¿A qué llamamos problema de conducta o comportamiento?

Behavioral problems in adolescents refer to rebellious, conflictive and socially unacceptable behaviors that, as in children, are observable, measurable and modifiable. However, a teenage child does not have to be synonymous with a conflictive and rebellious child.

What are the characteristics of a conduct disorder?

Children or adolescents with conduct disorders have behaviors of defiance to authority figures, confrontations with adults or peers, episodes of physical or verbal aggression. They tend to lose their temper easily, get upset or angry for anything. They are very argumentative, they bother others. They do not accept rules or no for an answer.

At worst, they may become frequently involved in fights - often starting them themselves - or engage in aggressive or harassing behavior toward others. They may damage the property of others through destructive behavior or theft.

What attitudes should parents be alerted to?

If parents observe that their children tend to get into conflicts with peers or confront teachers, are often sullen or moody, have defiant responses, or try to break the rules established at school or at home, they should be alerted to the possibility that their child has a behavior problem that needs to be evaluated and treated appropriately.

Is family commitment essential?

It is essential in the detection of problems, in the coordination of the help your child needs, such as talking to teachers and gathering the information they can provide, seeking help from professional specialists, and in the subsequent follow-up. Parents will also need help and advice to be able to act in the most appropriate way at all times.

At what ages can they be detected?

A conduct disorder can be detected from early childhood, although the treatment may be different at each age. The most critical age in adolescence is between 13-17 years.

In recent years, interest in children's mental health has increased exponentially, due in part to numerous studies correlating the influence of early experiences with the pattern of behaviors that a child will emit in adulthood.

For this reason, it is of vital importance to have an impact on the learning and practice of those factors related to an adequate mental health at an early age. The correct management of emotions determines to a greater or lesser extent the success in different areas of our life, such as interpersonal relationships or work.

The main objective is to strengthen the child psychologically and contribute to the development of a healthy personality, promoting well-being and improving their quality of life. On the other hand, it prepares youth to be able to cope with the emotional and interpersonal difficulties that arise in their daily lives, thus minimizing discomfort and preventing psychological problems arising from them.

En que ayuda la correcta gestión de emociones

• Improving self-awareness and emotional awareness
• Improving school performance
• Reducing and protecting against stress, anxiety and depression
• Encourage interpersonal relationships and empathy.
• Improving personal development
• Improve influence and leadership skills
• Promoting psychological well-being and self-esteem
• Increases motivation and helps to achieve goals

How to work them

We propose activities in which we must work through the group on the emotional difficulties that children may encounter in their daily lives and that are difficult to manage, in the development of emotional intelligence, in learning to express emotions and desires in a leisurely manner, creating in turn a channel of communication. Likewise, verbal and non-verbal communication are key in this process. Education in emotions and assertiveness will be fundamental for the child to learn to express himself without inhibition or aggressiveness, as well as tolerance to frustration.

Activities will aim to promote the emotional, behavioral and cognitive strength of children and/or adolescents.

Our main priority is that the activities that are carried out are always pleasant for the little ones and that they enjoy them, so that the established objectives can be achieved.

At anda CONMiGO, we consider social skills to be basic, as a source of behavior and the ability to learn to relate to others.

Our work approach is based on two important figures, the child psychologist and the occupational therapist. In the ability of both is the key to bring this personal development to the goal set.

Within our program, we will talk about two different approaches, depending on age: basic, complex or advanced skills.

Habilidades Sociales básicas

• Listening is not the same as hearing. By listening, we participate in what we are told, we pay attention and generate empathy.
• We will also talk about starting a conversation, something that a priori can be very basic and yet it is extremely complex. The correct opening of a conversation will introduce us as people.
• How to introduce yourself and the people around you.
• Asking questions in the right way, something that is taught from a very early age at school. It is something basic for our social relationship.
• Saying thank you, as a way of acknowledging another person.
• All those skills and abilities that we perform through play, waiting, taking turns, etc.

Habilidades Sociales complejas o avanzadas

At this point, we will talk about skills such as Empathy and Emotional Intelligence, basic skills of development as we grow older and that we must know how to practice effectively.

• Assertiveness. We understand assertiveness in the world of social relationships as that which will allow us to talk about our needs, defend ourselves with respect, communicate and listen, claim our rights, etc.
• Ability to define a problem, negotiate and evaluate solutions. Basic in all types of situations, reach agreements more easily, negotiate and establish goals and under our perspective always from a win-win model.
• Knowing how to convince is not manipulating. Something as important as knowing how to argue and connect with our audience to reach an understanding of what we believe is most beneficial.
• And one that we should never lose sight of... Ask for help. It means having a good sense of social relationships, knowing and knowing what your limitations are and most importantly, the great abilities of others.

At Anda Conmigo Foundation, we are aware that social skills are key in the development of our children. If you have any questions, call us and we will answer you.

El Acoso Escolar o Bullying (en ingles significa Intimidación).

Unfortunately, this word is in vogue due to the countless cases of persecution and aggression that are being detected in schools and colleges, which are leading many schoolchildren to experience truly terrifying situations.

According to the latest studies, it is estimated that 1.7% of children and adolescent students suffer from this situation on a recurring basis and that almost 6% experience it at some point in their lives!

What is it?

There are three key components:

• A power imbalance between the bully and the bullied (victim), which may be real or perceived by the victim.
• The stalker intends to harm the victim in an intentional way.
• This aggressive behavior is constantly repeated against the same victim.

The Different Types of Harassment

There are several types, the most common of which are

• Verbal, also the most common. The objective is to undermine the victim's self-esteem, through humiliation, name-calling, insults, always in public, false rumors, sexual language, in short, any action that leaves the person's self-esteem increasingly undermined.
• Physical: That in which the aggression is direct through blows, shoves, kicks, etc. It can also be indirect when this damage is done against personal objects of the victim or even robbery.
• Psychological. Perhaps one of the most dangerous, given that it also forces the victim to do or say things that he/she does not want to or should not, threats to get money, etc.
• Social. When we see an isolation of the person. Basically, the stalker prevents the victim from interacting, ignores their presence and leaves them isolated.

Si tu hijo está en alguna de estas situaciones, ven a vernos y os ayudaremos a superarlo. Nuestro equipo de psicología es especialista en este tipo de situaciones. Llámanos ahora al 918 66 92 74 y estaremos encantados de atenderte.

El fracaso escolar, cuando el alumno no puede alcanzar los objetivos académicos propuestos en su nivel. Mal gestionado, podría terminar en el abandono de los estudios, con el consecuente perjuicio en el desarrollo personal de la persona.

Los jóvenes adolescentes abandonan sus estudios por sufrir el «Fracaso Escolar» entre un 7% y un 10%. Una cifra alarmante. ¿por qué esta situación?

Motives

We must differentiate the reason that produces this possible abandonment of studies.

On the one hand, we find the student. The most common conditioning factors are:

• Lack of study habits
• Lack of interest, lack of motivation.
• A blockage in learning, which can usually be derived from a childhood or school-related situation or trauma.
• On the other hand, the school system will depend on each school and its interaction with the environment, the family, society and the definition of objectives, values, contents, etc.
• And finally, factors that may be caused by situations in the environment outside the school.
  For all these reasons, school failure has been called the problem of a thousand causes.

How to prevent it

The first symptoms and warning signs are that part of motivation and performance. In this situation, the coordination of teachers, parents and the psycho-pedagogy and/or psychology team can help to solve this situation by providing a solution to the problem.

We speak of neurodevelopmental disorders in pre- and post-early childhood when they present some type of difficulty in the evolutionary development of their brain.

The causes of this disorder may be diverse; among them we can highlight the following:

• Motor and/or language difficulties originating in infantile stage
• Problems in social interaction
• Difficulties in attention or executive functions.
• Children with difficulties in verbal fluency, initiative and participation, etc.

The areas of work include speech therapy, psychopedagogy, physiotherapy, psychology and occupational therapy.

Comprender el neurodesarrollo

Anatomically, the brain is divided into lobes (frontal, parietal, occipital and temporal), or hemispheres (left and right, which are joined and communicate through the corpus callosum).

The left hemisphere controls the movements of the right hand and is the dominant hemisphere in almost all right-handed people.

The nervous system evolves through different sequential phases. It is not a linear process, but has more absorbing moments, where it acquires greater speed in learning, and others in which it is slower and even in regression (it must be taken into account that in each child it can present some variants).

Time combined with a combination of genetics and external stimulation will help to acquire new skills. First, areas such as attention and language (parietal lobes) and later, those involved in executive actions (prefrontal lobe) mature.

Brain functioning is understood through the interaction of three levels:

• The primitive brain (basic activity, eating and sleeping),
• The emotional and the rational (the latter needs the former to receive affection in order to present a full intellectual capacity).

Proceso del desarrollo del cerebro infantil

The development of the infant brain begins, as we mentioned, when the embryo (the fertilized egg) has not yet become a fetus, and continues until adulthood.

From intrauterine life, the basic architecture will be created to be able to acquire the rest of learning.

• From birth to 3 years of age, the baby will go from being a totally dependent person in all aspects to possessing a certain independence and physical autonomy, fostered by the motor system, which is linked to the maturation of the parietal lobes.
• Between the ages of 3 and 6, the child develops language and understanding of his environment. At this stage, learning is more conscious and the first neuronal pruning takes place, that is, some of the previously created connections are destroyed in order to eliminate unused circuits and strengthen others.
• The next stage is from 6 to 12 years of age, a period of stability where the knowledge of the two previous phases is consolidated and consolidated. Later, from 12 to 18 years of age, the typical hormonal changes of adolescence take place, the executive functions evolve (organization, decision making and planning, among others), identity (basic to personality) and the second neuronal pruning occurs, i.e., the brain chooses the least influential or used connections and destroys them.

The study of neurodevelopment is essential to be able to assess its transformation and whether there is any type of alteration or pathology. Although we know more and more about how this organ works, we still have a lot to discover.

What disorders are included in this classification?

• Autism Spectrum Disorder: Children with ASD are characterized by the presence of difficulties in communication and social interaction, as well as restrictive and repetitive behavior patterns and interests. They usually have a literal oral language, difficulties in understanding social rules and in grasping and expressing feelings. They present difficulties in accepting changes, so they function better with routines.
• Intellectual Disability: Affected children usually have deficits in intellectual functions and in adaptive behavior, both social and conceptual. This causes the subject to have a limitation in one or more vital areas unless they have various specific supports. In addition, here we include global developmental delay (maturational delay), which is diagnosed when they do not meet the criteria for a specific disorder and are under 5 years of age.
• Communication Disorders: Disorders in which the subject is not able to communicate adequately. Within this category are the following: Phonological disorder, language disorder (TEL), stuttering, pragmatic communication disorder and speech fluency disorder.
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Within this category we could consider three options: Inattentive, hyperactive or both at the same time. On the inattentive side, these are usually children with high distractibility, difficulty in maintaining attention, loss of objects or activities, etc. Hyperactivity is usually characterized by excessive speech, motor restlessness, difficulty keeping turns or sitting still.
• Specific learning disorder: The subject manifests difficulties in the acquisition and use of academic skills such as writing, reading and mathematics. In addition, this deficit in the acquisition of skills interferes in their academic activity.
• Motor disorders: Here we find difficulties related to aspects linked to movement, such as coordination or involuntary movements. Within this category are the following: Developmental coordination disorder, stereotyped movements and tic disorders (Tourette's disorder, persistent motor or vocal tics and transient tics).

These would be the most prominent, although we could also find others such as eating disorders, excretion disorders or disorders related to alcohol or drug consumption.

We often hear terms such as giftedness, high abilities or special talent, but what are we referring to when we use these concepts?

The History

We speak of high intellectual abilities when a person stands out above the average of the population in all areas and aptitudes of intelligence. In addition, this trait is present from an early age, being already children with a marked intellectual precocity.

From an early age, they acquire intellectual or psychomotor milestones before the expected age when compared to other children of the same age, for example, starting to speak before the age of 2 or starting to read and write before the rest of their peers.

The World Health Organization (WHO) states that gifted children are those who have an intelligence quotient (IQ) or IQ score equal to or greater than 130.

Recent research on intelligence has found that family heredity has a great impact on the later development of high abilities in a child, but equally important is the influence of a rich and stimulating environment.

In most cases of high abilities, parents report how their children were very demanding babies, showed a high level of psychomotor coordination and said their first words or responded to their name before the rest of the children of their age.

A fundamental aspect in children with high abilities is the need to observe and evaluate each case individually, so that a prevention and support program can be established.

Warning signs

Among the most common warning signs of children with high abilities we can observe:

• They tend to show interest in activities in a limited way, being passionate about them for months and spending most of their time on them.
• They show boredom when they learn something and continue to search for new activities and learning.
• They may appear to have attention problems or to be "absent-minded" due to their lack of interest in learned, repetitive or routine activities.
• In the area of personal relationships, it is usually observed that they tend to social isolation, due to the amount of time they dedicate to their interests. Likewise, as these interests are unusual, they often have difficulty interacting with other children who share them.
• As a consequence of social isolation, children with high abilities may become vulnerable to bullying or harassment.
• They tend to be self-sufficient and show a preference for individual rather than group activities.
  learn new concepts in less time than their peers.
• They have fluid and flexible thinking, as well as a great capacity for abstraction and synthesis.
• In the emotional area they are very sensitive and show their emotions with great intensity. Sometimes these emotions are disproportionate to the situation that provokes them.
• Due to their eagerness for perfectionism and self-demanding, they tend to show difficulties in tolerating frustration.
• High emotional intensity and low frustration tolerance often lead to temper tantrums and disruptive behaviors.

Cómo Evaluarlo de forma correcta y establecer un buen programa

All these warning signs can contribute to the detection and evaluation of a possible case of high abilities. Such evaluation will help in the design of enrichment programs in which children can continue learning, according to their individual characteristics, in order to promote adequate personal, emotional, social and academic development.

A factor to underline in the evaluation is not to confuse the warning signs associated with high abilities with the presence of other disorders due to the similarity of their symptoms (for example, considering social isolation as a symptom of an autism spectrum disorder or overactivity and inattention with ADHD).