| Tuesday, 04 May 2021 01:00 PM MYT |
| By Tengku Puteri Iman Afzan |
Last month (April 2021), The New York Times published an article titled How to spot depression in young children.
The author, paediatrician Dr Perri Klass, wrote that “Young children can also experience depression, but it can look very different, which makes it challenging for parents – or doctors – to recognise it and provide help.”
The article listed a few statistics that are absolutely critical, i.e.:
Two to three percent of children ages six to 12 can have depression.
Between 1-2% of children as young as three years of age are depressed, and
More than 7% of children aged three to seven have anxiety disorders.
These statistics are not so foreign to us here at home.
A few weeks ago, we read of the suicide of a nine-year-old girl who hung herself with a sarong at her bedroom window.