June 26, 2018, New Zealand, News Hub: Psychologists struggling to cope with youth anxiety in New Zealand - expert https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/06/psychologists-struggling-to-cope-with-youth-anxiety-in-new-zealand-expert.html VIDEO… Child psychologists are struggling to keep up with demand as the number of children with anxiety continues to increase. … Ms West recalls one child who was about seven or eight who was so scared they went to bed every night thinking Donald Trump was going to climb through their window and hurt them. Ms West's fellow psychologists have had to extend their work hours and hire new staff to cope with the demand. … In 2006, 3000 children aged between two and 14 were diagnosed with anxiety. A decade later, that number had bumped up to 24,000. Experts believe there are a number of reasons for the trend. Poverty has contributed, as has increased divorce rates, pressure for children to perform to national standards at school, and social media. Children are also growing up with role models from a generation of undiagnosed anxious parents. All of these reasons have contributed to the increase in children's anxiety, and that's not to mention the impact of disasters such as the Christchurch earthquake. Dr Sarah Alexander, chief executive of New Zealand early childhood education organisation ChildForum, has one more theory: she believes parents need more free time to spend with their kids. "Many children start early childhood education from six weeks of age, they might attend for 10 hours a day, five days a week," she says. …
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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