Psychotherapy

Individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders oftentimes receive feedback that the ways in which they see the world are different and wrong. Thus, they are at higher risk for developing psychopathology. A wide body of research supports that people with neurodevelopmental disorders are more likely than peers without those disorders to develop anxiety and depression. They are at higher risk of developing inadequate coping strategies as well as low self-concept. Co-occurring social problems are associated with even poorer psychosocial outcomes.

Many people assume that psychopathology is caused by the challenges faced by people with neurodevelopmental disorders in their lives each day. However, it is my impression that these symptoms of anxiety and depression are central to, rather than byproducts of, these disorders. In fact, a recent article that I published in the peer-reviewed journal Developmental Science called “Amygdala sub-regional functional connectivity predicts anxiety in children with reading disorder” suggests that there is a common circuit in the brain that underlies both learning difficulty and anxiety. (You can learn more about that here.) Others have shown similar findings in studies of math, writing, and attention problems, as well as of depressive symptomatology.

Since cognitive and emotional systems are inextricably linked in the brain, neurodevelopmental disorders require both psychological evaluation and treatment. In treatment, the person realizes that I understand how he or she sees the world, which helps them feel accepted and valued.