Your Anxious Child

We are born with a set of primitive reflexes that are necessary for our survival but over the course of the first year should be gradually inhibited or integrated with higher cortical functions over time. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons primitive reflexes do not always get integrated as higher cotrical functions get online. Sonia Story is a leading expert on the role of primitive reflexes in contributing to a variety of mental health issues. It is an exciting area that provides a new set of interventions for children based on movement patterns.      Some helpful links to supplement the podcast How neurodevelopmental movements can help with mental health issues. https://www.moveplaythrive.com/MentalHealth   The importance of Primitive Reflexes https://www.moveplaythrive.com/learn-more/item/importance-of-integrating-reflexes   About ADHD and Primitive Reflexes https://www.moveplaythrive.com/learn-more/item/can-adhd-be-dissolved About Sonia Story's Brain and Sensory Foundation course https://www.moveplaythrive.com/OBSF1

In this interview we talk about needle phobia and pediatric pain with Dr Jody Thomas who is the Founder and Director of the Meg Foundation. The Meg Foundation is one of the primary resources to help children deal with needle phobia and pediatric pain. It is so important for parents and childen to know that something can be done to make the experience  vaccinations and blood draws less scary and painful. Dr Thomas and the Meg Foundation are the go to resource for helping parents and children cope with vaccinations and other medical procedures. In this interview Dr Thomas outlines the steps to help children with this important part of their medical care. https://www.megfoundationforpain.org/

  Bethany Saltman has written a compelling book about the science of attachment. It is a memoir of her journey into the science of attachment, a summary of what is known about attachment and the process of how this important theory was established. In this interview we talk about some of the basic features of attachment. The relationship an infant forms with their caregiver puts down a psychological foundation that biases development in certain directions. For the purpose of this podcast, we note that an insecure attachment increased the probablility of developing an anxiety disorder. However, developmental trajectories are complex and nothing is fixed in stone.  Bethany Saltman has many facets to her work, including being a writing coach and she can be found at https://www.bethanysaltman.com/strange-situationn.com

Dr Zucker is a licensed psychologist in Washington D.C. She has published several books on the treatment of anxiety disorders. In this interview , I talk with her about her two most recent books: A Perfectionist's Guide to Not Being Perfect and How to Manage Your Social Power in Middle School. The two books deal with separate but related challenges of the middle school years. The middle school years can pour jet fuel on any tendencies towards perfectionism. And it has been said of middle school children that peer relations become so important that it is as if children get addicted to popularity. Her comments on social power can help children manage these rough waters. For more information on Dr. Zucker https://www.bonniezuckerandassociates.com/publications We discuss two videos in the interview that she recommends. J. Jiang What I learned from 100 days of rejection. https://youtu.be/-vZXgApsPCQ Brooks Gibbs How to Stop a Bully https://youtu.be/7oKjW1OIjuw

  Anxious Nation is a provocatively intelligent look into the global crisis of anxiety and mental health as it affects Americans, especially it crippling impact on children and adolescents. In this podcast I talk with Laura Morton about her new film which opens on May 3 with livestream event. For more information go to anxiousnation.com  

If you have a child with OCD, Natasha Daniels is a resource you want to know about. She has a variety of online course such as "How to Teach Your Kids to Crush OCD" and "Crushing OCD Classs for Kids & Teens" and actually much more.  She can be found at natashadaniels.com

Judith Warner is author of AND THEN THEY STOPPED TALKING TO ME: Making Sense of Middle School which is the topic of this podcast. It is a time period most of us remember all too well and a time when many anxiety disorders become quite evident. She has also written New York Times best sellers: Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety and We've Got Issues: Children and Parents in the Age of Medication. She has been a frequent contributor to The New York Times and is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. She has written a highly readable book which explains this vulnerable phase of development with clarity and precision.   You can read her other articles on her website https://judithwarner.com/

To talk about reading on a podcast concerning anxious children may seem a little far a field. However, reading is an essential skill in which if you struggle with it, school  becomes a very stressful and anxiety provoking environment. Reading also helps in many different ways in dealing with anxiety. Unfortunately, we are in bit of a reading crisis, where recent surveys have shown the 2/3 of 4th graders are not proficient readings. Claire N. Rubman, PhD is a psychologist who specializes in reading and we are talking about her new book This May Be Difficult to Read: But You Really Should (for your child's sake)  For more information Dr Rubman website is https://difficulttoread.com/    

David Carbonell, PhD is a clinical psychologist who has specialized in the treatment of anxiety disorder since 1985. He is the author of several books on anxiety: Panic Attacks Workbook, The Worry Trick, Fear of Flying Workbook, Outsmarting Your Anxious Brain The Intrusive Thoughts Toolkit (coauthored)and he has a very helpful website anxietycoach.com In this interview we talk about some of the basic in the treatment of anxiety disorders and how he has found it helpful to conceptualize anxiety as a trick. 

Randy Frost is a emeritus professor of psychology at Smith College. He is the co-author of Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding the Meaning of Things.   He is widely considered to the world's expert on the topic of hoarding and has published over 100 scientific papers on OCD, hoarding and perferctionsism. Eric Storch, PhD is a professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Department at Baylor College of Medicine. He is an expert on OCD and  related conditions in childhood with over 100 publications on these topics   Also Randy Frost and I have published a paper on hoarding in children Edward H. Plimpton, Randy O. Frost, Brianna C. Abbey and Whitney Dorer "Compulsive Hoarding in Children: 6 Case Studies" International Journal of Cognitive Therapy, 2009,, 2 (1) 88-104