Mental Health & School Related Challenges

​Mental health and developmental challenges in youth & adolescence can involve common conditions like anxiety, depression, ADHD, impacting learning through poor focus, behavior challenges, burnout from academic pressure, and more severe issues like bullying. In addition other common circumstances like family stress, divorce, loss, and peer pressure can lead to compounded challenges. If unaddressed, these issues can create significant barriers to academic success and well-being.
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ADHD

ADHD is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders of childhood. It is usually first diagnosed in childhood and often lasts into adulthood. Children with ADHD may have trouble paying attention, controlling impulsive behaviors (may act without thinking about what the result will be), or be overly active. 
​Grief & Loss

Kids learn by asking questions. When they ask questions about a death, it’s usually a sign that they’re curious about something they don’t understand. As an adult, a couple of the most important things you can do for children is to let them know that all questions are okay to ask, and to answer questions truthfully. Be sensitive to their age and the language they use. No child wants to hear a clinical, adult-sounding answer to their question, but they don’t want to be lied to either. Often the hardest time to be direct is right after a death. When a child asks what happened, use concrete words such as “died” or “killed” instead of vague terms like “passed away.” A young child who hears his mother say, “Dad passed away” or, “I lost my husband,” may be expecting that his father will return or simply needs to be found.  ​
​Divorce & Family Stress  

One out of every two marriages today ends in divorce and many divorcing families include children. Parents who are getting a divorce are frequently worried about the effect the divorce will have on their children. During this difficult period, parents may be preoccupied with their own problems, but continue to be the most important people in their children's lives.
Homework Stress 

Whether it’s a big test around the corner or an upcoming deadline for an assignment, sometimes it can be impossible to avoid homework stress. Like it or not, homework is a big part of children’s education. And when your child is overwhelmed or frustrated by homework, it can have a negative impact on his or her ability to focus and retain information. It can also lead to your child procrastinating on his or her homework (or simply not completing it), creating an ongoing cycle of stress. Ultimately, this can all end in poor in-class performance and lower grades. Because of this, learning how to manage homework stress important.
Screen & Social Media Addictions  

There is certainly is no disputing that children are putting in more media time than ever.  Along with televisions, smartphones, texting, and video games, many children now have personal computers, digital music players, and the Internet to fill every waking moment. And evidence suggests that even toddlers and preschoolers now joining the digital masses.  
Bullying & Peer Conflict

Bullying is a form of aggressive behavior in which someone in intentionally and repeatedly causes another person injury or discomfort. Bullying can take the form of physical contact, words or more subtle actions.  The bullied individual typically has trouble defending him or herself and does nothing to “cause” the bullying.
Eating Disorders 

Eating disorders are behavioral conditions characterized by severe and persistent disturbance in eating behaviors and associated distressing thoughts and emotions. They can be very serious conditions affecting physical, psychological and social function. 
Executive Functioning

Executive Function skills are self-management skills that help students (and adults) achieve goals. In order to be effective, students must be able to manage their emotions, focus attention, organize and plan their work and time, and reflect upon and revise their tactics as circumstances change. As the demands of school increase each year, having well developed Executive Function skills becomes critical in order to perform well in school.  
LGBTQ+ Gender Identity 

Although we often associate gender development with puberty and adolescence, children begin showing interest in their gender early in life. 
​Anxiety & Depression

Many children have fears and worries, and will feel sad and hopeless from time to time. Strong fears will appear at different times in development. For example, toddlers are often very distressed about being away from their parents, even if they are safe and cared for. Although fears and worries are typical in children, persistent or extreme forms of fear and sadness feelings could be due to anxiety or depression. 
Behavior Disorders

Children sometimes argue, are aggressive, or act angry or defiant around adults. A behavior disorder may be diagnosed when these disruptive behaviors are uncommon for the child’s age at the time, persist over time, or are severe.  Because disruptive behavior disorders involve acting out and showing unwanted behavior towards others they are often called externalizing disorders.
Trauma Affected Children

All children may experience very stressful events that affect how they think and feel. Most of the time, children recover quickly and well. However, sometimes children who experience severe stress, such as from an injury, from the death or threatened death of a close family member or friend, or from violence, will be affected long-term. The child could experience this trauma directly or could witness it happening to someone else. When children develop long term symptoms (longer than one month) from such stress, which are upsetting or interfere with their relationships and activities, they may be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  Neurodivergence

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability that can cause significant social, communication and behavioral challenges. There is often nothing about how people with ASD look that sets them apart from other people, but people with ASD may communicate, interact, behave, and learn in ways that are different from most other people. The learning, thinking, and problem-solving abilities of people with ASD can range from gifted to severely challenged. Some people with ASD need a lot of help in their daily lives; others need less. 
Eating Disorders

There is a commonly held view that eating disorders are a lifestyle choice. Eating disorders are actually serious and often fatal illnesses that cause severe disturbances to a person’s eating behaviors. Obsessions with food, body weight, and shape may also signal an eating disorder. Common eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder.
Suicide 

Suicide is a major public health problem and a leading cause of death in the United States. The effects of suicide go beyond the person who acts to take his or her life: it can have a lasting effect on family, friends, and communities. This fact sheet, developed by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), can help you, a friend, or a family member learn about the signs and symptoms, risk factors and warning signs, and ongoing research about suicide and suicide prevention.
Cutting & Self Injury 

It can be hard to understand why anyone would hurt himself or herself on purpose. Learning that your own teen is doing it can leave you feeling shocked and upset — and not sure what to do or how to help.  For most, cutting is an attempt to interrupt strong emotions and pressures that seem impossible to tolerate. It can be related to broader emotional issues that need attention. Most of the time, cutting is not a suicide attempt.