Your Anxious Child

Ed Tronick, PhD is one of the leading authorities on infant development. His collaboration with the famous pediatrician, Berry Brazelton, MD was instrumental in the development of Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale. His Still Face Experiment with mothers and infant monumental in demonstrating the social competence infants. A link to a video demonstration is listed below

https://youtu.be/YTTSXc6sARg

Robyn L. Stern, LCSW, is a licensed social and therapist in New York where she specializes in Body Dysmorphic Disorder, OCD and BFRBs. This is a condition someone becomes preoccupied with perceived defects in their appearance which are not apparent to others.

This is an important psychiatric condition to know about. It is more frequent than OCD, and can lead to unnecessary cosmetic surgery.

In this interview I talk with Robyn Stern who is passionate advocate for BDD awareness

She knows first hand about what it is like to suffer from BDD and she has two very compelling videos in which she bravely tells her story. I would strongly recommend watching these videos.

https://youtu.be/77JthR5HXv8

and

https://fb.watch/go3vJ3C-2q/

Heather White is the author of One Green Thing: Discover Your Hidden Power to Help Save the Planet.

She is the founder of OneGreenThing.org and has two decades of experience in environmental advocacy including serving as a presidential campaign staffer for Al Gore and numerous other activities.

Climate change is the big challenge for the younger generation and many therapist such as myself are noticing how much it comes up with our young clients. Heather White discusses the importance of a intergenerational discussion of climate change, how doing one green thing a day can create the necessary cultural shift to deal with this crisis and most importantly how to identify the ways in which you and your child can play a part. The program of action Heather White describes are crucial in managing the understandable anxiety that comes with thinking about climate change.

Silke Rose West and Joseph Sarosy have written a wonderful book How to Tell Stories to Children. Anxious children can greatly benefit from stories that parents tell them and this book tells you how to get started. As they explain storytelling "... becomes like a Swiss Army knife for parents-a multi-tool that helps a child learn new skills, build empathy, soothe difficulty emotions, and make meaning out the challenging moments in life". Story telling is as much and probably more about building a connection with your child than making a narrative. As they explain "The goal is not perfect story. The goal is connection". And if we are going to help our anxious children, it begins with connection.

You can learn more about this story telling method at HowToTellStoriesToChildren.com and there is also a podcast on itunes with the same name

Jon Hershfield, MFT is the Director of The Center for OCD and Anxiety at Sheppard Pratt in Baltimore Maryland. He is the author of several books on OCD and is prominent figure in the world of OCD treatment. In this interview, we talk about his book for teens the ocd workbook for teens: mindfulness & cbt skills to help you overcome unwanted thoughts & compulsions with illustrations by Sean Shinnock, New Harbinger Publications.

Jon Hershfield has provided a workbook that provides both an explanation of the treatment of OCD and relevant exercises presented in a very adolescent friendly fashion. This is a valuable resort for clinician, parent and teen.

Perfectionism in children and adolescence is a growing problem with serious implications. Drs Molnar and Flett are leading investigators on perfectionism and children. In this interview they provide an overview of perfectionism, discuss an intriguing study they did on the effect of the pandemic and provide a cautionary word about perfectionism and suicide.

Danielle Molnar, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Child and Youth Studies at Brock University in Catharines, Ontario, Canada. Her blog/vlog on her most recent research findings can be found at https://brocku.ca/dphwb-lab-blog-the-young-and-the-perfectionistic

Gordon Flett, PhD is a professor in the Department of Psychology at York University in Toronto, Canada. His most recent book with Paul Hewitt is Perfectionism in Childhood and Adolescence: A Developmental Approach.

I interviewed Stephanie Meyers, MS, RDN about her recent book End the Mealtime Meltdown: Using Table Talk Method to Free Your Family from Daily Struggles over Food and Picky Eating newharbingerpublications. She is a registered dietitian nutritionist and founder of Families Eating Well, a nutrition practice training parents to coach healthy eating habits in kids. She can also be found on Instagram under tabletalkcoach.

Mealtimes can be a tremendous source of stress for parents and children for many reasons. Fortunately, there are some very simple ways that you can change the way you talk about food with your child that can have a dramatic difference. In this interview, Ms. Meyers describes how changing your table talk can dramatically decrease mealtime time stress and anxiety. She provides very concrete suggestion about what to say that is reminsent of the classic parenting book How to talk so children will listen and listen so children will talk. Ms Meyers provides us with a great opportunity to change the tone at dinner time by the way we talk about food with our children.

Angela Mansolillo is a speech-language pathologist and Board Certified Specialist in Swallowing and Swallowing Diorders who works at Cooley Dickenson Hosptial, Northampton MA. She is a clinical supervisor and adjunct faculty member at Elms College Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. She is the author of Let's Eat! A Clinical Guide to the Management of Complex Pediatric Feeding and Swallowing Disorders.

I have encountered a number of children who have developed a fear of choking and consequently become very cautious eaters. Choking is of course a very frightening thing to happen and can be rather traumatic. Interestingly, there a some children who have a reason to be worried about choking because of the mechanics of their eating. In this interview, Angela Mansolillo talks about how sometimes a fear of choking and cautious eating can be the result of a problem in motor component of eating. This leads to an additional approach in dealing with a fear of eating where the mechanics of eating are addressed.

David A Clark, PhD is a clinical psychologist and emeritus professor at the University of New Brunswick. He is a leading authority on the nature of intrusive thoughts, cognitive behavior therapy and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. He is the author of numerous books and articles, in this interview I talk with him about his latest book the anxious thoughts workbook for teens: cbt skills to quiet the unwanted negative thoughts that cause anxiety & worry newharbinger publications 2022.

The adolescent has a new found ability to think about thinking which is a departure from the more concrete thinking of middle childhood. This ability opens new possibilities but also create challenges. Dr Clark provides a comprehensive guide for dealing with the more problematic aspect of dealing with unwanted thoughts,

Dawn Huebner, PhD is a clinical psychologist and parent coach specializing in childhood anxiety. Today we are talking about two of her more recent books for school age children Facing Mighty Fears About Throwing Up and Facing Mighty Fears About Health.

Her workbooks for children and parents, What to Do When Worry Too Much: A Kid's Guide to Overcoming Anxiety and What to Do When Your Brain Gets Stuck: A Kids Guide to Overcoming OCD are basically the classic, go-to references for helping anxious children. In addition, she has a book for older children Outsmarting Worry (An Older Kid's Guide to Mangaging Anxiety) that was the focus on an earlier podcast in 2018 with me.

At her website there is an online class Seven-Step Solution For When Worry Takes Over that covers in greater depth what was talked about in this podcast.