Pediatricians Are Recommending Screening for Anxiety in Children Beginning Age 8
Experts say the pandemic has exacerbated stressful situations for children
This recommendation advises screening for anxiety in children even if there are no obvious signs or symptoms.
Experts believe this may help detect cases of anxiety before a child develops serious issues in their emotional and mental development.
“We see [cases of anxiety] a lot in my field. In particular with the truancy cases. A lot of [children] stopped going to school because they suffer from severe anxiety. And then usually it’s [a] dual diagnosis: there’s some substance abuse and then [there is] depression.”
Michelle Parnala, Alameda County, Deputy Probation Officer
As a probation officer with years of experience in both juvenile and adult probation, Parnala has seen how behaviors like truancy are often rooted in mental health issues.
These issues may be biological/neurological and they can also be a product of the environmental stressors within a child’s community. Parnala believes that the current judicial system is lacking in its ability to address these specialized concerns and that through early screening, can better prepare family and the child to cope with mental health issues.
“They have a teacher, they’re around a lot of students, they’re being told different things to do [at different] points in time, you know? So, I feel like how they [behave] at school is not always the same as how they are at home.”
Brittany Polk, Hayward, Mother of two boys age 8 and 12
Not all parents, however, are seeing the need to closely screen children’s behavior. Brittany Polk, a mother of two believes that much of what is seen as anxious behavior is just normal behavior for kids.
Polk expressed a level of reservation about screening young children. After an incident in her child’s pre-school where he was given observation for anxious behavior without her consent, she felt her family’s parenting and privacy were infringed upon.
“That hurt my feelings because it’s like, what are you trying to say about my child? Sometimes these are things that kids grow out of,” Polk said.
“Because they have autism and they’re not completely out loud able to vocalize themselves. And a lot of times it’s just, they don’t know how to express it.”
Adrian Robbins, Kingsburg, Father of Three Children with Autism
Adrian Robbins, a father of three young kids with autism, sees and experiences children with anxiety in a slightly different way.
“I think it’s really important that kids right now especially start getting checked out because how everything kind of flipped upside down with the pandemic over the last two years.”
Being heavily involved in addressing the mental health needs of his children, Robbins has picked up on how the pandemic has affected his children’s intellectual and emotional development.
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