Martina Gallo
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Nutritional Risk Beyond Weight in Autistic Children
Some autistic children eat a very narrow diet for years while their weight and growth stay on track. Because the numbers look reassuring, the nutritional risk underneath can go unnoticed. A stable weight measures whether a child has enough energy. It says little about whether the diet holds everything a body needs, and that gap is where serious harm can build unseen.
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ADHD in the classroom: Why everyday interactions matter
A child with ADHD may collect corrections all day, small ones, one after another, until something starts to give. Long before the symptoms themselves cause lasting harm, a child can quietly conclude that school is not a place they are good at. Drawing on research discussed during a webinar by clinical psychologist Erin Schoenfelder Gonzalez, this article explores how the cumulative experience of everyday classroom interactions may shape a child’s confidence, relationships and sense of belonging at school.
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Beyond the Safety Plan in Suicide Care
Suicide care often reaches only as far as the acute moment. Nonetheless, the tools built for that moment may do little to identify or address what brought the person there. Professor David Jobes, speaking at a conference on brief interventions for young people and families, made the case that steadying a crisis and treating its cause are different tasks, and that aiming at the suffering itself is the harder and more neglected part.
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Keeping Families in the Room during a Crisis
In crisis care for a young person, the parent or carer might be hard to place. The carer carries the risk around the clock, yet often stands outside the formal care the young person receives, and is sometimes treated as part of the problem. Professor Pooja Saini, speaking at a conference on brief interventions for young people and families, described crisis care from two sides at once: families on the edge, and the staff meeting them while close to breaking point. One question stayed afterward: what it would take to keep the carer inside the room instead of at its edge.
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EBSA in young people: complexity, pressure, and the value of slowing down
When a child stops going to school, the wish to help them back quickly is easy to understand. Emotionally based school avoidance rarely has a single cause, though, and the pace of a response can matter as much as its content. One thought runs through what follows: that slowing down can sometimes do more for a child than any effort to hurry a return.
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Relational trauma: looking beyond the child
When a child has been affected by relational trauma, it might be easy to assume that the child is the one who needs to be treated. But in practice, working with the child matters just as much as working with the adults who care for them and with the everyday relationships the child lives inside. That second part seems to be the one most easily overlooked.
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OCD and BDD in young people: rethinking causes and access
Rethinking childhood OCD causes (genetics over infections), BDD self-harm risks in teens, and internet CBT access solutions for clinicians and families. ‘Reflections from the room’ from our webinar ‘OCD; An update on OCD and related disorders in children and young people’, led by Professor David Mataix-Cols
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