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03/10/2025

Guide To Addressing Your Children’s Behavioral Health

Most parents know that supporting their kiddos’ physical health is important but often forget about their children’s behavioral health. Many parents overlook this because they don’t understand how to support this aspect of a child’s development.

Fortunately, in recent years, there has been a renewed focus on children’s mental health, or behavioral health, as we prefer to call it. Many parents and professionals are talking about this critical component of their kids’ overall health.

Children with good behavioral health are more likely to think clearly, develop socially, and learn new behavioral skills . Parents who support their child’s behavioral health also increase the chance that they will have healthy coping skills and mental well-being leading into and continuing through adulthood.

In this guide, we’ll go through the following:

Children’s Mental Health Statistics

By thinking about your child’s behavioral health and reading through this guide, you’re already taking the first steps towards better childhood development and mental health. Unfortunately, some behavioral health problems cannot be avoided.

As the focus on children’s mental and behavioral health has increased, the number of behavioral health disorder diagnoses has also risen. These diagnoses and other statistics reveal that behavioral health in children is a much greater issue than previously thought.

A research study reported that nearly 20% of children and young people ages 3-17 in the United States have a mental, emotional, developmental, or behavioral disorder.

Here is a breakdown of the most common types of mental disorders that are prevalent within this group:

11% are mood disorders.
10% are behavior or conduct disorders.
8% are anxiety disorders.

In today’s society, mental illness is prevalent among our youth population. whether it be post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, or another diagnosis.

Here are additional statistics that’ll give you a better perspective on the importance of children’s behavioral health development.

1 in 6 U.S. children aged 2-8 years old (17.4%) had a diagnosed mental, behavioral, or developmental disorder.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the percentage of children from ages 6-17 who were ever diagnosed with anxiety increased from 5.4% in 2003 to 8.4% in 2011-2012.
According to CDC data, the pandemic exacerbated behavioral health issues in children, leading to a 24% increase in mental health-related emergency room visits of ages 5-11 years old between March and October 2020.
According to a 2016 study summarized in an American Association of Family Physicians report, half of all U.S. children with mental health or behavioral health disorders did not receive necessary treatment or counseling from a professional.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, suicide is the second leading cause of death for youth aged 10 to 24 years old, and 90% of those who died by it had an underlying behavioral health disorder.

Assessing Your Child’s Behavioral Health

Behavioral disorders and issues manifest themselves in different ways for different people. These disorders often have a delay between the start of symptoms and intervention. However, it can be more difficult for children to detect symptoms when they have an underlying medical condition.

Parents must know the signs of behavioral health issues. If your child or someone you love is displaying one or more of these, we suggest seeking assistance from a behavioral health provider at a qualified mental health center.

Signs of Behavioral Health Issues in Children

Here are some child behaviors to observe.

Changes in mood or severe mood swings
Substance abuse of drugs and alcohol
Changes in personality
Changes in sleeping habits
Major shifts in behavior
Extreme difficulty in concentrating
Strong feelings of worry or panic that interfere with everyday life
Contemplating, planning, or hurting oneself
Experiencing thoughts of suicide
Partaking in risky behaviors
Sudden feelings of fear for no apparent reason can lead to physical symptoms like a racing heartbeat.
Loss of appetite, vomiting, or limiting diet to specific foods
Using laxatives to lose weight or experiencing significant changes in weight
Feeling depressed or reclusive for several weeks

Signs of Depression in Children

It’s normal for your child to feel sad or down occasionally. However, if these negative feelings last for more than two weeks or the behavior prevents your child’s everyday activities and functions, it could be a sign of depression, which is necessary to address. Watch for these signs in children.

Socially withdrawn: Your child is uncharacteristically pulling back from friends and peers and turning inward.
Lacking interest in favorite activities: Your child avoids activities they usually enjoy.
Low self-esteem: Your child avoids new experiences and opportunities or talks down to themselves.
Unusual crying spells and sensitivity: Your child is crying or showing sensitivity to unusual circumstances.
Self-harm: Your child is engaging in self-harm, such as cutting, scratching, biting, headbanging, substance abuse, suicidal behavior, and more.

Read more about these signs of depression and how to help in our blog.

Supporting a Child With Mental Health Issues

If you suspect that your child is experiencing a behavioral health crisis, we highly advise you to seek help from a professional as soon as possible. Behavioral health professionals are trained to diagnose people, including children. They can help them eliminate the issue, alleviate the symptoms, or give them coping mechanisms for living with the illness or disorder. Some can prescribe medication if that is an appropriate solution.

If the issue is more of a long-term behavior change, or if your child is exhibiting some of the above signs of behavioral health disorders or depression, you can take action by helping your child work through their issues.

These behavioral issues can be improved through the use of building blocks that serve as the foundation of a child’s mental well-being, some of which are:

Unconditional love from their family
High self-confidence and self-esteem
Opportunities to play with other children
Encouraging relationships with teachers and supportive caretakers
Safe and secure surroundings
Appropriate guidance and discipline

Aside from therapy and prescribed medication, there are other ways to help your children cope with behavioral health issues.

Some options include natural remed which has shown promise in helping kids with ADHD and anxiety, in addition to those who have rebellious tendencies that are not treatable by conventional medication. The key to supporting your child’s behavioral health is to make sure you’re paying attention and prioritizing your child’s development.

Tips To Improve Your Child’s Mental Health and Well-Being

Converse

Talk with your child often. Be sure to constantly reinforce the fact that they can talk to you about anything and everything, even in their early childhood years!

Love

Show your kids compassion and love every day. Always be there for them and show your support.

Give Praise

Your child needs to know that you are proud of them. Reinforce positive behaviors and affirm them often. Try to focus more on the positives than the negatives.

Be Patient

While this one can be tough sometimes, try your best to be patient with your little one (and your teenager). Don’t pressure them into growing up too fast or becoming someone they are not.

Rest

Help your child develop a routine of self-care and build in rest times. Even in childhood, much of life is “go, go, go. ” Set aside time to rest and refuel. This is important in preventing overall health problems affecting physical and mental health.

Listen

When your child is speaking to you, try not to be distracted. It is hard for adults and teenagers alike to put down their phones, but giving your child undivided attention when they are talking to you is important. A parent must establish and constantly reinforce trust throughout a child’s life.

Keep Safe

Your child’s environment is so important. Parents can provide behavioral health resources by fostering a supportive and safe space for kids to be themselves. Allow them to make mistakes, get back up, and try again while they are still shielded from many of the consequences of adulthood. Kids need parents to be their safe haven where they can truly let their guard down.

Reinforce Discipline, Not Punishments

The root word of discipline is “disciple,” which means “to teach.” Our goal in correcting our young children should be to teach them what natural consequences are, how to fix mistakes, and how to stand back up when they fall. If children do not feel they can recover from any mistakes now and in the future, their behavior can eventually be compromised.

Destigmatize Asking for Help

It’s okay not to know everything. Also, model this yourself. Allow your kids to see you ask for help when you need it. Along those same lines, if you feel like your child’s behavioral health (or yours) is at risk, do not hesitate to seek help from a health professional.

Teach and Model Problem-Solving

While it may be tempting to step in and fix every problem for your child, teen, or young adult, helping them troubleshoot and face natural consequences will build their confidence and ability in the long run. Children need to know that they can overcome challenges and accomplish goals through their actions.

Teach How To Cope

Coping skills are necessary. Help your child develop healthy coping skills when upset, tired, angry, or afraid. While our body’s natural response is “fight, flight, or freeze,” we can teach our kids to practice mindfulness, relaxation, grounding, deep breaths, self-affirmations, and other healthy ways to cope with life’s stressors.

Identify Emotions

When your child can identify their emotions and describe how they are feeling, they are more quickly able to respond to their body’s cues and take a step back before reacting. This can start in early toddlerhood by using reflections: “I can see that you are sad right now,” or “It looks like you are mad because you couldn’t have that toy.” When kids can verbalize, “I’m sad” or “I’m scared,” it does wonders for their behavioral health (and builds their relationship with you).

Be Attentive

Begin by observing your children’s moods, behaviors, and emotions. If you notice something is off, check in with them. Ask how they feel, what they need, and how you can help. This tip is especially helpful if you are trying to identify any behavioral or mental health problems in your child.

Encourage community involvement

If your child has healthy relationships, they are more likely to be able to do well and thrive. Connect them with a recreation center, sports team, art club, church or youth group, or other events in your neighborhood that have positive influences.

Teach About Loss

Help your child understand that stress, loss, and grief are normal emotions we all experience in life and that “it’s okay to feel sad.”

Seek Opportunities To Help Others

Provide opportunities for your child to recognize that they can make a difference in the lives of those around them. When kids help others, they realize their place in this world is important and gain a sense of purpose. Volunteer together as a family or encourage community service. Even just helping out your neighbors in need can help provide youth access to opportunities that support mental health.

Read

Read children’s books about behavioral health, emotions, mindfulness, and well-being. Often, children’s authors approach this topic in a way that makes it easy for kids to understand!

Deal With Conflict Constructively

When children grow up in a household that allows minor conflicts to escalate and linger or one that avoids conflict altogether, they do not learn the necessary resolution skills for future relationships and other areas of their lives. Sometimes, a mediator or a family therapist is required. Show your child that seeking outside help and support is okay when needed.

Create and Maintain Routines

Stable routines create a consistent environment that can help your child feel safe.

Take Care of Yourself

If your mental health is stable as a parent, it is more likely that your kids will thrive as well. Also, by modeling self-care and well-being, you set an example for them to follow right in their home.

Explaining Anxiety and Mental Health to Kids

Anxiety is one of the most common manifestations of negative behavioral health. It can be a thought or feeling that may feel scary but not necessarily hurtful to children. In some situations, it helps to illuminate danger or personal stress. Anxiety is a normal human feeling that everyone experiences.

However, frequent and troubling anxiety that doesn’t seem normal can indicate or result in adverse behavioral health outcomes. Explaining it to kids in an easy-to-understand way can allow your children to identify their anxiety and learn how best to deal with it.

Encourage openness.
Help your child recognize their own mental & physical anxiety.
Teach your children coping mechanisms, including drinking cold water, imagining a safe space, and breathing in and out.

Learn more about how to explain anxiety to kids in our blog.

Helping a Child With Social Anxiety

Social anxiety is a type of anxiety that can prohibit your child from forming healthy relationships. It usually manifests as the intense fear of being judged and perceived by others. This could happen as a result of bullying, abuse, unhealthy parenting styles, or past traumatic or stressful situations.

Some symptoms of this anxiety include nausea, trembling, rapid heartbeat, sweating, excessive worrying and overthinking, and full-blown panic attacks. Learn more about social anxiety in our blog.

Help your children deal with social anxiety by:

Teaching them about social anxiety
Considering therapy for them
Rewarding progress they make in reducing social anxiety

Building Self-Esteem in Children

Helping your children develop good self-esteem and a positive image of themselves is vital to preventing behavioral health issues during childhood and adulthood. Here are a few things you can do to help them build self-esteem.

Avoid Overpraising

While it may initially seem counterintuitive, overpraising can lead to feelings of perfection that could harm your child’s self-esteem when they realize it isn’t attainable.

Celebrate Their Efforts

Focusing on your children’s time and effort toward an accomplishment instead of the achievement itself can increase their drive and motivation.

Encourage a Positive Inner Dialogue

You are teaching your kids that staying positive and telling yourself positive statements builds a healthy inner dialogue to help them work through difficult situations toward a positive outcome.

Give Them Freedom of Decisions

Making decisions can lead to anxiety, but giving them the freedom to solve problems and make decisions on their own will help them develop initiative and self-confidence.

Give Age-Appropriate Household Tasks

Feelings of responsibility and accomplishment of tasks positively affect children’s confidence, primarily when they are relied on and come through for the ones they love.

Read more about how to buil in our blog.

Behavioral Health Activities for Kids

Kids are sponges. Activities that improve a child’s mental and behavioral well-being can help them develop a positive image of themselves. They can also enhance social interaction skills and establish positive behavioral health as they grow into adulthood.

Here are some behavioral health activities for kids that can help their cognitive functions while improving self-esteem and other measures.

Make a Gratitude Journal

A gratitude journal reinforces the concept of thankfulness for kids, getting them thinking about positive things and building mindfulness.

Work on a Painting, Drawing, or Coloring Book

The visual creativity of art stimulates specific areas of the brain that can aid in behavioral health. Formal art therapy sessions are a good option.

Listen to Music

Research suggests that music of many genres has a calming effect that relieves anxiety. This is why many medical professionals use it during operative procedures.

Create Music or Learn and Practice an Instrument

Learning, practicing, and creating music is linked to better behavioral health growth and outcomes and is an excellent example of mental health activities for kids.

Play Games With the Family

Playing games with loved ones, whether it’s a board game like ‘The Talking, Feeling and Doing Game’ or an obstacle course in the backyard, develops stronger relationships, which help during emotional crises for children.

Do Active or Breathing Yoga

Yoga is a centuries-old body motion or breathing technique that calms the practitioner. While positions (called “hatha yoga”) can reduce stress and anxiety through body motions, breathing exercises (called “Pranayama”) can also calm restless minds.

Participate in Extracurricular Activities and Sports

Movement and exercise engage kids’ minds and can teach them how to deal with stressful thoughts that may have depressive tendencies.

Mental Health Games for Kids

Games are great activities for tuning, boosting, or healing children’s behavioral health because they often require physical input and cognitive decision-making. Here are some types of games that can support and improve a child’s behavioral health, called

Board Games

When played with family or friends, board games teach social interaction and improve children’s mental and behavioral skill s.

Video Games

In most cases, your child shouldn’t play video games for excessive amounts of time. Still, they do offer immersive experiences and opportunities for children to express themselves beyond the physical world around them.

Smartphone and Tablet Apps

Developers continuously develop mental health and behavioral health apps for kids. One example is the “Mightier” app, which uses video games and a heart rate monitor to help kids identify emotions and limit anxiety. Many thinking and meditation apps may aid in developing your child’s behavioral health.

Behavioral Health Books for Kids

Books open up countless worlds for kids, where they can learn behavioral health lessons, such as how to deal with loss, calm down, and deal with negative feelings. Check out this list for additional ways to teach these important lessons.

“Angry Octopus: A Relaxation Story” by Lori Lite
“My Many Colored Days” by Dr. Seuss
“How Big Are Your Worries Little Bear?” by Jayneen Sanders
“Everybody Feels Fear” by Ashwin Chacko
“The Three Little Yogis and the Wolf Who Lost His Breath” by Susan Verde

Children’s Behavioral Health Services

If you feel your child needs professional behavioral health assistance, we provide vital behavioral health services at several of our locations, such as:

Comprehensive assessment of child behavior
Child abuse therapy
Family-focused therapy
Individual counseling
Cognitive behavioral therapy
Group therapy

Children’s Behavioral Health Hospital and Clinic Locations

Here is a list of the medical clinics, hospitals, and treatment centers in Los Angeles and the surrounding areas.

All For Kids Behavioral Health Locations

Lancaster: 921 W Ave J Suite C, Lancaster, CA 93534; (661) 949-0131

Hospitals for Children’s Behavioral Health in Los Angeles County

Eisner Health: 1500-1530 S. Olive St., Los Angeles, CA 90015; (213) 747-5542
Violence Intervention Program Community Mental Health Center: 1721 Griffin Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90031; (323) 221-4134
Harbor-UCLA Medical Center: 1000 W. Carson St., Torrance, CA 90502; (424) 306-4000
High Desert Regional Health Center: 335 E. Avenue I, Lancaster, CA 93535; (661) 471-4000
Martin Luther King, Jr. Outpatient Center: 1670 E. 120th St., Los Angeles, CA 90059; (424) 338-1000
LAC+USC Medical Center: 2051 Marengo St., Los Angeles, CA 90033; (323) 409-3800 / (323) 409-5086
East San Gabriel Valley: 1359 N Grand Ave, Covina, CA 91724; (626) 739-0707
Olive View-UCLA Medical Center: 14659 Olive View Dr., Sylmar, CA 91342; (747) 210-3000
Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles: 3250 Wilshire Blvd., Suites 3, 5, & 6, Los Angeles, CA 90010; (323) 361-5156 (Ask for Intake)
Exodus Urgent Care Center: 1920 Marengo Street, Los Angeles, CA 90033; (323) 276-6400

Taking the Next Step

At All For Kids, our mental health services strive to help children and families decrease the chances of violence and outbursts within a home setting. We strive to give parents the resources to help a child with a behavioral issue.

We offer case management assistance, behavioral health services, medication management, and intensive day treatment programs. Above all, we help parents and caregivers manage these situations and support their children.

We want all families to feel accepted and welcomed when seeking assistance. That’s why all of our counseling services are culturally sensitive and inclusive. We tailor our services on a case-by-case basis so each family unit can receive the exact guidance it needs.