If you are a parent or caregiver of an anxious child, there is no doubt that you are effortfully trying to support them. You have given words of encouragement, answered their many "what if" questions, and eliminated anxiety provoking cues. You may have noticed that although these strategies help reduce distress in the short-term, anxiety hasn't gone away, and, in fact, you may have even observed it getting much worse!

During the month of September, we have focused on different ways to reduce emotional vulnerability and improve emotion regulation by utilizing the coping skill SEEDS. We have introduced and reviewed how Sleep, Exercise, Executive functioning, and Diet are important to children’s emotional health and are helpful topics to address as children transition back to school. If you have not been following along yet, be sure to check out our most recent blog posts on these exciting topics!

As we continue our month of SEEDS, the focus this week is Diet. (“Diet” should really be replaced with “Balanced eating,” but SEEBS didn’t make for a good acronym.)

The 2020-2021 school year is starting off unlike any in recent memory. With schools pursuing in-person, virtual, and hybrid learning models, children and families are adjusting to new rules and altered routines in an unfamiliar and uncertain landscape. Navigating so many changes at once can be overwhelming.

Whether you are in-school, hybrid, or distance learning, movement and exercise may look a bit different this school year. Getting your kids and teens moving, suddenly requires more planning and organization on the part of teachers, parents, and students - as if finding the motivation to exercise wasn’t hard enough before.

With summer nearing its end, families are preparing for the start of the school year. Whether your child will be learning in person, via e-learning, or a combination thereof, some preparatory measures can set your child, teenager, or college student up for success.

There is a big debate about the value of tests, especially high-stakes standardized tests like the ACT or SAT. Concerns about undo stress, the tendency to “teach to the test,” inherent cultural biases, and the (mis)use of test scores to re-allocate funding away from marginalized communities are valid and real.

The decision to pursue neuropsychological testing for your child, teenager, or young adult is not always an easy one. It can be a lengthy, expensive, and demanding process. Not to mention, you might have pursued multiple other evaluations and interventions, but your high hopes for “an answer” and substantive change were met with vague, incomplete, and ineffective remedies.

How much screen time is too much screen time? If this isn’t the question of the year (or the century), I don’t know what is. Although the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends limited screen use for children under two years old and no more than 1 hour per day for children two to five years old, it feels nearly impossible to adhere to these limits in the face of e-learning and social distancing.

So, how do we know where to draw the line?

It’s summer. The kids are finally out of school – or whatever that was children were sort of doing from April to June. Now, instead of setting your child’s daily school schedule, making sure they are paying attention to the teacher on the screen, and fighting with them to complete their homework, we can finally get back to normal. Okay, not normal, but you get my drift.

During April and May, Mind Chicago ran a Community Support Fundraiser for the Illinois COVID-19 Response Fund (ICRF), a fund helping communities hit hardest by the pandemic.

You have a behavior plan that is more concrete and specific with a “short distance” between behavior and reward, you’ve framed your statements to be more positive, and you’ve upped the labeled praises. But your behavior plan still is not working!

Now that we have a behavior plan that is concrete and specific with a “short distance” between behavior and reward, what else can we do to improve the likelihood of our behavior plan’s success?

Parents and teachers, often with the guidance of a counselor or psychologist, build and implement behavior modification plans, or behavior plans.

You use these plans to help your child learn to stay on task, follow instructions, and, ultimately, succeed academically and socially. Unfortunately, despite your best efforts, your plan is failing and your child’s undesired behaviors have not changed - or are actually increasing!

Before you throw in the towel, here is the first of three reasons why you might be struggling.

Your child (we'll call him Dylan) has special needs. For example, let's say he has dyslexia. At the beginning of the third grade, Dylan was reading at an early kindergarten level. Now, at the end of the third grade, he’s reading at a late kindergarten level.

A disorder of attention occurs when an individual suffers a traumatic brain injury that leaves him or her incapable of attending to an object, person, conversation, game, or anything. If you’re reading this article, that description likely does not describe your child or student.