How is social learning impaired?
Academic learning is obviously vital to a child’s progression, but social learning can be just as important to a child’s development and functionality. While social learning isn’t tested and graded in the same way, it is an important topic in school. Some teachers work on a child’s social skills by assigning a team project, and nonacademic school time is the groundwork of social learning. Discussions at the lunch table may give a wealth of social lessons. Additionally, interaction in the family is another time for children to acquire the social skills they will need to be successful in life. Your child with bipolar disorder may not always act in a socially appropriate manner. There are a couple reasons why this may be true.
Some children with bipolar disorder understand social appropriateness but are unable to maintain appropriate interaction when in an active mood state. Your child’s mood cycles may temporarily overtake everything else and prevent him from applying the social skills he already has acquired. When this is the case, stabilizing your child will enable him to use his social skills. Other children with the disorder are impaired in their social development and understanding. These social deficits are recognizably lacking even when the child is in a stable condition—the necessity of polite interaction, the ability to make friends or the understanding of inappropriate interaction may be beyond the child’s grasp.
Altered perception of other people’s emotions also plays a role in negatively affecting the social interactions of children with bipolar disorder. Successful social interaction partially relies on being able to interpret body language and facial expressions correctly. Processing facial emotions is impaired in children with bipolar disorder. Neutral faces are perceived as hostile. If your child with bipolar disorder incorrectly perceives another child as being hostile, it is unlikely that he will interact with that child appropriately.
Excerpt from The Childhood Bipolar Disorder Answer Book published by Sourcebooks, Inc.
Copyright 2008 by Tracy Anglada and Sheryl Hakala All Rights Reserved