Actually, You're Fine: A Compassionate, Practical Guide to Maximizing Your Child's Potential in the Age of Anxiety
About this ebook
As parents, we want nothing more than our child to thrive in each stage of development. Seeing them struggle in that process can be difficult, but sometimes, it’s normal. After years of research, Dr. Davis suggests that a diagnosis isn’t always the answer helping our kids keep up with the curve.
Actually, You’re Fine is a compassionate guide to childhood development that reveals anxiety is natural when it comes to tracking your child’s development. Our instinct, when we notice a child struggling, is often to search for a label—to assume that difficulty must signal a disorder. But the rush to pathologize can be harmful for both parents and kids for a range of reasons, from unnecessary medication to misallocation of resources. Rather than feeling capable and ready to take on life’s challenges, children can feel that their challenges are unacceptable and taboo. Overdiagnosis can also stigmatize kids who are genuinely struggling.
With actionable insights, Dr. Davis empowers you to advocate for your children at school, and foster their development at home. You’ll learn:
- How diagnoses are achieved—and what they actually mean
- Critical information about emergent diagnoses that aren’t actually codified—and why this trend can do more harm than good
- The difference between symptoms and diagnoses
- Reasons why your child might be struggling in school, and interventions to help improve their functioning
- How to accurately identify when more support is necessary and navigate the institutions that can provide it
- The various interconnected challenges children can have—cognitive, social, and emotional
- An accessible, realistic approach to maximizing your child’s potential in a world of overachievement
Actually, You’re Fine offers clear-eyed and empathetic guidance to help parents, caregivers, and educators watch your kids succeed without pathologizing them—while still being able to recognize if a child does need an intervention.
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About the author
Katie S. Davis, PsyD., is a clinical neuropsychologist who provides psychotherapy and cognitive remediation to children with learning disorders and related developmental disorders. She is an assistant professor in the Combined School-Clinical Child Psychology Psy.D. Program at Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, Yeshiva University. She presents her research on neurodevelopmental disorders, learning disabilities, and child mental health regularly at national conferences and publishes frequently in peer-reviewed academic journals, including Cognitive Neurology, Developmental Science, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Annals of Family Medicine. Dr. Davis has been featured as an expert in Inside Edition, New York Magazine, Psychology Today, and Reader’s Digest. She lives in New York City with her family.
