My friend Mitch Leppicello, LICSW, has 30 years of experience with autistic kids and their families. He's here to share some tips for managing the transition to summer.
Mathematics anxiety can disrupt the learning and performance of the subject through the disruption of working memory and avoidance by students. Math anxiety is a negative reaction, physiological reactivity, and apprehension when dealing with mathematics. The reactivity can affect both children and adults when they encounter evaluative situations or when they have to solve math problems and manipulate numbers. Parents need to look out for math anxiety symptoms in their kids early enough so that they can get help from brighterly.com professionals to support their early math skill development. What Are the Symptoms of Math Anxiety? https://www.robotlab.com/blog/5-ways-to-help-students-work-through-math-anxiety The early signs and symptoms of math anxiety can be behavioral or physical: 1. Physical symptoms The physical symptoms of math anxiety have close similarities with general anxiety. For instance, if the child…
I've had a pretty great week. I've been job hunting, which is exciting, and it feels good. I'm looking to fill in some of the gaps while building my business. I need to gain some lost ground, and this will help. There are some pretty great opportunities that I might qualify for, and they're remote. That's a perfect fit, especially with COVID. This is a big move for me, but it's the right one, at least for right now. I should add that I'm exceptionally grateful for all the love and support I have in my life. I wouldn't have made it this far or had the courage to explore new opportunities if I didn't have that. The boys are ready for Christmas to be over with. I've talked about…
Children’s mental health disorders occur when there is a significant change in the way a child behaves, learns or handles their emotions. This often leads to distress of some type, creating difficulty in day-to-day tasks. Behavior disorders, anxiety and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders (ADHD) are the most common, though others can occur, including depression and bipolar disorder. How Common Are Kids’ Mental Health Problems? Consider a few key statistics on children and mental health as reported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ADHD is the most common form of mental health disorder in children, impacting about 9.4 percent of kids ages 2 to 17, or about 6.1 million children. About 7.4 percent or 4.5 million children in the U.S. have some type of diagnosed behavior problem. The agency reports…
Emmett woke up this morning and doesn't feel well. He's not sick, at least not physically sick. Emmett is a child who deals with anxiety and it can be debilitating at times. When he gets anxious, it tends to manifest physically, usually as a stomach ache. He's not physically ill but is experiencing physical symptoms. Make sense? Anyway, he's really stressed out over COVID and going to school in a pandemic. He's seeing his friends and teachers become infected. Thankfully, to my knowledge, everyone has recovered. Also, Emmett is fully vaccinated. The risk to him is minimal but not zero. He understands that but it's the not zero part that makes him anxious. He's feeling afraid for himself, his family, and everyone else. It's very clear to him that there…
Okay. I've decided to try and send the boys to school in the morning. The school instituted a mandatory mask mandate last week so everyone will be masked. If they need to come home, they will be sent home. I don't know what else to do at this point. There's no fevers, just drainage which makes them cough. My day is fairly open so if I need to retrieve them, I can. I'll drop them off and then go workout. As long as I can squeeze that in, I'll be off to a good start. ☺ I mentioned I was feeling a bit out of sorts eariler. I'm feeling a good deal better now. I made productive use of my anxious energy this afternoon. I washed and put two coats…
When you have a child with autism, you start to learn that minor events can create anxiety for them. More significant events can be very traumatic and disruptive. For example, if you have a child with autism and you’re involved in a car accident, that can be something that’s incredibly impactful to them. Even beyond something that’s overtly traumatic, everyday events can also be traumatic and create anxiety for a child with autism. Around 70% of kids with autism will have a co-occurring psychiatric disorder. Most commonly, these disorders include post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression. The following are things to know about anxiety in children with autism and people with autism in general. Photo by Ketut Subiyanto on Pexels.com Most Prevalent Types of Anxiety Disorders Not all anxiety disorders…
Yesterday was one of those days I'd like to avoid going forward. If you don't follow me on Facebook, then you're probably out of the loop. You can find my Facebook profile linked at the top of the page. Just sayin'..... Wednesday I began experiencing a sore throat. Not a huge deal but it was getting worse. I woke up about 3 am on Friday morning and took some motrin for the pain. It felt like a pill got stuck in my throat. When I woke up in the morning, I felt like I was choking and it scared the shit out of me. I was supposed to get the kids to Akron Children's for the first COVID shot at 10 am. I couldn't talk without feeling like I was…