Youthful Tendency Disorder

[Rea]

I came across this when I was googling gun play. I wonder if I should print it off and stick it on the window at playgroup??!

 

More Children Being Diagnosed With Youthful Tendency Disorder

Day after day, upon arriving home from preschool, Caitlin would retreat into a bizarre fantasy world. Sometimes, she would pretend to be people and things she was not. Other times, without warning, she would burst into nonsensical song. Some days she would run directionless through the garden of their comfortable home, laughing and shrieking as she chased imaginary objects.

When months of sessions with a local psychologist failed to yield an answer, Nicholas and Beverly took Caitlin to a prominent pediatric neurologist for more exhaustive testing. Finally, on March 11, they received the heartbreaking news: Caitlin was among a growing legion of children suffering from Youthful Tendency Disorder.

"As horrible as the diagnosis was, it was a relief to finally know," said Beverly. "At least we knew we weren't bad parents. We simply had a child who was born with a medical disorder."

Youthful Tendency Disorder (YTD), a poorly understood neurological condition that afflicts an estimated 20,000 U.K. children, is characterized by a variety of senseless, unproductive physical and mental exercises, often lasting hours at a time. In the thrall of YTD, sufferers run, jump, climb, twirl, shout, dance, do cartwheels, and enter unreal, unexplainable states of "make-believe."

"The Youthful child has a kind of love/hate relationship with reality," said Johns Hopkins University YTD expert Dr. Avi Gwertzman. "Unfit to join the adult world, they struggle to learn its rules in a process that can take the entirety of their childhood. In the meantime, their emotional and perceptive problems cause them to act out in unpredictable and extremely juvenile ways. It's as though they can only take so much reality; they have to 'check out,' to go Youthful for a while."

On a beautiful Springday in Bedfordshire, six-year-old Cameron is swinging on a park swing–a monotonous, back-and-forth action that apparently gives him solace. Spotting his mother on a nearby bench, Cameron rushes eagerly to her and asks, "Guess what?" His mother responds with a friendly, "What?" With unbridled glee, Cameron shouts, "Chicken butt!"--cryptic words understood only by him--before laughing and dashing off again, leaving his mother distraught over yet another baffling non-conversation.

"I must admit, it's been a struggle," mum said. "What can I say to him when he says something like that, something that makes no sense? Or when he runs through the house yelling while I'm trying to balance the checkbook? You can't just say, 'Please, Cameron, don't have a disorder for just a few minutes so I can concentrate."

Cameron's psychological problems run even deeper. He can name every one of his beloved, imaginary Sponge Bob characters, but the plain realities of the actual world he inhabits are an enigma: Ask Cameron the name of the real-life city councilman sponsoring the referendum to renovate the park just across the street from his house–a park he plays in daily–and he draws a blank.

According to Dr. Dinesh Agarwal, director of child psychiatry at NYU Medical Center, such disconnectedness from reality is a coping mechanism for YTD sufferers. "The Youthful child is born into a world he or she does not fully understand," Agarwal said. "Their brain pathways are still forming, and they need to repetitively relearn how to assimilate into society. These disassociative play-fantasies apparently help them accomplish that."

But such fantasies come at a price, producing in Youthful children a disinterest in the everyday responsibilities of life bordering on contempt.

"Jesse knows when it's his turn to empty the dishwasher. We've gone over the house rules a dozen times," said Richard Torres, father of three whose nine-year-old son Jesse was recently diagnosed with YTD. "And still he neglects the job time and again."

Slowly, methodically, through an elaborate system of rewards and punishments, Jesse has shown improvement. But the road ahead is long.

"We get a lot of platitudes from the so-called experts," Torres said. "We hear a lot of, 'Oh, he'll grow out of it, just give it time.' That's easy for them to say–their kid's not running around the neighborhood claiming to be Superman."

Help for families struggling with YTD may soon be on the way. At last month's annual AMA Convention, Smithkline-Beecham unveiled Juvenol, a promising YTD drug which, pending FDA approval, could reach the U.K. market as early as next spring. Already available in France and Sweden, Juvenol, the Swedish newspaperAftonbladet reported, resulted in a 60 percent decrease in running and jumping among users.

But until such help arrives, the parents of YTD sufferers can do little more than try to get through each day.

"I love my child with all my heart," said Alexandra Torres, Jesse's mother. "But when he's in the throes of one of his skipping fits, it's hard not to feel a little envious of parents with normal, healthy children."

[Inge]

oh dear. my husband will be sure I still suffer from this one .. no hope for me then...

[Panders]

Yes, it's obviously something which some children carry on way into adulthood! Frankly, see no hope of a change in the near future.

[eyfs1966]

Love it!!!!!

[Froglet]

As I started reading this I thought that 'Caitlin' was going to turn out to be at least 35. I was doing a maths activity on the playground today (our official outdoors area being a bog at the moment) and found myself skipping back in - I wasn't even trying to get the children to join in - I just wasn't thinking about it at all!

[jennyjenkinz]

Ha HA! Brilliant. Love it.

[zigzag]

Thats going up on my notice board (for the parents to ignore)

[Rea]

Oh do your parents ignore things too? Strange that :rolleyes:

[finleysmaid]

you dont stop playing because you get old ....you get old because you stop playing.....

 

 

 

so

 

definite sufferer here

Edited January 29, 2013 by finleysmaid

[Rea]

God forbid I should ever grow up, how boring!

[finleysmaid]

my Mum keeps asking when im going to get a proper job and stop playing!!

[Upsy Daisy]

I wonder if Happymaz and I qualified for a diagnosis when were were rolling around in several inches of mud in the pouring rain laughing our socks off last summer?

[Froglet]

my Mum keeps asking when im going to get a proper job and stop playing!!

 

My mum regularly says "You only wanted to be a teacher so you could do playing/cutting out/telling stories, didn't you?!"

[HappyMaz]

I wonder if Happymaz and I qualified for a diagnosis when were were rolling around in several inches of mud in the pouring rain laughing our socks off last summer?

That reminds me. I need to write that blog! Made me smile though!

[Cait]

Thanks for that, Rea. Got me going for a minute there! Unfortunately I can think of a couple of parents who would be asking about the drug, and taking this seriously.

[Rea]

Yeah, I thought it was real to start with, I could feel myself getting worked up and then the penny dropped.

I dont know many parents these days but I have known one or two in the past who would have bitten your hand off for a drug to stop childhood.

 

In fact, I was at out NHS walk in a few weeks ago, a young mother had a toddler strapped into his buggy. We were there almost two hours and she had arrived about 10 minutes after us. She was on the phone talking or texting and completely ignoring the child the whole time until she heard the woman with her say something, I didnt hear what she said but the young woman responded with 'ignore him, he's just being immature'. How me and my son didnt laugh out loud I'll never know.