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Children’s ability to write well is heavily dependent on prior knowledge of vocabulary. If you don’t know the right or correct word you can’t use it in your writing. A good place to start supporting your child to learn a wider vocabulary is by looking at topics or themes being taught at school.
Schools frequently send home information about themes and topics to be taught over the term. Teachers will spend time teaching specific vocabulary but if your child is struggling with writing, introducing these words at home can give your child that extra opportunity to consolidate their learning. As an example, a commonly studied topic at primary school is recycling. Vocabulary associated with recycling are words like, rubbish, compacting, sorting, ecological, ecology, waste, habitat and so on. Introduce these words into your conversations (dinner time, driving in the car are good times) talk about their meanings and how you might use them in a sentence. You can also talk about their opposites and other words which might mean the same thing. Looking for books, fiction and non fiction about these topics and including them in the before bed reading routine is another way of introducing subject specific vocabulary. For upper primary and high school students a useful resource is www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/resources/academicwordlist which is a series of lists of the most commonly used words in academic writing.
As always, ensure that discussions are upbeat and short, unless your child becomes deeply interested in the topic in which case follow their lead. If you come across a word you the parent don’t know use this as a great opportunity to model a growth mindset and enlist your child to help you to engage with the challenge. Work together to figure out what this word means and enjoy the satisfaction of learning something new.
Schools frequently send home information about themes and topics to be taught over the term. Teachers will spend time teaching specific vocabulary but if your child is struggling with writing, introducing these words at home can give your child that extra opportunity to consolidate their learning. As an example, a commonly studied topic at primary school is recycling. Vocabulary associated with recycling are words like, rubbish, compacting, sorting, ecological, ecology, waste, habitat and so on. Introduce these words into your conversations (dinner time, driving in the car are good times) talk about their meanings and how you might use them in a sentence. You can also talk about their opposites and other words which might mean the same thing. Looking for books, fiction and non fiction about these topics and including them in the before bed reading routine is another way of introducing subject specific vocabulary. For upper primary and high school students a useful resource is www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/resources/academicwordlist which is a series of lists of the most commonly used words in academic writing.
As always, ensure that discussions are upbeat and short, unless your child becomes deeply interested in the topic in which case follow their lead. If you come across a word you the parent don’t know use this as a great opportunity to model a growth mindset and enlist your child to help you to engage with the challenge. Work together to figure out what this word means and enjoy the satisfaction of learning something new.
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Resilience is a concept which has been studied extensively recently both internationally
and in New Zealand. It offers a way to view an adverse situation with hope and positivity. Resilience is the concept that some people can be very successful in life despite apparent setbacks or disadvantages. I’d like to share what we know about how to develop resilience in response to an adverse event.
Resilience is focused on protective factors or actions you can take:
themselves can contribute to developing a resilient school community which is able to thrive because of and despite challenging circumstances. Adults and young people can model these skills to those who are still developing them. A key lesson from the Christchurch earthquakes is that adults modelling calm responses to challenging situations were key to avoiding ongoing negative effects on mental health for young people.
Typically, the negative effects of adverse events occur when there are several events rather than just one. If your child is experiencing multiple adverse events and is displaying behaviour of concern it may be time to consult with professionals. Helpful people to speak to are your child’s class teacher, your family doctor, the school counsellor or a psychologist.
and in New Zealand. It offers a way to view an adverse situation with hope and positivity. Resilience is the concept that some people can be very successful in life despite apparent setbacks or disadvantages. I’d like to share what we know about how to develop resilience in response to an adverse event.
Resilience is focused on protective factors or actions you can take:
- Social competence - encourage your child to get in touch with friends and family and set up get togethers. Even emailing and texting can be helpful. Modelling considerate and caring behaviours is key here.
- Problem solving skills - consider a range of possible solutions to problems as they
arise, engage in discussions of the pros and cons of each solution selecting
the one that works best. - Autonomy - encourage your child to make age appropriate decisions for themselves.
- Sense of purpose and future - talk about the process of managing the adverse event and plans for what happens beyond it.
- Caring and supportive environment - look out for each other. A few kind words to someone in a difficult situation is enormously helpful.
- High positive expectations - share with your child your expectations that they will
engage with experiences at school and in the community has and that
this will be valuable for them. - Opportunities for involvement. - look out for opportunities to become involved at school and within your community.
themselves can contribute to developing a resilient school community which is able to thrive because of and despite challenging circumstances. Adults and young people can model these skills to those who are still developing them. A key lesson from the Christchurch earthquakes is that adults modelling calm responses to challenging situations were key to avoiding ongoing negative effects on mental health for young people.
Typically, the negative effects of adverse events occur when there are several events rather than just one. If your child is experiencing multiple adverse events and is displaying behaviour of concern it may be time to consult with professionals. Helpful people to speak to are your child’s class teacher, your family doctor, the school counsellor or a psychologist.
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Self-explanation or the process of explaining a concept to yourself is one of the most powerful ways of learning. When you prompt a student to explain a concept to themselves, they are both creating inferential links to concepts and prior knowledge and discovering what they don’t know about the concept. One of the biggest failures students experience is this lack of knowledge about what they don’t know. Studies of able learners have demonstrated that these students are often asking themselves questions about material they are learning or reviewing and checking their understanding. A great way of supporting a student to become more able is to prompt them to self-explain a new concept. A key point is that when students narrate how well they think they understand a new concept they don’t add to their actual understanding. Students need to explain the concept to themselves.
For further information on the research behind this concept and more details please check this link.
https://digest.bps.org.uk/2018/12/07/meta-analysis-of-64-studies-involving-6000-participants-finds-that-self-explanation-is-a-powerful-learning-technique/
For further information on the research behind this concept and more details please check this link.
https://digest.bps.org.uk/2018/12/07/meta-analysis-of-64-studies-involving-6000-participants-finds-that-self-explanation-is-a-powerful-learning-technique/
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Just a short post today answering a frequently asked question. Can I see you for just a chat?Yes, absolutely. I am happy to talk about situations occurring at home or school and take a problem-solving approach with ideas about how to make things go better. Sometimes an hour appointment can help parents to clarify things in their minds and they are able to manage the situation on their own from that point onwards. Other times, if the situation is more complex, I can meet for a series of sessions to unpack complex problems and provide support. I’m always mindful of the cost of visiting a psychologist in terms of money but also of people’s time. I encourage people to call or email me as I’m happy to spend 15 minutes discussing a situation free of charge. If I think I can help I’ll suggest an appointment, but it may well be that I can quickly re direct you to the person who can help.
I don’t provide talk therapy such as psychotherapy or on-going counselling. I can provide referrals on to psychologists or therapists who do provide this kind of support if that is what you require.
Hopefully this has provided some useful answers but please feel free to ask more questions. You can post questions on my FB page, on the blog page or email me directly.
I don’t provide talk therapy such as psychotherapy or on-going counselling. I can provide referrals on to psychologists or therapists who do provide this kind of support if that is what you require.
Hopefully this has provided some useful answers but please feel free to ask more questions. You can post questions on my FB page, on the blog page or email me directly.
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As someone who has worked in special education for many years classroom observations are a familiar routine for me. I have realised since moving into private practice that it’s a bit of a foreign concept for most parents. I thought I’d write about the process of a classroom observation to de mystify it.
Sometimes it is helpful for me to see a child’s behaviour in the context that it happens. If the leadership team of the school and the class teacher have given their consent for me to observe I can come into a classroom or other school setting to see what is occurring.
I usually observe for a maximum of 20-30 minutes although I may book a longer appointment. This gives me time to get settled into the room and to chat with staff if there is an opportunity to do so. I ask teachers to introduce me (if they wish to do so) as someone who is there to observe in the school to see how things work in that class or school. I ask them not to identify me as there to observe a student. Generally, I tuck myself in an out of the way spot in the room and take notes of what I am seeing. Sometimes children ask me what I’m doing so I usually have a general response prepared. My aim is to be as unobtrusive as possible whilst acknowledging that just by being there I’m changing the dynamic of the classroom somewhat.
Teachers are used to someone observing in their classrooms as this is often part of professional development. It can be very difficult when the teacher is focused on teaching a lesson to see the very small details of an individual child’s behaviour. Quite often what I can see as an outside observer isn’t possible for even the perfect teacher to see.
Usually observations are part of a wider assessment and I will provide a written report including my conclusions about what I’ve observed. The report will also include some recommendations about how to help the student engage better with learning.
Sometimes it is helpful for me to see a child’s behaviour in the context that it happens. If the leadership team of the school and the class teacher have given their consent for me to observe I can come into a classroom or other school setting to see what is occurring.
I usually observe for a maximum of 20-30 minutes although I may book a longer appointment. This gives me time to get settled into the room and to chat with staff if there is an opportunity to do so. I ask teachers to introduce me (if they wish to do so) as someone who is there to observe in the school to see how things work in that class or school. I ask them not to identify me as there to observe a student. Generally, I tuck myself in an out of the way spot in the room and take notes of what I am seeing. Sometimes children ask me what I’m doing so I usually have a general response prepared. My aim is to be as unobtrusive as possible whilst acknowledging that just by being there I’m changing the dynamic of the classroom somewhat.
Teachers are used to someone observing in their classrooms as this is often part of professional development. It can be very difficult when the teacher is focused on teaching a lesson to see the very small details of an individual child’s behaviour. Quite often what I can see as an outside observer isn’t possible for even the perfect teacher to see.
Usually observations are part of a wider assessment and I will provide a written report including my conclusions about what I’ve observed. The report will also include some recommendations about how to help the student engage better with learning.
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One or both parents usually accompany children/young people to the appointment. We spend the first 15 minutes chatting and getting to know each other. Sometimes I have follow up questions from the written questionnaires which we can cover at this time. Parents then leave and I will work 1-1 with your child.
Usually we start with a cognitive assessment which will provide information about how your child thinks compared to other children of the same age. If you are booked for a formal assessment you might tell them that once they are comfortable with me, you will leave us alone and that we will be working through a range of different activities together. I often use the word activity rather than test as it can have quite negative overtones. The activities are often very short lasting only a few minutes and are different from the kinds of assessments or activities undertaken in school.
Once we complete the cognitive assessment, we take a short break for a snack and a walk around to get some fresh air. My office is based on a school campus which means there is equipment to play on and plenty of space to move around during our break. After this break we usually complete the achievement assessment which will provide information about how your child is learning at school when compared to other children of the same age. These are a series of short activities which while more like school activities or assessments are different than what your child usually encounters.
At some point during the appointment I usually try to encourage the child/young person to share with me their thoughts on the situation. I usually bring some simple games with me like tic tac toe which allow us to chat whilst doing an activity. I also have some strengths-based cards which are helpful to encourage discussion. At the end of the assessment session you will pick your child up. They may be tired as the sessions are intense but usually, they can return to school with no difficulty in the afternoon.
When will we find out the results of the assessment?
I don’t usually provide any feedback about the assessment on the same day as the assessment. This is because I like to take my time and consider what I saw and what the results are telling me. The assessments themselves are quite complex and require more than a superficial calculating of numbers in order to interpret the results. I also like to take my time to write a report that is clear, easy to read and contains useful suggestions for support. This can take me a week to 10 days to complete. As soon as I’ve finished writing the report, I send it out and make the offer to schedule a feedback meeting face to face.
What should I bring with us to an assessment?
Thinking uses up energy so ensure your child has something to snack on when we take a break. A water bottle is also a good idea. Bring any further information that you think may help me to understand the situation, this could be school reports or reports from other professionals.
Usually we start with a cognitive assessment which will provide information about how your child thinks compared to other children of the same age. If you are booked for a formal assessment you might tell them that once they are comfortable with me, you will leave us alone and that we will be working through a range of different activities together. I often use the word activity rather than test as it can have quite negative overtones. The activities are often very short lasting only a few minutes and are different from the kinds of assessments or activities undertaken in school.
Once we complete the cognitive assessment, we take a short break for a snack and a walk around to get some fresh air. My office is based on a school campus which means there is equipment to play on and plenty of space to move around during our break. After this break we usually complete the achievement assessment which will provide information about how your child is learning at school when compared to other children of the same age. These are a series of short activities which while more like school activities or assessments are different than what your child usually encounters.
At some point during the appointment I usually try to encourage the child/young person to share with me their thoughts on the situation. I usually bring some simple games with me like tic tac toe which allow us to chat whilst doing an activity. I also have some strengths-based cards which are helpful to encourage discussion. At the end of the assessment session you will pick your child up. They may be tired as the sessions are intense but usually, they can return to school with no difficulty in the afternoon.
When will we find out the results of the assessment?
I don’t usually provide any feedback about the assessment on the same day as the assessment. This is because I like to take my time and consider what I saw and what the results are telling me. The assessments themselves are quite complex and require more than a superficial calculating of numbers in order to interpret the results. I also like to take my time to write a report that is clear, easy to read and contains useful suggestions for support. This can take me a week to 10 days to complete. As soon as I’ve finished writing the report, I send it out and make the offer to schedule a feedback meeting face to face.
What should I bring with us to an assessment?
Thinking uses up energy so ensure your child has something to snack on when we take a break. A water bottle is also a good idea. Bring any further information that you think may help me to understand the situation, this could be school reports or reports from other professionals.
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Over the past year since I began seeing clients privately, I have been asked a range of questions by parents about what to expect on the day that they bring their child to see me. Today I thought I’d start a series of posts covering some of these questions. For the next few weeks I’ll post answers to a range of questions that parents have asked me. As I tailor the experience of each child/young person to their specific needs these are general ideas.
What should I tell my child about seeing a psychologist?
My advice is always to be honest but gentle with your child. It is likely they are very aware of any difficulties with learning or behaviour they may have. Make sure to use language that your child understands and is appropriate to their age and developmental stage. Tell them that you are coming to see me so that I can help to find a way to make the situation work for them and for your family.
Your child may feel more comfortable if they have a chance before the appointment to know a little about me. You could show them my pictures on my website and checkout the page with information about me on my website, https://www.edpsych.co.nz/about-the-psychologist.html
What should I tell my child about seeing a psychologist?
My advice is always to be honest but gentle with your child. It is likely they are very aware of any difficulties with learning or behaviour they may have. Make sure to use language that your child understands and is appropriate to their age and developmental stage. Tell them that you are coming to see me so that I can help to find a way to make the situation work for them and for your family.
Your child may feel more comfortable if they have a chance before the appointment to know a little about me. You could show them my pictures on my website and checkout the page with information about me on my website, https://www.edpsych.co.nz/about-the-psychologist.html
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Welcome back to the 2019 school year. Hopefully everyone has had a chance to have a break and some down time from the busy school schedule during term time. Many schools will be starting back in the next week or so. Getting back to the school routine can be a challenge. As I’ve mentioned before change is tricky for everyone, but there are lots of things you as parents can do to help your child. Here are my top tips for making the transition back to school an easy one.
A few days before school starts:
Start getting everyone back into their usual sleep routines. This one can be tricky with the long days we are experiencing but try shifting in small increments of 15 minutes each day so that at least once school starts your child will be able to have a reasonable amount of sleep.
Discuss what the getting ready for school routines in the morning and at night will look like. Ask your children to share their ideas. It may be helpful to start with to write the steps down and have them somewhere central for children and adults to refer to. An evening and a morning routine will ensure that there is time get everything done.
Check in with school websites and or re read email or paper communications from school on first day and week routines.
Talk positively about the upcoming school year and the fun and interesting learning that will occur.
To support children with specific concerns:
If your child has very specific learning or behaviour needs or has experienced some big life changes during the break, I recommend you contact your child’s school and let them know what the situation is. If you don’t know who the teacher is for 2019 you can always contact someone on the leadership team who can pass the information on to the correct person.
If your child is attending a new school or is anxious about starting back it may be helpful to go for a visit to the school and walk around checking out the playing fields and equipment as well as the layout of the buildings before school starts.
Throughout the school year but especially in January and early February:
Once school has started make sure you look for any opportunity to attend parent evenings, school picnics and so on. Many schools provide a range of options and while it’s not necessary to attend all your child’s education will be all the richer for your participation and interest in what they are doing at school.
The things I’ve listed seem simple but as is often the case if you get the basics right it’s possible to avoid needing to manage more difficult situations.
A few days before school starts:
Start getting everyone back into their usual sleep routines. This one can be tricky with the long days we are experiencing but try shifting in small increments of 15 minutes each day so that at least once school starts your child will be able to have a reasonable amount of sleep.
Discuss what the getting ready for school routines in the morning and at night will look like. Ask your children to share their ideas. It may be helpful to start with to write the steps down and have them somewhere central for children and adults to refer to. An evening and a morning routine will ensure that there is time get everything done.
Check in with school websites and or re read email or paper communications from school on first day and week routines.
Talk positively about the upcoming school year and the fun and interesting learning that will occur.
To support children with specific concerns:
If your child has very specific learning or behaviour needs or has experienced some big life changes during the break, I recommend you contact your child’s school and let them know what the situation is. If you don’t know who the teacher is for 2019 you can always contact someone on the leadership team who can pass the information on to the correct person.
If your child is attending a new school or is anxious about starting back it may be helpful to go for a visit to the school and walk around checking out the playing fields and equipment as well as the layout of the buildings before school starts.
Throughout the school year but especially in January and early February:
Once school has started make sure you look for any opportunity to attend parent evenings, school picnics and so on. Many schools provide a range of options and while it’s not necessary to attend all your child’s education will be all the richer for your participation and interest in what they are doing at school.
The things I’ve listed seem simple but as is often the case if you get the basics right it’s possible to avoid needing to manage more difficult situations.
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It’s that time of year when we wind down from the busy activities of the year and take time out to enjoy the freedom holidays provide us to spend time with friends and family to enjoy peace and quiet and a break from the usual weekly routines.
School has wrapped up for the year (or will be wrapping up shortly) and students will be taking a well-earned break from the hard work of learning at school. Even though formal learning is over for the year it is key that children continue to consolidate their learning. Reading, writing and basic facts will benefit from continued practice over the holiday break. Some children, especially those who are struggling will sometimes lose some of what they have learned during the longer Christmas holidays. To prevent this loss of learning encourage your child to keep reading. Public libraries often have reading programs on offer during the summer break. Look for opportunities to write. Children can write emails to relatives or friends. Using a phone or digital camera they can take photos of family trips, pets or projects or games and then caption them or write a story about them.
I would like to take a moment to say thank you to those of you who have read my blog during the year. I’m going to take a short break from regular blog posts and will start posting again in the new year. If you have any areas that you would like me to write about, please get in touch and let me know.
Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday.
School has wrapped up for the year (or will be wrapping up shortly) and students will be taking a well-earned break from the hard work of learning at school. Even though formal learning is over for the year it is key that children continue to consolidate their learning. Reading, writing and basic facts will benefit from continued practice over the holiday break. Some children, especially those who are struggling will sometimes lose some of what they have learned during the longer Christmas holidays. To prevent this loss of learning encourage your child to keep reading. Public libraries often have reading programs on offer during the summer break. Look for opportunities to write. Children can write emails to relatives or friends. Using a phone or digital camera they can take photos of family trips, pets or projects or games and then caption them or write a story about them.
I would like to take a moment to say thank you to those of you who have read my blog during the year. I’m going to take a short break from regular blog posts and will start posting again in the new year. If you have any areas that you would like me to write about, please get in touch and let me know.
Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday.
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Online gaming and the challenges this can bring is something that seems to be hitting the headlines a lot recently. In my own work I’ve had parents contacting me with concerns about their child’s online gaming behaviour. I thought I’d do a little bit of research about online gaming to find out a little bit more to share with you.
I had a look at the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth Edition (DSM-5), which is a handbook used by mental health professionals. It helps with the diagnostic process and has descriptions, symptoms and criteria professionals can use to help with diagnosing mental conditions. When a mental health professional is considering diagnosis of a condition, they would generally look at the DSM-5 for guidance around decision making. At this point or in this version of the DSM, Internet Gaming Disorder has made it to the Conditions for Further Study section of the handbook. The conditions for further study section are where the authors put areas which require further research and study. The information about each disorder is the best evidence from the field so far but did not meet the high standard for inclusion within the section for official mental disorder diagnosis. When the DSM-5 is revised the evidence will be reviewed and a decision made to exclude or include this new diagnosis in the main body of the book. At this stage it could be said that the jury is out.
I thought you might be interested in what the researchers and experts in this area did think might be criteria for an internet gaming disorder. This is my paraphrasing from the DSM-5 and not a direct quotation. The proposed criteria provide up to 9 areas of which at least 5 must be implicated over a year and must be causing clinically significant distress. Someone would be preoccupied with gaming to the exclusion of other daily activities, they would demonstrate symptoms of withdrawal when they are unable to access the game, they would require increasing amounts of time on the game, they would have experienced failure in attempts to control the time spent gaming, they would demonstrate a lack of interest in any other previously enjoyed leisure time activities, despite awareness of the negative effects of the gaming they would continue, deceptive about their gaming activities, gaming is being used to escape negative moods, has sacrificed relationships, education or work because of internet gaming. Rightly so there is a high barrier to get over for someone to be considered to have a real difficulty with gaming. Most people would not fit these preliminary criteria. In fact, the prevalence cited in DSM-5 based on studies conducted in some Asian countries on adolescents appears to be 8.4% for males and 4.5% for females. Please keep in mind that these figures are not necessarily generalisable as the data comes from a limited part of the world and has not been able to be contextualised with other research studies conducted in other parts of the world. The DSM criteria does give us some idea of what the experts in the field consider to be problematic behaviour. But in common with other diagnostic criteria the problem of what to do about challenging behaviours isn’t covered.
I had a bit of a fossick about in some of the recent research studies to see if there were any pointers there. From a 2017 article titled, A cross-sectional study of heavy gaming, problematic gaming symptoms, and online socializing in adolescents (fully referenced at the end of this blog post) I found the following. When young people are socially active online, they seem to demonstrate fewer symptoms of or met fewer criteria of internet gaming disorder as defined by the DSM-5. Female heavy gamers experienced lower self-esteem but made fewer reports of loneliness and social anxiety than average adolescents. The authors concluded that for some adolescents who combine what might be considered heavy gaming with active social media it appeared that the social media may be moderating the negative impacts of the gaming.
Another article had some interesting information for parents. Parental Influences on Pathological Symptoms of Video-Gaming Among Children and Adolescents: A Prospective Study published in 2015(fully referenced at the end of this blog post). This study identified that restrictive parental rules and regulations may not be effective at reducing the negative symptoms of intensive internet gaming. They studied parents setting restrictions on time, place and content of gaming and found no empirical evidence that this was helpful. They found that the quality of parent child relationships was key. A two-way process of parental mediation allowed moderation of gaming while one-way parental imposition of restrictions did not help.
John Parsons’ book Keeping Your Children Safe Online: A guide for New Zealand parents, published by Potton and Burton, has a chapter dedicated to online addictions. John provides advice which aligns with the 2015 study in that managing your child’s interactions online requires a two-way relationship.
Online gaming is often a social activity, children and young people play with peers they have met at school, sporting or other social occasions, at times they may be gaming with people from other places in the world. There are even some studies indicating that the visual spatial skills of children who game online are superior to those who do not. There is no doubt that there are very real benefits to our children and young people engaging with online gaming.
What is important is that we as parents actively involve ourselves with this by finding out who our children are gaming with, ensuring that they are prepared to deal with any difficulties encountered within the game, discussing good limits to gaming such as only gaming when homework is completed and taking breaks for other social interactions like meals or visiting friends. We as parents also need to be ready to deal calmly with situations when things do go wrong so that our child feels able to tell us they are having a problem.
References.
Carras, M.C., Rooij, A.J., Mheen, D.V., Musci, R., Xue, Q., & Mendelson, T. (2017). Video gaming in a hyperconnected world: A cross-sectional study of heavy gaming, problematic gaming symptoms, and online socializing in adolescents. Computers in human behavior, 68, 472-479.
Choo, Hyekyung & Sim, Timothy & K. F. Liau, Albert & Gentile, Douglas & Khoo, Angeline. (2015). Parental Influences on Pathological Symptoms of Video-Gaming Among Children and Adolescents: A Prospective Study. Journal of Child and Family Studies. 24. 10.1007/s10826-014-9949-9.
I had a look at the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth Edition (DSM-5), which is a handbook used by mental health professionals. It helps with the diagnostic process and has descriptions, symptoms and criteria professionals can use to help with diagnosing mental conditions. When a mental health professional is considering diagnosis of a condition, they would generally look at the DSM-5 for guidance around decision making. At this point or in this version of the DSM, Internet Gaming Disorder has made it to the Conditions for Further Study section of the handbook. The conditions for further study section are where the authors put areas which require further research and study. The information about each disorder is the best evidence from the field so far but did not meet the high standard for inclusion within the section for official mental disorder diagnosis. When the DSM-5 is revised the evidence will be reviewed and a decision made to exclude or include this new diagnosis in the main body of the book. At this stage it could be said that the jury is out.
I thought you might be interested in what the researchers and experts in this area did think might be criteria for an internet gaming disorder. This is my paraphrasing from the DSM-5 and not a direct quotation. The proposed criteria provide up to 9 areas of which at least 5 must be implicated over a year and must be causing clinically significant distress. Someone would be preoccupied with gaming to the exclusion of other daily activities, they would demonstrate symptoms of withdrawal when they are unable to access the game, they would require increasing amounts of time on the game, they would have experienced failure in attempts to control the time spent gaming, they would demonstrate a lack of interest in any other previously enjoyed leisure time activities, despite awareness of the negative effects of the gaming they would continue, deceptive about their gaming activities, gaming is being used to escape negative moods, has sacrificed relationships, education or work because of internet gaming. Rightly so there is a high barrier to get over for someone to be considered to have a real difficulty with gaming. Most people would not fit these preliminary criteria. In fact, the prevalence cited in DSM-5 based on studies conducted in some Asian countries on adolescents appears to be 8.4% for males and 4.5% for females. Please keep in mind that these figures are not necessarily generalisable as the data comes from a limited part of the world and has not been able to be contextualised with other research studies conducted in other parts of the world. The DSM criteria does give us some idea of what the experts in the field consider to be problematic behaviour. But in common with other diagnostic criteria the problem of what to do about challenging behaviours isn’t covered.
I had a bit of a fossick about in some of the recent research studies to see if there were any pointers there. From a 2017 article titled, A cross-sectional study of heavy gaming, problematic gaming symptoms, and online socializing in adolescents (fully referenced at the end of this blog post) I found the following. When young people are socially active online, they seem to demonstrate fewer symptoms of or met fewer criteria of internet gaming disorder as defined by the DSM-5. Female heavy gamers experienced lower self-esteem but made fewer reports of loneliness and social anxiety than average adolescents. The authors concluded that for some adolescents who combine what might be considered heavy gaming with active social media it appeared that the social media may be moderating the negative impacts of the gaming.
Another article had some interesting information for parents. Parental Influences on Pathological Symptoms of Video-Gaming Among Children and Adolescents: A Prospective Study published in 2015(fully referenced at the end of this blog post). This study identified that restrictive parental rules and regulations may not be effective at reducing the negative symptoms of intensive internet gaming. They studied parents setting restrictions on time, place and content of gaming and found no empirical evidence that this was helpful. They found that the quality of parent child relationships was key. A two-way process of parental mediation allowed moderation of gaming while one-way parental imposition of restrictions did not help.
John Parsons’ book Keeping Your Children Safe Online: A guide for New Zealand parents, published by Potton and Burton, has a chapter dedicated to online addictions. John provides advice which aligns with the 2015 study in that managing your child’s interactions online requires a two-way relationship.
Online gaming is often a social activity, children and young people play with peers they have met at school, sporting or other social occasions, at times they may be gaming with people from other places in the world. There are even some studies indicating that the visual spatial skills of children who game online are superior to those who do not. There is no doubt that there are very real benefits to our children and young people engaging with online gaming.
What is important is that we as parents actively involve ourselves with this by finding out who our children are gaming with, ensuring that they are prepared to deal with any difficulties encountered within the game, discussing good limits to gaming such as only gaming when homework is completed and taking breaks for other social interactions like meals or visiting friends. We as parents also need to be ready to deal calmly with situations when things do go wrong so that our child feels able to tell us they are having a problem.
References.
Carras, M.C., Rooij, A.J., Mheen, D.V., Musci, R., Xue, Q., & Mendelson, T. (2017). Video gaming in a hyperconnected world: A cross-sectional study of heavy gaming, problematic gaming symptoms, and online socializing in adolescents. Computers in human behavior, 68, 472-479.
Choo, Hyekyung & Sim, Timothy & K. F. Liau, Albert & Gentile, Douglas & Khoo, Angeline. (2015). Parental Influences on Pathological Symptoms of Video-Gaming Among Children and Adolescents: A Prospective Study. Journal of Child and Family Studies. 24. 10.1007/s10826-014-9949-9.