School Refusal in Children, Pasadena, CA
Attending school is something every child struggles with a little bit. However, in some children, going to school becomes such a negative experience it leaves them feeling overwhelmed and has a detrimental effect on their emotional well‒ being. When these negative emotions become overwhelming, it is known as school refusal.
School refusal can leave a child struggling academically, socially, and with their mental health. At Vital Brain Health, we help those seeking therapy for their child's school refusal through a comprehensive, holistic approach.
What is School Refusal?
School refusal is a symptom of severe anxiety, depression, or trauma related to attending school. Learning disabilities, severe negative social interactions, and other extreme difficulties in school can cause school refusal in children that leads to other challenges.
At Vital Brain Health, we can help provide early intervention, giving your child the strategies they need to support their condition and overcome the behavioral challenges school refusal can cause.
Our staff are experienced, kind, and ready to help. Schedule an appointment for school refusal support today.
Common Risk Factors Associated With School Refusal
Understanding the common risk factors associated with school refusal in children can help you get your child the support they need. School refusal is often the result of one of a variety of risk factors:
Anxiety
Social and generalized anxiety can cause children to dread going to school, triggering school refusal.
Depression
Depression can cause a lack of interest in activities and leave people mentally and emotionally exhausted. This makes even something as routine as attending school a major challenge.
Trauma
Traumatic events and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can cause school refusal in children.
Learning Disabilities
Learning disabilities can place additional stress on children and make school a more challenging prospect. For children who don't get the support they need, it's common for them to develop school refusal.
What symptoms are associated with school refusal?
- Complaints of physical ailments such as nausea or headaches
- Anxiety or panic
- Avoidance behaviors
What are the Support Options for School Refusal?
Vital Brain Health offers different types of support, each serving a different purpose. Some of the support options you may be recommended include:
Neurofeedback
Neurofeedback utilizes advanced brain training to optimize your brain’s natural function using real‒ time feedback.This can help the different parts of your brain communicate more effectively, which in turn improves focus, emotional regulation, and cognitive performance. Best of all, no part of this process requires medication.
Biofeedback
Biofeedback provides strategies to help people control physical actions such as breathing and heart rate in order to combat conditions such as anxiety. This can help children with school refusal calm themselves and feel less overwhelmed emotionally at the idea of attending school.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, we provide advanced support for children with school refusal using Neurofeedback 3.0 integrated multi-modal training protocols specifically designed for children with school refusal. Our approach helps optimize brain networks to retrain behaviors associated with school refusal. We use research-based protocols that target the specific brain communication patterns underlying school refusal in children.
Our protocols for children with school refusal use Neurofeedback 3.0 to help the parts of the brain that cause children to reject and try to avoid attending school. Through our visual feedback system, we train brain areas to learn to coordinate on shared frequency channels, developing stronger connections during sleep that lead to improvements in helping children move past the avoidance behaviors they exhibit.
Neurofeedback represents the evolution of brain optimization—a scientifically-validated method that harnesses your brain's natural neuroplasticity to improve mental function. At Vital Brain Health, we've pioneered what we call Neurofeedback 3.0, representing an integrated multi-modal training approach that combines the best elements from all available methods and technologies.
Enriquez-Geppert, Stefanie, et al. "The Morphology of Midcingulate Cortex Predicts Frontal-Midline Theta Neurofeedback Success." Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, vol. 7, 2013, pp. 1-10. Gruzelier, John H. "EEG-Neurofeedback for Optimising Performance. I: A Review of Cognitive and Affective Outcome in Healthy Participants." Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, vol. 44, 2014, pp. 124-141. Ros, Tomas, et al. "Consensus on the Reporting and Experimental Design of Clinical and Cognitive-Behavioural Neurofeedback Studies (CRED-nf Checklist)." Brain, vol. 143, no. 6, 2020, pp. 1674-1685. Micoulaud-Franchi, Jean-Arthur, et al. "Electroencephalographic Neurofeedback: Level of Evidence in Mental and Brain Disorders and Suggestions for Good Clinical Practice." Neurophysiologie Clinique, vol. 45, no. 6, 2015, pp. 423-433. Escolano, Carlos, et al. "EEG-Based Upper-Alpha Neurofeedback Training Improves Working Memory Performance." Proceedings of the Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2014, pp. 2327-2330. Vernon, David J. "Can Neurofeedback Training Enhance Performance? An Evaluation of the Evidence with Implications for Future Research." Applied Psychology, vol. 54, no. 3, 2005, pp. 385-404.
Get the Neurofeedback You Need
Whether you're in the Los Angeles area or elsewhere in the United States, we can provide you the services you need.
Reach Out To Us
Professional Certifications
