Factors that delay in mental health development in a child

To build a strong building, it is supposed to have a strong base or foundation, the same way the early experiences of a child are the foundation of good mental health.

And any mind disturbing events in these stages of life can lead to incompetency or a delay in the child’s mental health development. Mental health problems can occur in young children many times. Young children respond to emotional experiences and traumatic events in a very different way than adults. And early childhood traumas are much more critical than adult individual trauma. These traumas and events become distressing to children and can disrupt their development to function well at school or in some social situations.

Children can clearly present symptoms of anxiety disorder, attention deficit disorder, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, conduct disorder, eating disorder, schizophrenia, neurological developmental disorder, such as autism spectrum disorder at a very early stage of their life.

Some factors that affect mental development are:

• Parent’s relationship with the child: Parents are the one with whom the children spend most of the day. So, it is very important for parents to be able to have a strong attachment with their child to help them develop sound mental health. While basically shaped during the pre-birth period, the brain isn’t totally evolved during childbirth. A great part of the of those associations happens after birth; affected by the infant’s encounters with parent’s and child care suppliers and with nature. Parents who are not able to have a secure attachment with their infant may sometimes have issues of their own which can become a cause for their child mental health development. The issues with the parents can be they themselves had a disturbed childhood, have a mental illness, might have a drug or alcohol problem, have a relationship problem with a partner, or might be violent or abusive, or had the difficult birth experience.

• Genes: The interaction of genes can become a delay in the development of mental health. The genes in our body contain instructions that tell our body how to work, but the chemical “signature” of the environment can become the cause that prevents or stop those instructions from being carried out. The genetic predisposition and traumatic experiences at an early stage in life do lay an unstable base or foundation for mental health development.

• Cognitive delays: A child’s intellectual functioning can be affected by cognitive delays, which can lead to learning disabilities, and it becomes apparent when the child begins school. This type of delays often occurs in children who have faced some kind of brain injuries. Seizures, the shaken baby syndrome can often affect a child’s intellectual functioning. So, the cognitive delay is one factor that contributes to the delay of mental health development.

• Influence of school environment: After two or three years the child is born, most of the time child is exposed in school for around 6-8 hours. After parents, the teacher is the social influence of the child’s personality, it becomes difficult for the child if the teacher is not able to give proper love and affection to the child, a teacher can help the child to develop themselves in a free atmosphere. For proper mental health development, not only teachers but also the curriculum, extracurricular, the administration and discipline can also become a factor, sometimes when a child does not excel in some activity or does something wrong, he/she might feel less of themselves which can affect them mentally, sometimes it can become severe.

• Cultural factor: Child mental health development also been determined by cross-cultural perspective. Cultural factors include the ideas, beliefs, values, objectives of the society. Mental health development in children are healthy only if these cultures are valuable in itself.
• Low income of parents: Low financial position of parents can be one factor, sometimes there are single parents who cannot afford to give proper lifestyle to the child as compared to others, can become a cause of their delay in their mental health development. Providing basic need of children like good food and clothes are most essential for their mental health.
• Toxic stress: Sometimes toxic stress can damage a child’s base or foundation which is more likely to create mental health problems immediately or years later, just because of its enduring effect on mental health development. Toxic stress can affect academic achievements, both physical and mental health throughout the life span of a child, school readiness, etc. Children who go through constant abuse and neglect, domestic violence in the family among the members or with them, etc needs to be taken care of.

How can we resolve these delays?

Preventing mental health delay problems among children means starting to promote healthy and sound mental health among children. It is high time now that we now take a serious look over children and early childhood mental health and strategies to prevent mental heath problems.

• We can start by giving proper education to parents and childcare about children emotional and social development.
• By implementing early child mental health development in schools
• Make sure the child care providers are ready to support and promote emotional and social development.
• When there is a concern about children, also try linking the parents to different types of programs that are prepared to treat social and emotional problems in two generations.
• By teaching or counselling parents about their own issues if they have any, which doesn’t affect their children.

Other Important Articles

• What are the negative thoughts?
• CHILD ABUSE- effects on a child’s mental health
• The Effects of Traumatic School Experiences on Later Life
• BE A GOOD PARENT, AND SUPPORT YOUR CHILDREN
• A TASK FOR LIFE – PARENTING; Improve Relationship With Your Child
• WHAT EMOTIONS PARENTS SHOULD TEACH THEIR CHILDREN AS THEY GROW