Therapy for preschoolers?
Add Comment By Amrita Sheokand | September 23, 2009
Some preschools and child care centers in at least 29 states are now offering a therapist. Reason— your child may have behavioral problems that these mental-health consultants might be able to solve. If the child has trouble socializing, if he shoves another kid in class or throws tantrums he or she might be a good candidate for a session with a therapist.
According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, research shows that this counseling is benefiting classrooms because of the reduction in behavior problems among children and it supports overburdened teachers.
“The specialists’ purpose isn’t to diagnose or treat mental illness in individual children. Instead, they provide targeted, expert help to teachers, and sometimes to parents, on ways to interact with children and reorganize classrooms that improve behavior and the emotional climate. In the process, many researchers believe, the specialists may be helping prevent bigger social problems in kids in the future, such as delinquency,” writes columnist Sue Shellenbarger for the Journal.
But isn’t one of the reasons why we send our children to preschool so they learn how to socialize and play with other children. So if my child goes to a preschool for the first time and shoves another child, screams and shouts because she has never been in a large group before, suddenly she’s getting help from a mental-health consultant?
After a tantrum, these consultants take the child aside in a quite corner and talk to him or her. I would think that’s part of the job of a preschool teacher anyway if the child misbehaves in school and if the tantrum occurs in my presence, I need to make sure I deal with my child.
So what is the purpose of these consultants and why give them such a loaded title?
In one of the examples in the article, a little boy goes to preschool for the first time and pushes a bigger child. The older kid punches the little one in return, giving the younger one a bloody nose.
To me this seems normal and an important lesson for the younger kid who will in all likelihood not shove another kid for a while.
But the mental-health therapist at school worked with this child and now his social skills have improved.
Those opposed to the idea say that the source of the problem is not being addressed here. The reason why children behavioral problems are becoming more common now is because kids are exposed to large groups in school too early.
"Negative behavior in general seems to be an unintended consequence of every child going to preschool at younger and younger ages,” Lisa Snell, education director for the Reason Foundation, a libertarian public policy research concern.