Behavioral modification and mood stabilizers in African-American children with ADHD

Behavioral Modification

Description of the Group

As children grow physically, emotionally, and mentally, psychological development becomes a crucial process in growing up healthy. When children transition from being little kids to beginning their adolescent years, a lot of psychological growth occurs. But when this healthy process becomes interrupted by behavioral or mood disorders, plenty of harm could be done to the projected developmental process. On April 28th, 2011, we worked with a group of five to ten-year-old African-American children. They were all being developmentally affected by either ADHD, Depression, or Mood Disorders. Specifically the child that we decided to focus on was a 10-year-old African-American boy in the fifth grade. He was displaying anger, rage, and aggression which had chronically impaired him for three years, but was responding well to a mood stabilizer and an atypical antipsychotic. He had a family history of Bipolar Disorder (Flanagan & Samantha, 2011).

Rationale for selecting health topic presented

Our rationale for selecting the health topic of behavior medications in children is based on the fact that mortality rates for mood disorders is 2-3 times higher (Perry et al., 2009). This has been an overwhelming problem in today's society. Understanding the cause of mood disorders in the first place will in turn bring on more benefits. Being able to address behavioral issues in a structured way and teaching children how to better manage their rages (as was the case for the 10-year-old boy with Bipolar Disorder) may have better results than just giving a child medication.

How topic was presented

We presented the topic by implementing an alternative to medication management, such as shaping. Shaping is providing the child with cues and reinforcements to help them better manage their behavior and in return give a better, more desirable behavior. As behavior gets shaped, so does personality, which causes a better attitude and outcome all around. Evidence that structure and reinforcements work can be found in the educational system (kbarlowe, 2010). By praising a child every time they do something correctly instead of reprimanding him every single time he does something wrong, can better his self-esteem and show him that he is in control of his actions and feelings. A program that gives rewards for every accomplishment in form of tokens or tickets which can then be redeemed for things such as movie tickets or restaurant vouchers (something that is practical and useful) can be a motivator in children with mood disorders. A goal of a certain number or tickets could be set so that the child is often motivated to behave appropriately in order to attain the desired prize. Tickets or tokens should never be taken away or revoked since previous desired behavior has already earned them the current number of tokens or tickets, but not giving the redeemable tickets or tokens will be a better option. Ignoring his attention seeking behaviors and praising him for what he has done correctly will demonstrate to him that he will not get what he wants by acting out and will modify his behaviors to seek the positive attention and rewards that he is receiving. Children at this developmental stage just want to feel like they belong, like they are accepted into a society that often times rejects them for being "different." They want to feel that they are being rewarded and praised for accomplishing what they set out to accomplish. Too many times, children with behavioral or mood disorders are accustomed to receiving just negativity such as yelling by the parent, and disapproval for things that are done wrong or things that might be said wrong, that they are not used to getting things any other way (kbarlowe, 2010). Motivating the child to keep on doing good things and to learn how to distinguish their negative behaviors from their positive ones, will in turn allow them to excel, and therefore shape their behavior. Structure of this sort is provided in academic settings and many children with mood disorders tend to thrive or to not show their aggressive behavior as much and it is this that we want to achieve.

Group Member's Contribution

Being able to participate in this project allowed us to learn about how difficult it can be for a child to have a mood disorder. Their entire psyche can be affected, and therefore affect those around them. We fully enjoyed participating in the outpatient sessions with the children. This developmental stage is a very interesting and informational one, as it could determine how a child transitions to an adolescent, and eventually how successful they are in becoming adults. We highly encourage individuals to explore this stage in Erikson's developmental theory, as it is a very informative one. Dorine Lynch put the actual paper together and decided on the rationale for selecting the health-topic. She also got the information of the description of the group of children in out learning sessions, as well as deciding the appropriate tasks for stage development according to Erikson. Michelle Montgomery contributed with how the topic of our learning seminar was presented to us, the implementation of the behavioral modification program, and provided the thorough description of each of our contribution to the project. All group members assisted in independent research on the topics involved in this project.

References:

Perry, S.E., Hockenberry, M.J., Lowdermilk, D.L., & Wilson, D. (2009).

Maternal Child Nursing Care. Mosby. 4th Edition.

kbarlowe. (2010, July 7). 5- to 12-year-old, mood disorder NOS...help! Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation. Retrieved on May 30, 2011 from http://www.bpkids.org/connect/forums/general-discussion/5-yr-old-mood disorder-noshelp

Flanagan, Dr., Samantha, Psy. D. (2011) University of Maryland. Department of Psychology.