Pediatric Behavioral Health

The first few years of life are a precious and exciting time. More than any other period in life,you will see rapid growth in their physical, cognitive, and social abilities. In short months, they go from being able to support their heads to rolling over to crawling and, before you know it, your curious tot is quickly waddling around the room getting into everything within their reach. At this stage, very young children are learning to trust the world around them and, often times, first time parents are learning to trust their new found abilities as caregivers. Enjoy this precious time with your young ones and marvel at how quickly the grow!

Potential Challenges:
Infants and toddlers face exciting new challenges as they begin to grow and develop. Infants are beginning to explore their new world. They become mobile and start interacting with the people and things that they come in contact with.
Some challenges they may face include:
Attachment Issues that prevent them from forming strong bonds and can cause more than is typical separation anxiety.
Complex Emotions: May lead to have difficulty recognizing, processing and expressing their feelings.
Tantrums & aggression. Developing self-control can be a difficult hurdle to overcome and will continue throughout all developmental stages. Making transitions can be particularly challenging for toddlers as they begin to form interests. They may discover that they enjoy playing and do not enjoy cleaning up and going to bed. These transitions may cause significant reactions that are difficult for parents to manage. Introduction of siblings and friends force the child to develop interpersonal skills such as sharing, playing and cooperating. Monitoring your child’s changing behavior and noting warning signs will help you in determining whether or not your child needs treatment.

Signs They May Need Therapy:
Infants or toddlers may need therapy if they begin to exhibit certain emotional or behavioral symptoms. Some of these common symptoms may include:

• Severe difficulty expressing emotions,
• Aggressive behaviors
• Uncontrollable tantrums
• Excessive fear, worry, or sadness
• Does not respond to comfort when in distress
• Limited positive affect (expression of positive feelings such as happiness and excitement)
• Abnormal eye contact
• Repetitive behaviors
• Lack of interest in peers
• Rigid patterns & fixated interests

What Can Counseling Do?

Our therapists will work with you to develop skills that will help your family and child thrive. Our therapists will develop a personalized treatment plan that is comprehensive and measurable.
As with all child therapy services, and especially at this age, therapists will encourage parents to be very involved and work collaboratively with them. Our therapists are trained to provide assistance in parenting techniques to help you handle difficult behaviors such as aggression or tantrums. In working with parents, our therapists will pull from evidenced based programs such as the Triple P program.