Education Guide

The mental health problems jeopardize the process of teaching and learning in different ways. In the first year of life, it is possible to identify mental disorders or inclination to develop a child’s disease in the future. The doctors, through the complaints of the family, they can identify symptoms or deviations from normal behavior for each age considered.

Apart from dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), affecting about 5% of school-age children, any disorder that interferes with mental health hinders learning.

The most common diagnoses are depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder and panic disorder. Often much smaller, dyscalculia is caused by malfunctions of the brain area responsible for the ability to understand numbers and make calculations.

For neurologist childhood, Marco Antonio Arruda, delay in diagnosis causes much suffering and damage to children and families, distressed by the lack of explanation for poor performance in the teaching and learning.

He warns that the child who suffers most is the lack of a medical intervention. “It’s tragic situation to miss a case of bipolar disorder. It is a situation where suicide is very common, is the leading cause of suicide in children and adolescents. Therefore, the diagnosis is delayed, it is matter of life or death for that child. Same thing for childhood depression, “he said.

According to the neurologist, the symptoms of depression in children are quite different than in adults, which may hinder the perception of the disease by parents. It is possible to confuse them with tantrums or bad manners, bad temper and aggression. Some signs help indicate whether the child is depressed, sadness, negativity, irritability, lack of initiative, loss of interest, tiredness, fatigue, headache and disturbed sleep and appetite.

Depression and anxiety disorders are less frequent, but that compromise the child’s motivation and engagement in the dedication to study.

In the case of ADHD, the impact is very large in the child’s life. Before learning difficulties, she is already feeling the loss and even in social development. “The attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity, the child’s attention changes that cause defects in various types of memory. The child has trouble paying attention, she learns, has difficulty setting in memory. This child is still difficult to organize, strategize, plan and solve problems. Thus, it will interfere too much learning, “he said.

In dyslexia, “the child may have a good attention and a good memory, but she has difficulty with written language.” According to the neurologist, the problem in the brain responsible for language complicates the identification of written symbols, and word formation sentences, and understanding the meaning of texts.

The school environment may facilitate the identification of symptoms and diagnosis of disorders, not only for poor outcome in the learning process, but by observing the behavior of children in the school community.

“The teacher has a very favorable situation to see how this child is working. What skills to learn, to relate socially, to tolerate frustration, to be more flexible, “he said.

But the neurologist for children, the perception of these disorders in school depends on the training of teachers. The doctor feels necessary for education professionals have more information about mental health of children and adolescents.

For him, the medical treatment is only one detail that does not work alone, all mental disorders require the intervention of a multidisciplinary team: medical, educational psychologists, speech therapist, psychologist, occupational therapist. Moreover, it is essential that the family knows the disorder, the prognosis and treatment, to coping with the child at home.

“It is necessary to form a collaborative network around the child, made by health professionals, school, family and the child. She carries the mental disorder needs to be focussed on what she has and how it can better deal with these problems. “