| Children are meant to be successful in school and be happy, productive members of their family. They should have positive and meaningful relationships with adults, including their parents. It is a myth that adolescence is a time when children and parents fight due to the rebellious nature of teens. In truth, most children, including most teenagers are happy, successful in school and have positive, loving relationships with their parents. If your child's life experience is different, it is for a reason. Understanding that reason is critical to helping your child.
Dr. Steve Newton and the associates at PlusFour Solutions have worked with thousands of troubled teens; our entire practice is focused on school-aged children.
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Children behave in only a few ways, for a multitude of reasons;
Identifying behaviors is descriptive, identifying causes is diagnostic;
Treatment without diagnosis is like archery without a target;
Professional diagnosis eliminates guesswork,
focuses treatment and provides a plan for success.
Steve Newton, Ph.D.
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The emotional and behavioral problems presented by children and adolescents are often easy to describe and complex to understand. Many behaviors, such as inattention, can result from many different sources. If, for example, a child has an attentional deficit, stimulant medication may be appropriate. If however, the same set of attention-deficit symptoms is the result of a mood or anxiety-based disorder, very different treatment is called for and knowing the cause is critical to making treatment decisions.
Some children act out in angry ways toward the world. In some children, this anger is seen only at home and teachers report no difficulty in the classroom. Some children react to specific triggers, while others seem to over-react to everything and nothing. Children act out for reasons, not because they are "bad".
The associates at PlusFour Solutions utilize state-of-the-art scientific instruments to analyze behavior and diagnose causes. Test data is always balanced with old-fashioned common sense. We spend time with parents and collect a careful history and we observe the child and listen to what he or she has to say. We contact other professionals who know this child, to obtain their observations. When necessary, we make home and classroom visits to obtain insights available only by direct observation. Finally, we are sensitive to families in crisis and teens who are unhappy and often acting out in destructive ways.
 When making a diagnosis about a child's or adolescent's emotional functioning, it is critical to eliminate all potential differential diagnoses, that is, other mental health disorders which may often masquerade as a look-a-like set of behaviors. Only the most careful and thorough psychological evaluation can do this; at PlusFour Solutions this is all that we do. When appropriate, our associates will make thoughtful referrals to other specialists in neuropsychology, endocrinology, psychiatry, pediatrics, nutrition and educational consulting.
Deciding to treat your child without first determining a complete and correct diagnosis really puts the cart before the horse. Many competent therapists, psychiatrists, teachers and parents in the Bay Area refer their child and adolescent clients to PlusFour Solutions before recommending a course of treatment. This guarantees that the critical resources of time and money are put to optimal use. Our associates are team members; we work with referring professionals and remain available after assessment is complete.
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