Schizophrenia Essay examples

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Children with Schizophrenia Chelsea Adkins 11/20/12 IDS-100H

Chelsea Adkins
IDS-100H
11/20/12 Children with Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia in children is a serious chronic mental illness that is very rare in young children and affects the lives of children every day. Schizophrenia is an uncurable mental illness that confuses and distorts dreams with reality causing hallucinations, strange thoughts and behavior. People that have Schizophrenia usually develop the illness around their teenage or adult years. It is very rare that Schizophrenia is diagnosed before the age of 12 because the symptoms are too early to detect unless they are severe. Most young children that do develop Schizophrenia normally show a delay in language and other functions, usually around the age of 7, earlier than the psychotic signs. There are many different signs a child can show that could lead a parent or doctor to believe they have Schizophrenia. Many children will show these signs before they have been diagnosed. Some of the more severe signs are; seeing and hearing things that aren’t real, severe anxiety, and trouble telling the difference between dreams and reality. Even toddlers can show early signs of having Schizophrenia such as; chronic high fever, fixation on repeating behavior, extreme fear of certain events, persistent distraction, anxiety or distress, and weak posture. The behavior of children with Schizophrenia is far more exhausting and harder to deal with than the behavior of a normal child. Children with Schizophrenia tend to cling more to their parents than a normal child does and they also will say things that don’t make since. They also tend to be more anxious, moodier, and act out more than normal children. The psychosis symptoms of these children usually develop gradually over time. Their behavior may change over time depending on the child. The behavior could either gradually get worse or gradually get better it all depends on the child. There are many different types of therapy that doctors and psychologist will try for children with this illness. One of the therapies they use is psychotherapy or “talk therapy”. Children that go through psychotherapy will talk to a therapist about anything that they feel like. By doing this it allows the therapist to figure out what the child is seeing and hearing without actually experiencing it themselves. Another type of therapy is support groups and special education classes. When a child goes into a support group it’s mainly to help them not feel alone, like there is somebody out there to help them. The special education classes and activities help the child to develop motor and social skills with other children and help them learn as well. There are many different types of medication that a child with Schizophrenia could be put on. Many of which they use for teens and adults because they are psychotic medication. With children doctors will most likely try an antipsychotic medication before they use the others because they have found that the antipsychotic drug works better with children and has fewer side effects as well. There are