Mental Health And Developmental Issues With Children

Many are suffering

An encounter with the police

Living with mental health issues and developmental disorders is bad for adults, but it must be especially difficult for children when they are afflicted with those problems. Some adults who have those issues have had them since they were small children.

A thirteen-year-old boy in Utah was shot several times by police officers in September 2020. He has Asperger’s, which is a form of autism. His mother had called the police for help when he was unruly. She wanted him to be taken to the hospital.

Asperger syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. It is an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) but differs from other ASDs by relatively unimpaired language and intelligence. Although not required for diagnosis, physical clumsiness and unusual use of language are common. Signs usually begin before two years of age and in many cases never resolve. [Wikipedia]

Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by difficulties with social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. Parents often notice signs during the first three years of their child’s life. These signs often develop gradually, though some autistic children experience regression in their communication and social skills after reaching developmental milestones at a normal pace. [Wikipedia]

Although these issues may usually be associated with childhood illnesses that adults have had since being children, there are also adults who are diagnosed with the problems after they have grown up. They may experience anxiety and stress over certain situations.

The young boy’s mother had called the police and said her son was having a crisis. She thought it was because it was her first day back at work after almost a year, and her son had separation anxiety. She said that he just gets mad and starts yelling when he has anxiety.

The police later said that officers were responding to a “violent psych issue” by a boy who had made “threats to some folks with a weapon.” The mother said he was not armed and had no kind of weapon.

The boy’s family has filed a civil lawsuit over the incident. It alleges that the police shot the boy eleven times. The mother said that she had informed the officers that her son was afraid of the police and might try to run from them. The boy sustained some physical injuries and mental distress.

Life is full of all kinds of problems that can happen.

Many children are suffering from mental and developmental disorders which affect their behavior. It is unfortunate when they have a run-in with the police which does not turn out well.