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Evaluating Toddlers

When Should You Worry About Your Toddler's Mental Health?

By Teri Brown

Skeptics abound when it comes to the subject of mental health care for toddlers. Many people are concerned that the child will be labeled. Others don't understand what could be done for such a young child. Sometimes when people think about the term "mental health" they are thinking about just the opposite, mental un-health, and there is still a stigma attached to that.

Kadija Johnston, a licensed clinical social worker in the field of early childhood mental health, the director of the Parent-Infant Program at University of California/San Francisco and the co-author of Mental Health Consultation in Child Care: Transforming Relationships Among Directors, Staff and Families (Zero to Three Press, 2006), says it never fails to astonish her when she runs into skeptics.

"I've spent my whole adult life immersed in the field of childhood mental health, and I am always surprised when I run into apprehension about it," says Johnston. "The more we can promote mental health care as a proactive, preventive measure, the more accepting people will become of it. If it is viewed as another way to achieve health, it need not be reserved for extreme psychological issues."

One of the most common indicators that a small child might need a mental health evaluation is an abrupt change of behavior. Johnston says that is actually one of the more easily diagnosed problems.

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• Talk about it!