Mental Health for the Young & their Families in Victoria is a collaborative partnership between mental health & other health professionals, service users & the general public.
Mailing Address
MHYFVic
PO Box 206,
Parkville, Vic 3052
PROJECT EVIDENCE for Prevention of Mental Disorders. The project coordinator is Dr Allan Mawdsley. The version can be amended by consent. If you wish to contribute to the project, please email admin@mhyfvic.org
[2] Selective Programs are indicated for situations where subjects are at high risk of developing mental disorders unless there is preventive intervention.
[2 a] Biological factors
i Post-natal depression
ii Children with chronic illnesses
iii Children with learning difficulties
[2 a iii ] Children with learning difficulties
At a basic level, schooling is to children what employment is to adults. Successful employment is at the core of personal identity. It is central to self-esteem. The mental health of unemployed people is significantly at risk. So it is with children. If they are not succeeding at school, their mental health is at risk. At the highest level, education enhances self-actualisation, participation in the arts and sciences, and personal well-being.
The earlier we start, the greater the impact. The beneficial effects of education are greatest in the early years, so early recognition and remediation of learning difficulties is important for maximising developmental progress. Regrettably, difficulties are often allowed to drift along without specific investigation, in the hope of a “catching up”.
Experience in a learning difficulties program for primary school children with two or more years delay in literacy showed that developmental language disorder alone accounted for three quarters of the cohort, and a further 15% had a developmental language disorder combined with visuo-spatial processing impairment.
This latter group was disproportionately likely to have attention deficit disorders and disruptive behavioural disorders accompanying their learning difficulties. The remainder of the cohort included a few children with visuo-spatial impairment in the absence of language impairment, some children with attentional problems, hearing or visual impairment, or emotional problems including child abuse and neglect. Very rarely, some children had organic brain disorders such as epilepsy, brain tumours or dementia.
These proportions were not a random community-based sample but selected referrals of unexplained delayed literacy. Children with “explained” delays in literacy, such as general intellectual impairment, were not usually referred. The findings, however, highlight a major flaw in public perception. The great majority of unexplained delays were due to unrecognized developmental language delays. Why is this?
When language delay is accompanied by speech impediments such as stammering, dyslalia, dysphasia or impaired prosody, the speech problems draw attention to the underlying language disorder.
However, when adults listen to children without such impediments they make allowance for the simpler level of communication and do not adequately register that it is too simple for the age of the child. This is more so if the child is reserved and monosyllabic. Teachers, and often also the parents, may be shocked to find that a child’s receptive language processing can be several years behind their chronological age level without having been recognized.
The take-home message is that all children should periodically be tested not only for literacy and numeracy but also for receptive language processing level and referred for specialised assessment and remediation if impaired.
Last updated 16 December 2018
POLICIES for Prevention of Mental Disorders.
[2] Selective Programs
a) Biological factors
i Post-natal depression
ii Children with chronic illnesses
iii Children with learning difficulties
b) Psychological factors
i Children experiencing grief and loss
ii Children with disruptive behaviours
c) Social factors
i Indigenous families
ii Immigrant families
iii Children involved with bullying
iv Children in out-of-home care
[2 a iii ] Children with learning difficulties
MHYFVic supports the use of NAPLAN testing to monitor the literacy and numeracy levels of students.
MHYFVic advocates that school aggregate data should not be published in a way that discriminates against specific schools although should be used to indicate the need for specialist consulting and resourcing of remediation.
MHYFVic advocates that all schools should follow up individual students performing below expectation to ascertain the underlying cause of the underperformance. This requires availability of consultant specialists to assist teaching staff.
Last updated 26 December 2018
BEST PRACTICE MODELS for Prevention of Mental Disorders.
[2] Selective Programs
a) Biological factors
i Post-natal depression
ii Children with chronic illnesses
iii Children with learning difficulties
b) Psychological factors
i Children experiencing grief and loss
ii Children with disruptive behaviours
c) Social factors
i Indigenous families
ii Immigrant families
iii Children involved with bullying
iv Children in out-of-home care
[2 a iii ] Children with learning difficulties
NAPLAN testing has been introduced to schools to periodically ascertain individual levels of literacy and numeracy in relation to nationally expected levels.
The public rhetoric about numbers of children below expectation has focused upon teaching methods (debates about phonics or whole word approaches, etc., on the assumption that delays are due to poor teaching) or upon ‘League tables’ of good and bad schools (with a cursory nod towards clusters of social disadvantage underpinning delays) but very little on the child-centred reasons.
The ‘Project Evidence’ highlights that three quarters of children with unexplained educational delays have an unrecognised development language delay.
Any child whose performance is below the expected level should be screened for receptive and expressive language levels. (Speech Pathologists of the School Support services can confer about this). Minor difficulties may be remediable by a language enrichment program, but major difficulties warrant a specialist assessment and treatment.
Learning difficulties of more complex type also require specialist management. Such delays are a significant risk factor for mental health disorder. The strongest positive correlator with mental disorder is poverty/social deprivation, and the strongest negative correlator is family social capital. These factors also apply to literacy and numeracy levels.
All schools should have procedures for the further investigation and management of individual children whose NAPLAN performance is below expectation. This should include screening of language levels and capacity for referral to specialist assessment and treatment programs, including counsellors and liaison with social support agencies for families in social distress.
Last updated 26/12/2018
We welcome discussion about any of the topics in our Roadmap epecially any wish to develop the information or policies.
Please send your comments by email to admin@mhyfvic.org
Speak about issues that concern you such as gaps in services, things that shouldn’t have happened, or things that ought to happen but haven’t; to make a better quality of service…….
Help achieve better access to services & better co-ordination between services together we can…….
Mental Health for the Young & their Families in Victoria is a collaborative partnership between mental health & other health professionals, service users & the general public.
MHYFVic
PO Box 206,
Parkville, Vic 3052
Please fill in the details below and agree to the conditions to apply for MHYFVic membership.