Therapies to Consider for Struggling Children

As a parent, you want what is best for your child. Fortunately, we live in a time where behavior, disabilities, disadvantages, and individual capacity are better understood and treated. There are a variety of different therapies to meet the needs of your child, build them up, and allow them to better prepare for life. These therapies help to ensure your child’s greatest chance for success, whatever that may look like for them.

Children are always learning from their environment. What they see is what they model. If you struggle to deal with situations, your children will likely struggle as well. Often, our children are a mirror of our own strengths and weaknesses.

Of course, some children struggle more than average. It is important to be aware of this and provide additional support in an effort to mitigate any current or potential future problems that can interfere with their development and success.

Emotional Therapy

Emotionally intelligent children are not only kinder to their peers but eventually become more successful adults. According to La Trobe University, “A high EQ [Emotional Quotient] helps you to build relationships, reduce team stress, defuse conflict and improve job satisfaction.”

Social and emotional learning programs have often been implemented in school environments. With the toll that the pandemic has had on the mental health of children, many schools have stressed an increased need to adopt such programs to better serve their students and mitigate the negative impact of the pandemic.

These skills are not taught in just one quick lesson in the day. Instead, teachers are trained and given the tools to incorporate social and emotional learning throughout the day and in multiple classroom lessons.

Teachers help guide children to understand how their thoughts and feelings lead to their actions. These types of programs, when taught in schools, help to decrease the number of drop-outs and children being bullied and increase school performance.

Cognitive-Behavior Therapy

This therapy benefits all kinds of children, regardless of their psychological diagnosis. According to the CDC, “Cognitive-behavior therapy focuses on changing the thoughts and emotions that can affect a child’s behavior negatively.” It helps children to evaluate their thoughts and why they are feeling that way and responding in specific ways and helps to provide tools and coping mechanisms to change their thoughts and reactions to be more positive.

This therapy is beneficial for individuals with ADD, ADHD, depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other disruptive behavior disorders.

Applied Behavior Analysis/ABA Therapy

ABA therapy tends to focus more on individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This therapy focuses on modeling and performing appropriate step-by-step situations, tasks, and behaviors. It also stresses performing tasks that are in a more natural environment. ABA therapy stresses learning natural consequences, which is aided by a positive reinforcement system to help encourage more positive behavior.

Child Counseling/ Therapy

This is traditional therapy where your child meets with a psychologist to help them navigate the big scary stuff that they are not equipped to handle. Different situations where your child may benefit from such therapy include divorce, trauma, bullying, death/loss, prolonged illness, abuse, mental illness, etc. Therapy will help validate your children’s feelings and teach and encourage proper coping mechanisms and tools.

Conclusion

As parents are attentive and familiar with the needs of their children, they will be able to better determine what therapies would best serve them. It is natural and beneficial to get and receive help, especially if you see particular concerns in your child’s behavior. Don’t be afraid to reach out for help – the earlier, the better. Oftentimes these therapies will have a positive and long-lasting impact on your child.