Video for Parents: Explaining a Diagnosis to Your Child by Dr. Liz Angoff
Dear Community,
When families come in for an assessment, many are worried about their child's self-esteem.
This is because kids who struggle in school tend to develop a harmful self-narrative early on. This can look like:
Negative self-talk
Resisting school work, or
Big feelings and explosive behaviors
While families are often looking forward to learning about their child, many are worried about their child learning they have a difference in the way their brain works.
"Won't having a label just confirm all of their negative thoughts about themselves?"
But rather than confirming this negative narrative, assessment is an opportunity to change it.
A diagnosis is more than a label.
It is an explanation for why things are a hard, validation that they are not alone, and a roadmap for how we can help them become their full, authentic selves.
However, in order for a diagnosis to be a vehicle for rewriting a child's self-narrative, we need to know how to talk to them about it.
To help, I recently recorded a video just for parents of the strategies I use for talking to kids about their diagnosis.
This video includes validating, positive language for talking to kids about:
Autism
ADHD
Anxiety
Behavioral challenges
and more.
I hope this step-by-step guide is helpful to you and your child to empower them to embrace their unique and amazing brain!
If you are a practitioner, please share this with the families that you work with!
Additional resources for how to talk to children about their unique brains are available at www.ExplainingBrains.com/Parents.
If you don't find what you're looking for, feel free to reach out by responding to this email
As always, let me know how else I can support you on your journey!
Warmly,
Liz
