Vinh Q. Thai, MD

I found this article in the Wall Street Journal Online today, 9/8/2009. Therapists in preschool is a good idea, I think. There is much about emotions and behavior that children need to learn before they are three or four years old. But more conventional preschools are not equipped to offer this education, even as they admit younger kids who are not yet emotionally prepared. I agree that, unfortunately, in today's American culture, there is, in too many situations, not enough time and energy for parents to perform the important task of educating their children on emotional thinking. I think this is an important reason for the increase in behavioral problems, including ADHD. However, it is not easy to change culture. While we may work to change the culture, we may as well help the kids now by offering more psychotherapists. Quoted from the article, "preschool teachers who have access to mental-health consultants are about half as likely to expel a child, compared with teachers who lack such support." This is a fantastic result.

Great performers do not become great due to inborn talent. Great performers do not become great due to hard work. Learning a skill involves focused, deliberate practice. The more one practices in this focused, deliberate manner, the more skilled one becomes. There is a phenomenon similar to the compounding of interest, in which what one learns through practice makes further practice and learning easier, so that the skill improves at an accelerated rate, reaching the level of mastery. A great performer becomes great at a particular endeavor because he started early in practicing that particular skill and had practiced it for a longer total amount of time than most everyone else. He practiced it in a focused, deliberate manner. He notices his performance. He makes changes to the performance based on careful observation of his action and the result. He pushes himself to the limit of his current skill, always trying for better performance. He makes mistakes constantly, because he tries what he has not yet mastered. He is open to learning from his mistakes. His skill improves proportionately to the amount of time he practices in this deliberate manner.

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I like this article by Jan Goddard-Finegold, MD, which I read in the Psychiatric Times, May 26, 2009 Vol. 26 No. 6.

The author wrote about her experience as a patient suffering from severe depression and how she benefited from psychodynamic psychotherapy. Check it out here: http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/1416841?pageNumber=1