appropriate treatment for 4 1/2 year old with OCD

July 6, 2011

Hi,

My daughter is 4 1/2 and has some pretty classic OCD-like behavior that comes

and goes. She tends to have issues with clothes being uncomfortable, worries,

needing to know exactly what is happening, hoarding special things, and similar

things. It started a little over a year ago and we had a pretty bad year. I

read the books with her (worry hill, brain gets stuck) and she really pulled out

of it. About 3 months ago I lined up a therapist and we started to go, but of

course that was when she was pulling out of it so for several weeks I was going

weekly and telling the therapist that we really weren't having issues. I

finally put the therapist on hold because it was a waste of time and money. Now

the clothes thing is coming back and making my daughter pretty miserable so

we're starting to go back.

My question is really about how therapists should work with 4 year olds. When I

interviewed this therapist she told me that parental involvement was key and I

had to be involved to make it work. That's what I want and I assumed that the

therapist and my daughter and I would all be working together. But...normally

the therapist talks to me for a few minutes of the session, sends me to

Starbucks, and then asks me to come back for the last 10 minutes so she can tell

me what they worked on. My daughter seems to like this and always asks when I'm

going to leave, but I'm wondering if this is really the best way. I'm sure that

no matter how good this therapist is, an hour a week with a 4 year old is not

going to accomplish anything so I'd like her to work with us together so I can

continue the work at home. I'd like to know what experiences others have had in

therapy with such young kids.

Thank you

Recommended Posts