Mental disability in Children by Dr. Abdul Gafar

Mental disability in Children
Autism, SPD, ADHD, LD and more..

These are a variety of disorders where children suffer from mild to very severe mental disablement. Here I prefer to use the term mental disability rather than mental illness because they are often simple and correctable with or without medicine. Also unlike adult mental disability the problem in children have many interesting features. First of all, in many cases initially the symptoms and signs can be confusing with normal behaviour of a naughty/shy child. But if proper treatment and assistance is not given it can lead to severe incapacities in the child and even serious mental illness. On the other hand if found early and correct treatment is provided most of them can be cured 100%!

A very important component of mental disability in children are Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). They are also called Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD). Here besides having problems with sensory processing (see SPD below) they have abnormalities in thinking and regulation or modulation of sensory inputs. Another unpleasant fact about ASD is that we don't know the full causative factors or even the mechanism behind it. This is particularly true about the severest form of ASD called 'Autism'

Another notable group of illness which can lead to mental disability in children are Sensory Processing Disorders (SPD). Here the disability or inability is caused by defects in the sensory processing system of the child. For example in simple terms if a child do not hear properly he/she cannot speak properly. This can happen with any or all of the senses. In fact SPD are mainly a physical or physiological problem and its sequel is the mental disability.

Any way childhood mental disabilities can vary from mild IQ problems to sever mental retardation and mild shyness and/or fear of strangers to sever behavioural problems. If proper care and cure is not given such children with mild to moderate disability can progress to one of the three ways described below in adolescence and adulthood.

I- Low academic performers with poor memory, low output in examinations, poor social interactions in the school/classrooms along with general naughtiness etc.

II- Antisocial personals with outbursts of anger and tantrums, unpredictable behaviour, aggressive, rough and rowdy nature, prone to lying and stealing, like playing with (setting things on) fire etc.

III- Depressed/moody personals with indrawn personality, extreme reluctance to social interactions, fear of opposite sex and aggressive characters, low to very low self confidence and self esteem, loss of interest in life etc.

Whereas sever forms of mental disabilities in children if not treated will result in any of the following.

I- Adolescents or adults with severe mental retardation

II- Persons with very low or no social interactions

III- Persons who are not fit for ordinary life.

IV- Life long psychological cripples etc.

Some important mental disabilities in children include Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Learning Disabilities (LD), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OSD), Selective Mutism (SM), Asperger Syndrome, Autism etc.

The conventional treatment for these include some medicines to correct any sever behaviour patterns and mainly specialised training procedure to enable the child to live a normal fuller life. These techniques are much helpful and the child can be taught a few to almost all of the normal and appropriate behaviour. But a major defect with these technique is that it is mainly an automated process. Most often the training is just like animal training, taught by careful and patient trainers in a repetitive manner over a period of long time. After all these even if the child can perform (almost) normally they are not normal! They are only trained individual still abnormal in their core.

Here homeopathy can do a little more. In many cases it is seen that homeopathy correct the underlying cause (ironically in some cases even though the cause is not known!) so that the child becomes normal! Learning and performing comes after this in a normal way even if they lag a little behind of their contemporaries. But to stress again, in most of the cases they become normal individuals. And interestingly if early diagnosis with correct homeopathic treatment resulted in a good result and they are given the kind of specialised training after this they even catch up with the lost time and perform equal with their contemporaries too!

For this a homeopath needs an initial assessment of the child by an expert team (child psychologist, child neurologist and special educator). Then the first two-three consultations with the homeopath are spaced seven to ten days apart, lasting 30 to 60 minutes each as the case may be. After this the child can be assessed/evaluated once every three/four weeks. The homeopath ask a lot of questions to the parents/ guardians, observe the child and examines the child and orders any tests if needed. Medicines will be given to take internally on a daily basis. Depending on the severity the medication should continue from 3 to 12 months or even more. Special training or education may be recommended in some cases along with this and in some other cases after this. Occasionally there will not be a need for special education/training at all also.

In terms of time consumed, the amount of medicine the child has to take, the side effects he/she has to suffer and the overall cost of the whole procedure homeopathic treatment is far above to all other methods. And it offers 100% cure in mild to moderate cases and about 60% cure in severe cases.

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Autism

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Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD)

This a less serious but much problem creating (to parents) illness. Even though it can be corrected by simple measures if tried in the beginning in most of the cases the reaction from parents teachers and even (non-psychiatric) doctors will be exactly opposite to what is needed. The illness gets more complicated the more it is ignored. The irony is it that even though we think that the affected one is a bad kid almost always the problem lies with his/her environment. This include his immediate family members, school friends, other friends, distant family members, neighborhood etc.

The common symptoms of such disorder are undue and/or out of proportion obstinacy, slow/disinterest in studies with low marks while very proficient in other activities, high amount of irritability, undue and/or out of proportion disrespect to elders, outbursts of anger and dislike especially to the intimate family, undue and/or out of proportion sibling rivalry, undue and/or out of proportion fear/phobia, playing with fire, harassing/killing small animals/birds/pets, breaking things intentionally, injuring one's own body, damaging/loosing things frequently, telling lies/obscene words/swearing, stealing especially of petty things etc. The sad fact is that most of these kids were normal in the beginning. But if they did not get the proper treatment as time goes on they will become abnormal persons and can end up as antisocial or psychotic ones.

The treatment include proper psychotherapy for the whole family (child, mother, father and the others in the order) is needed along with medication. Homeopathy has very good medicines to correct the behaviour and attitude of the affected. The added advantage is that most of the good homeopaths will be trained in handling such cases psychologically too. For more details please contact your physician.

It is better to start treatment at the first sight of signs in these kind of illnesses as any delay will permanently damage the development of the child. Also note that such children when corrected will most probably become excellent achievers than average ones.

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Learning Disability (LD)

This is a much unfortunate area where the children are much misunderstood for their poor (mostly academic) performance. Children who are otherwise good and normal will show trivial to extreme inability to learn and recollect things. This can be in one or more feilds of learning like mathematics, science, languages etc. It may show as inability to learn, rememebr, or recollect things such as names, numbers or figures.

LD affected child will have specific defects in learning parameters such as reading, writing, speaking (out the words or rhymes), visual-association, interpretation of the meaning etc. Even though of average or above average IQ and other wise very much normal such children will perform much low in the academic field. Many LD children may also develop ADHD if they are persistently pressurized to excel despite not providing adequate corrective treatment. The hopeful news is that there is excellent treatment options available under an LD expert, who evaluates the specific area of defect the child have and suggest suitable corrective modes. In homoeopathy there are even medicines available for this.