind Institute contributed large numbers of novel findings, and Child Mind Institute Science team members were featured prominently at key conference events. Chief Science Officer Michael Milham, MD, PhD, anchored the OHBM Roundtable and a symposium on fostering international collaboration opportunities for young investigators. Aki Nikolaidis, PhD, and Ting Xu, PhD, also spoke at a second and third symposia, and Shinwon Park, PhD, was co-chair and presenter at a fourth. Dr. Xu also was part of a course on inter-species neuroimaging, and Kyoungseob Byeon, PhD, presented his work at an oral session co-chaired by Dr. Xu. Child Mind Institute Science team members even played a part in the fun — Dr. Park was instrumental in the organization of the Monday Night Social!

And for the first time, Child Mind Institute Science X and LinkedIn channels released a series of posts promoting Child Mind Institute events and presentations at the conference. The posts received around 7,000 impressions! Explore the list below to find out about all of the Child Mind Institute’s activity at the conference.

But the biggest news from OHBM 2024 was that Adriana Di Martino, MD, founding director of the Autism Center at the Child Mind Institute, was awarded the prestigious 2024 Organization for Human Brain Mapping Open Science Award for sustained and impactful efforts in the field of open science. Dr. Di Martino is the third Child Mind Institute team member to win the award. In 2012, Dr. Di Martino led the effort to create the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE), which aggregates and shares functional and structural brain imaging data from laboratories around the world. The ABIDE dataset has propelled discoveries in autism forward at an astounding rate. Since its founding, it has outpaced traditional datasets by more than 3 to 1 and now accounts for around 70 percent of all ASD-related resting state fMRI studies. Learn more about Dr. Di Martino’s accomplishments and the OHBM Open Science Award.

Roundtables

OHBM Neurosalience Live – Leaders weigh in on central issues in the field
Featuring: Michael Milham, MD, PhD

Symposia

Sources of data pollution: Ill-posed problems
Featuring: Aki Nikolaidis, PhD

In the light of evolution: Principles of brain organization deduced from cross-species neuroimaging
Featuring: Ting Xu, PhD

Increasing international collaboration opportunities for early career researchers
Featuring: Michael Milham, MD, PhD

LOC symposium: Roadmap for Clinical Translation of Neuroimaging
Featuring: Shinwon Park, PhD, co-chair and presenter

Courses

An introduction to cross-species comparative neuroimaging
Featuring: Ting Xu, PhD

Oral Sessions and Presentations

Deciphering the Dynamic Spatiotemporal Maturation from Childhood to Adolescence at the Brain Development and Aging Oral Session
Session Co-Chair: Ting Xu, PhD
Featuring: Kyoungseob Byeon, PhD
With CMI contributors: Park, Clucas, Milham, Xu

Events

Monday Night Social and Gala
Featuring: Shinwon Park, PhD, co-organizer

Posters

Benchmarking 200+ pairwise similarity measures for resting-state functional connectivity estimation
Featuring: Connor Lane, MSE
With CMI contributors: Rupprecht, Milham, Kiar

How C-PAC NodeBlocks and resource pool enable modular testing and cross-pipeline compatibility
Featuring: Elizabeth Kenneally
With CMI contributors: Giavasis, Clucas, Milham, Kiar

Rethinking How We Wrap Command Line Tools from Python
Featuring: Florian Rupprecht, MSc
With CMI contributors: Lane, Vos de Wael, Kai, Kenneally, Giavasis, Shrestha, d’Antonio-Bertagnolli, Milham, Kiar

Deciphering the Dynamic Spatiotemporal Maturation from Childhood to Adolescence
Featuring: Kyoungseob Byeon, PhD
With CMI contributors: Park, Clucas, Milham, Xu

Transdiagnostic interindividual differences in brain coactivation dynamics in autism and ADHD
Featuring: Phoebe Thomson, PhD
With CMI contributors: Segura, Park, Milham, Xu, Di Martino

Brain Charts for the Rhesus Macaque
Featuring: Sam Alldritt
With CMI contributors: Ramirez, Franco*, PRIME-DE, Milham, Xu

Thalamic connectivity gradients analysis reveal atypical thalamic-insula interactions in autism
Featuring: Shinwon Park, PhD
With CMI contributors: Thomson, Milham, Hong*, Di Martino

Mapping neurotransmitter receptor distributions in the macaque cortex
Featuring: Thomas Funck, PhD

Multi-modal predictors of fMRI-identified brain states
Featuring: Karl-Heinz Nenning, PhD (NKI) – subcontract
With CMI contributors: Ting Xu, Franco*, Milham

Maintaining spatially fine-grained connectivity gradients improves brain-behavior predictions
Featuring: Karl-Heinz Nenning, PhD (NKI) – subcontract
With CMI contributors: Ting Xu, Franco*, Milham

Memory reactivation during rest is coupled with fluctuations in ongoing brain states
Featuring: Arielle Tambini, PhD (NKI) – subcontract
With CMI contributors: Ting Xu, Michael Milham

Posters

Integrated Effective Connectivity Reveals Mesulam’s Cortical Hierarchy in the Human Brain
With CMI contributors: Michael Milham, Seok-Jun Hong

FMRI-based Encoding for Self-supervised Deep Predictive Coding in the Human Brain
With CMI contributors: Seok-Jun Hong

Stepwise connectivity patterns along the gradients of brain organization in Alzheimer’s disease
With CMI contributors: Seok Jun Hong*

Capturing cortical hierarchy and dual stream architecture with precision functional MRI at 7T
With CMI contributors: Seok Jun Hong*

Decoding short- and long-range structural connectivity using manifold learning techniques
With CMI contributors: Seok-Jun Hong

Transdiagnostic mapping of corticostriatal circuit for behavior and cognition in autism and ADHD
With CMI contributors: Shinwon Park

Understanding the functional organization of the thalamocortical connectivity in Chronic SCZ
With CMI contributors: Shinwon Park

Human Cerebral Cortex Organization Estimated by Functional PET-FDG “Metabolic Connectivity”
With CMI contributors: Ting Xu

A Connectional Gradient of Individual Variability across Functional Connectome Edges
With CMI contributors: Ting Xu

Allometric constraints on brain tissue configuration
With CMI contributors: Ting Xu, Alldritt, Ramirez,

Predicting the epileptic seizure onset zone with brain-wide alterations of temporal dynamics in fMRI
With CMI contributors: Ting Xu, Michael Milham

Investigating the neurobiological basis of psychopathology using bi-factor models: reliably general
With CMI contributors: Aki Nikolaidis, Michael Milham

Complex Regulation of Protocadherin Epigenetics on Aging-Related Brain Health
With CMI contributors: Daryaneh Badaly

White Matter Integrity and Verbal Memory After a First Episode of Psychosis: A Longitudinal Study
With CMI contributors: Greg Kiar

Whole Brain Mapping of Disturbed Semantic Representation in Autism Spectrum Disorder
With CMI contributors: Kyoungseob Byeon, Michael Milham

The post Child Mind Institute Science Makes an Impact at OHBM 2024 appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

Through her pioneering work in brain mapping and biomarker discovery, Dr. Di Martino has redefined the landscape of autism research and made groundbreaking strides in understanding autism-related brain connectivity.

In particular, she has created and led the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE). Since its launch in 2012, ABIDE has collected and shared imaging data from over 2,200 individuals, half with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and the other half with typical controls. This resource has been instrumental in advancing biomarker discovery and has facilitated 718 publications across 190 journals. The extensive use of ABIDE data has dramatically increased sample sizes and improved the robustness of autism research findings across the field.

Dr. Di Martino’s impact extends beyond data aggregation. She has demonstrated how to effectively utilize ABIDE’s vast datasets to explore disparities in ASD-related brain connectivity and conduct pioneering studies on sex differences in the autism connectome. Her collaborations have propelled advances in disorder classification and neurosubtyping, reinforcing the importance of reproducibility and analytic rigor.

Looking to the future, Dr. Di Martino is spearheading efforts to unify existing large-scale ASD neuroimaging data collections for mega-analysis and replication. Her work aims to address critical challenges in biological psychiatry, enhancing data harmonization and enabling unprecedented scale in autism research.

Dr. Di Martino is the third Child Mind Institute team member to receive this honor since its inception in 2020, underscoring the institution’s dedication to advancing research through open science.

This award follows on the heels of Dr. Di Martino’s keynote presentation at the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) 2024 Annual Conference in Melbourne, Australia. In her presentation, “Mapping the Autism Brain Connectome: Unraveling Heterogeneity Through Data Sharing and Open Science,” Dr. Di Martino highlighted the acceleration of research, analytical innovations, and understanding of autism neurosubtypes advanced through open science and innovation. To watch an interview with Dr. Di Martino, click here.

Congratulations to Dr. Di Martino on these remarkable achievements!

View a running list of the Child Mind Institute’s OHBM 2024 activities.

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New York, NY – Shinwon Park, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Autism Center at the Child Mind Institute, leads the charge in a groundbreaking study on the role of thalamocortical connectivity in brain development. Dr. Park and her team published an article that describes key findings of their research in Nature Neuroscience June 10, 2024. Along with Koen V. Haak, PhD, of Tilburg University, the Netherlands, and Stuart Oldham, PhD, of Monash University, Australia, six researchers from the Child Mind Institute are involved in this work: Kyoungseob Byeon, PhD, Phoebe Thomson, PhD, Ting Xu, PhD, Michael P. Milham, MD, PhD, Adriana Di Martino, PhD, and Seok-Jun Hong, PhD.

The study provides new insights into the role of thalamocortical connectivity in the development of cortical functional organization. It highlights how this connectivity evolves from infancy through young adulthood, contributing to the emergence and specialization of a large-scale brain network.

Body:

The human brain undergoes complex development from conception, initially forming a simple neural tube that eventually gives rise to the characteristic structure of the neocortex. Understanding how this translates to functional specialization has been a long-standing question in neuroscience. The latest research by Park et al. explores this phenomenon by examining age-dependent differences in resting-state thalamocortical connectivity.

Using a combination of cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches, the researchers investigated the role of thalamocortical connectivity in early life. Their findings demonstrate that during infancy, thalamocortical connectivity reflects early differentiation of sensorimotor networks influenced by genetic axonal projection. As children grow, this connectivity shifts to include the salience network, while decoupling externally and internally oriented functional systems.

Key Findings:

• Infancy: Thalamocortical connectivity is primarily associated with sensorimotor networks and genetically influenced axonal projections.
• Childhood to Young Adulthood: The connectivity evolves to establish connections with the salience network, crucial for differentiating between externally and internally oriented systems.
• Generative Network Models: Simulations using generative network models confirmed that thalamic connectivity plays a significant role in developing key features of the mature brain, such as functional segregation and the sensory-association axis.

Implications: These findings suggest that the thalamus is integral to the functional specialization of the brain during development. This research offers potential implications for understanding and studying developmental conditions characterized by atypical internal and external processing, such as autism and schizophrenia.

Quotes: “Our study provides a detailed map of how thalamocortical connectivity contributes to the functional organization of the brain from infancy through young adulthood,” said Dr. Park. “These insights could pave the way for new approaches to studying and potentially treating developmental brain disorders.”

Further Information: For more details, the full study can be accessed through the following link https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-024-01679-3.

Contact Information: Seok-Jun Hong, Ph.D., hongseokjun@skku.edu

ABOUT NATURE NEUROSCIENCE

Nature Neuroscience is a leading scientific journal that publishes research articles across all areas of neuroscience, aiming to present the most significant advances in the field.

ABOUT THE CHILD MIND INSTITUTE 

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But antipsychotic medications have also been proven to be effective at reducing other troubling emotional and behavioral symptoms. And they are being widely prescribed for children as well as adults.

In children and teenagers, antipsychotics are most often used to reduce aggression, irritability, and other disruptive or problem behaviors. They are prescribed for kids on the autism spectrum, or with ADHD, other disruptive behavior disorders, or unspecified behavior issues. 

Antipsychotics are also used to treat kids with OCD and Tourette’s when therapy or other medications haven’t been effective.

Because they can have serious side effects, including weight gain and hormonal, metabolic and neurological changes, use of antipsychotics in children should be carefully considered and closely monitored by a doctor.

Most of the antipsychotic medications prescribed for children are “atypical” or “second-generation” (SGA) antipsychotics. Developed in the 1990s, they’re called “atypical” because, as compared to earlier antipsychotics, they have fewer of a type of side effects that impact motor control and coordination.

All antipsychotic medications work by reducing the level of dopamine — a neurotransmitter that helps regulate mood, behavior, concentration, and movement — in the brain. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that activate receptors on the surface of cells in the brain and elsewhere in the nervous system. They work like a key that unlocks the receptor. 

Antipsychotics are what are called “dopamine receptor antagonists,” meaning that they block dopamine’s ability to activate certain receptors. This reduction of dopamine activation in the brain has been found to not only reduce symptoms of psychosis, but also inhibit hyperactivity, aggression, impulsivity, and other problematic behaviors. Some atypical antipsychotics can also block or activate receptors for the neurotransmitter serotonin, further affecting mood and behavior.

SGAs work within two weeks of starting treatment and reach their full effect in 2-3 months.

Atypical antipsychotic medications include:

• Aripiprazole (Abilify, Aristada)
• Asenapine (Secuado, Saphris)
• Brexpiprazole (Rexulti)
• Cariprazine (Vraylar)
• Clozapine (Clozaril, Versacloz)
• Iloperidone (Fanapt)
• Lumateperone (Caplyta)
• Lurasidone (Latuda)
• Olanzapine (Zyprexa, Lybalvi, Symbyax)
• Quetiapine (Seroquel)
• Paliperidone (Invega)
• Pimavanserin (Nuplazid)
• Risperidone (Risperdal)
• Ziprasidone (Geodon)

While these medications all affect neurotransmitters, including dopamine, they each have a unique impact on brain function. That means that if a child doesn’t respond to one antipsychotic, another might work for them. Or if a child experiences troubling side effects on one medication, another might have fewer side effects. 

The most common use of SGAs in kids is to calm down children whose severe behavior problems are making it difficult for them to them to function in school and within their families. This includes kids on the autism spectrum, especially when they reach early adolescence and their aggression may be a danger to other children, their parents and themselves.

Paul Mitrani, MD, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Child Mind Institute, lists three reasons why a child might be prescribed an SGA:

• When the child is experiencing psychotic symptoms, which are very rare in kids
• When there is a crisis — acute aggression or irritability or self-harm is causing a risk to the safety of the child or others
• When a child’s behavior is so intense or extreme that they may be unable to go to school or live at home

Risperidone and aripiprazole are the two SGAs that are most often prescribed for children to manage extreme behavior. Both are FDA approved for irritability in children on the autism spectrum; for other kids with behavior issues they are used off-label.

Experts agree that in a noncrisis situation, children should have access to behavioral therapy and parent training, which can reduce problem behavior, before putting them on antipsychotic medication. But the reality is that for many kids those therapeutic alternatives are not available. In that case medication may be seen as a quick, effective, affordable alternative.

For children with ADHD who are taking stimulant medication, antipsychotics are sometimes used to help with behavioral symptoms that are not adequately covered by stimulants. “While stimulants are very effective for treating ADHD, kids will sometimes ‘crash,’ with a return of symptoms after the stimulant wears off, or struggle in the morning before the stimulant starts working,” explains Dr. Mitrani. “If these problems are really interfering with a child’s ability to function, and other medications, like guanfacine, are not effective, we will consider antipsychotics as a way to help them regulate their behaviors better.”

One advantage is that there are antipsychotics that come in liquid form, Dr. Mitrani explains, which makes them easier for kids who have trouble swallowing pills, and makes it possible to deliver smaller doses. “With kids, we want to start at low doses and see how they respond, and liquid medications allow more flexibility to find the best dose for them.”

The first-line treatment for children with OCD is a form of cognitive behavioral therapy called exposure with response prevention (ERP), sometimes combined with an antidepressant medication (usually an SSRI). But antipsychotic medications are sometimes added to the mix to help mitigate obsessive thoughts. “An antipsychotic can help improve flexibility,” Dr. Mitrani explains, “when you’re stuck on these negative thoughts, whether they’re hallucinations, in schizophrenia, or obsessions, in OCD. It can reduce the stickiness of those intrusive thoughts.”

The first-line treatment for children with Tourette’s syndrome is therapy called comprehensive behavioral intervention for tics (CBIT). But if that doesn’t prove effective, and the tics are causing distress or interfering with the child’s functioning, the use of an SGA may be recommended. Dopamine, which is blocked by antipsychotic medications, has been strongly linked with Tourette’s.

Both risperidone and aripiprazole have been shown to be effective for reducing tics and are widely used. Aripiprazole has been approved by the FDA for Tourette’s. Risperidone is used off-label.

The rates and severity of side effects differs among these medications. And while they may occur at the beginning of treatment, they may also develop after sustained use. “The adult studies have shown,” Dr. Mitrani notes, “that the longer you’re on a antipsychotic and the higher the dose, the more likely that you may have those side effects. But they can also happen at initiation.”

Here is a summary of major side effects:

Weight gain:  SGAs often cause significant weight gain. The amount of weight gain varies with different medications. According to the American Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), the largest weight gain appears to be with clozapine and olanzapine, and significant weight gain occurs with risperidone and quetiapine. Aripiprazole and ziprasidone appear to have the lowest propensity for weight gain. Some studies suggest that SGA-associated weight gain may be greater in young people than in adults.

Metabolism effects: SGAs can cause what are called “metabolic abnormalities,” including high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) and high cholesterol (hyperlipidemia) and a rise in other lipids and triglycerides. These can increase the risk of developing diabetes and heart disease. 

Hormonal effects: Antipsychotics can affect the body’s levels of the hormone prolactin. In girls, high prolactin levels (hyperprolactinemia) can affect fertility and cause missed periods and leaky discharge from breasts. In boys, it can cause infertility and breast growth, called gynecomastia, which does not disappear if they stop taking the medication. Of the SGAs, risperidone shows the greatest increase in prolactin levels and aripiprazole the least.

Neurological effects: Another set of possible side effects includes something called “tardive dyskinesia,” which is characterized by repetitive, involuntary movements, including facial grimaces. The risk of tardive dyskinesia increases with the dose and duration of the treatment, and it can be permanent. The risk of neurological side effects is greatest with risperidone, ziprasidone, and aripiprazole.

Heart and circulatory problems: Antipsychotic drugs can alter the heart’s rhythm and cause orthostatic hypotension, which is a drop in blood pressure when a person stands or sits up quickly that can make them fall or pass out.

Because these side effects can be serious, AACAP recommends that children going on an antipsychotic should have baseline measures of vital signs, including body mass index, blood pressure, and glucose levels to rule out heart and other health problems that could be exacerbated by the medication. Dr. Mitrani also includes liver and thyroid function tests.

Weight and lab tests should be done at baseline (before starting medication) and labs should be repeated 3 months after starting, Dr. Mitrani advises. They should be repeated at intervals of at least once a year after that — more frequently if any labs come back abnormal and the family wants to continue with the medication, which they may do if they are trying to alleviate them by modifying diet and exercise. “With these side effects, the earlier you catch them the better,” Dr. Mitrani notes. “You can take the child off the medication, try something different, or even start a medication that hopefully mitigates side effects if the medication is helping.”

Dr. Mitrani reports that there are studies showing that some medications such as metformin (a diabetes medication), can help reduce the metabolic side effects of SGAs — weight gain, increased cholesterol, risk of diabetes. “We also emphasize the benefits of healthy diet choices and exercise,” he adds, “and will sometimes refer families to a nutritionist.”

When these medications are used to stabilize a child in crisis, they are typically used for a period of months, Dr. Mitrani explains, so that other interventions can be put into place to address the underlying problems. Otherwise, the risk is high that the problem behavior will recur when the medication is withdrawn. “Three months of stability gives the child, the parents, and the school time to make some changes,” he adds, “so that hopefully when they come off the medicine, the improvement is sustained.”

Some children take SGAs indefinitely, including kids on the autism spectrum who might otherwise need residential care. When they are used long-term, they should be monitored at least every 3 months if they’re stable, Dr. Mitrani advises, “but more frequently if symptoms continue or worsen, since we want to avoid hospitalization or needing to be placed outside of the home.”

Atypical antipsychotic medications should not be abruptly discontinued unless a severe and/or dangerous side effect has developed. Taking a child off antipsychotic medication should be gradual, with close monitoring by a doctor.

A child who abruptly stops taking the medication is at risk for something called, “withdrawal dyskinesia,” which causes involuntary movements of the face, arms, and legs, including jerking and grimacing. The movements are worse when the child is stressed or anxious. In most cases withdrawal dyskinesia will subside without treatment in 1–2 months. But if the movements are causing the child distress, a psychiatrist may  recommend that the antipsychotic be restarted and tapered gradually over 1–3 months.

Since the medication has been effectively reducing problematic symptoms, its abrupt discontinuation can destabilize the child and cause a return of the behavior.

The post Children and Antipsychotic Medications appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

Former NBC News Correspondent Cynthia McFadden did the honors as the event’s master of ceremonies. Pastor Cathy Gilliard, Rabbi David Gelfand, and Bishop Edmund Whalen delivered blessings.

Dr. Harold S. Koplewicz, president and medical director of the Child Mind Institute, welcomed a packed room of children’s mental health experts, policy leaders, and advocates to celebrate the opening and discuss the ongoing global youth mental health crisis. Dr. Koplewicz described the new headquarters as the result of exponential growth in the 15-year-old organization’s clinical work, global reach, and innovative approaches to improving children’s mental health.

“While this new home doubles our footprint in Manhattan, our Center of Excellence goes well beyond this one space,” Dr. Koplewicz said. “We have research satellites in Harlem and Staten Island, clinical offices in California, and now training sites in Greece, Brazil, and South Africa. Our colleagues are leaders in clinical care, education, and open science who are making an impact locally, nationally, and now globally. We’re reaching families across the world.”

Dr. Ashwin Vasan, commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, also spoke, noting the crisis in children’s mental health, and the importance of early intervention for children with mental health struggles. “I’m here because this is part of our public health approach to intervene early, to wrap our arms around our kids with love and with support and with services, so that we can prevent a lifetime of suffering, a lifetime of pain and a lifetime of need.”

And he praised the Child Mind Institute for being “a great partner to the city of New York, working with over 600 schools, reaching nearly 225,000 kids and getting over 7,000 kids into early screening and diagnosis through the Healthy Brain Network.”

The new Center of Excellence in Child and Adolescent Mental Health, a five-story “building within a building,” was designed by architect Lee Skolnick, of Skolnick Architecture + Design Partnership, to be welcoming for the children and families the organization serves, and dynamic for staff. The building will accommodate continued growth and improved opportunities for collaboration and innovation, helping the Child Mind Institute continue to rise to the challenge of the current crisis in children’s mental health.   

Thanks to an expert Art Committee, the building is home to spectacular donated artwork that provides a vibrant welcome to families and inspires staff. Artists participating in this program include Michelle Samour, Adam Sultan, Kenny Scharf, Sol LeWitt Foundation, April Gornick, Eliot Greenwald, Michele Simonetti, Sally Gall, Michal Rovner, Alice Aycock, KAWS, Vaughn Spann, Dustin Yellin, Willie Cole, Bryan Hunt, and Pat Steir.  

The new Center of Excellence in Child and Adolescent Mental Health brings together the organization’s care, education, and science programs, which include more than 130 clinical staff, 114 researchers, and 40 working in professional training and parent education.

As a leader in innovative partnerships in children’s mental health, the Child Mind Institute is collaborating with many states, private foundations, and governments around the world where there is a severe shortage of mental health expertise and infrastructure to support children. The new center will serve as a base for convening mental health experts from around the world —  it will also house the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Global Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health — and promote innovation and creativity in pursuit of solutions to the global child and adolescent mental health crisis.   

As Dr. Koplewicz sums up, “At the Child Mind Institute, our reach is global, but our impact remains deeply personal.”

Watch Dr. Koplewicz’s full speech here: https://youtu.be/qkrQftVgaPo

The post Child Mind Institute Opens the Center of Excellence in Child and Adolescent Mental Health appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

Photos from the ceremony can be viewed here.

New York, NY – The Child Mind Institute, the leading independent nonprofit dedicated to transforming the lives of children struggling with mental health and learning disorders, held a ribbon cutting ceremony today celebrating the opening of the organization’s Center of Excellence in Child and Adolescent Mental Health.  Children’s mental health experts, policy leaders, and advocates gathered in the new 82,000-square-foot headquarters to celebrate the opening and discuss the ongoing global youth mental health crisis as well as innovative approaches to solutions. Pastor Cathy Gilliard, Rabbi David Gelfand, and Bishop Edmund Whalen delivered blessings. Former NBC News Correspondent Cynthia McFadden served as the event’s master of ceremonies.

“Unfortunately our kids are not okay and they’re struggling more than ever. We still have one in five children and teenagers who have a mental health disorder,” said Harold S. Koplewicz, MD, president and medical director of the Child Mind Institute. “The good news is that America is recognizing that the most common disorders of childhood and adolescents are not diabetes, asthma or cancer, but mental health disorders.” 

“We’ve made mental health care too hard to access for too long, which is why I’m very glad to be here,” said Ashwin Vasan, MD, commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. “Not only are we making mental health care more accessible through Child Mind, but Child Mind has been a great partner to the city of New York and many places throughout the country and in the world.” 

Bob Moon, deputy commissioner of the New York State Office of Mental Health, attended the event and delivered a Special Citation on behalf of Governor Kathy Hochul for the organization’s commitment to the wellness of young people. 

The new Center of Excellence in Child and Adolescent Mental Health brings together the organization’s care, education, and science programs, which include more than 130 clinical staff, 114 researchers, and 40 staff working in professional training and parent education.
The new center will serve as a base for convening mental health experts from around the world and will house the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Global Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.  

​​The new Center of Excellence in Child and Adolescent Mental Health, a five-story “building within a building,” was designed by architect Lee Skolnick, of Skolnick Architecture + Design Partnership, to be welcoming for all children and families. The building, which doubles the 15-year-old organization’s footprint, will accommodate growth and improved opportunities for collaboration and innovation, helping the Child Mind Institute continue to rise to the challenge of the current crisis in children’s mental health. 

The building features donated artwork from renowned artists, including: Michelle Samour, Adam Sultan, Kenny Scharf, Sol LeWitt Foundation, April Gornick, Eliot Greenwald, Michele Simonetti, Sally Gall, Michal Rovner, Alice Aycock, KAWS, Vaughn Spann, Dustin Yellin, Willie Cole, Bryan Hunt and Pat Steir.

The Center of Excellence in Child and Adolescent Mental Health is located in New York City at 215 East 50th Street, which is within The Durst Organization’s 825 Third Avenue tower. 825 Third Avenue recently underwent a $150 million renovation emphasizing performance, tenant comfort, modern aesthetics, amenities, and sustainability.

Photos from the ceremony can be viewed here.

ABOUT THE CHILD MIND INSTITUTE 

We are the leading independent nonprofit in children’s mental health providing gold-standard, evidence-based care, delivering educational resources to millions of families each year, training educators in underserved communities, and developing open science initiatives and tomorrow’s breakthrough treatments.

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For press questions, contact our press team at childmindinstitute@ssmandl.com or our media officer at mediaoffice@childmind.org.

ABOUT SKOLNICK ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN PARTNERSHIP

Based in New York City and the Hamptons, SKOLNICK Architecture + Design Partnership is an award-winning, multidisciplinary design studio specializing in architecture, exhibit design, interpretation, master planning, and communication design. The firm’s mission is to unearth the compelling story behind every project to enrich the lives of their clients and communities. SKOLNICK believes that the ideal architectural experience tells a story, taking a person on a journey, expressing ideas, eliciting emotions, and revealing knowledge. Founded in 1980, SKOLNICK Architecture + Design Partnership has been at the nexus of contemporary thinking about how we live, where we live, and ways to create play, home, and work environments that speak to the creative, functional, and aspirational needs of their clients. In addition to their broad list of award-winning residential projects, cultural and corporate projects, SKOLNICK has crafted healthcare facilities including the following: Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital, New York City, the transformative Pirogov Children’s Hospital in Sofia, Bulgaria, the Ezra Abraham to Life Foundation Activity Room at the Hospital for Special Surgery, New York City and the Autism Spectrum Disorder Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Learn more at www.skolnick.com.

For inquiries – mail@skolnick.com

The post The Child Mind Institute Unveils the Center of Excellence in Child and Adolescent Mental Health, New Headquarters in New York City appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

Throughout the month, we heard from world-class athletes who shared how they maintain their mental health fitness routines. NBA All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns talked about how he stays mentally strong on and off the basketball court. Olympic silver medalist Jordan Chiles of the U.S. women’s national gymnastics team gave the mental health advice she wishes she could have learned when she was a young athlete. And Sarah Adam of Team USA’s wheelchair rugby squad discussed how she manages stress, stays positive, and prioritizes rest to perform her best.

On our Mental Health Fitness page, you’ll find more athletes’ video messages. Plus, check out our tip sheets on how to help kids learn skills to take care of their emotional well-being. Because everyone can use practice building their own mental health fitness routine.

The post Mental Health Fitness: A Recap of Our Mental Health Awareness Month Campaign appeared first on Child Mind Institute.