8% of children experience hearing voices that others can’t hear or seeing things that others can’t see. So what might cause some children to go on to develop psychosis? In this interview, Dr Kristin Laurens from the Schizophrenia Research Institute in Australia speaks to Radio National’s Dr Norman Swan about this topic and how best to respond to these experiences.
More information about the prevalence of hearing voices and other unusual experiences in children and adolescents can be found in this paper by Renaud Jardri and colleagues. The paper grew from the Second Meeting of the International Consortium on Hallucination Research hosted by Hearing the Voice in Durham in 2013 and is available to read freely online.
Full reference:
Jardri, R., Bartels-Velthuis, A., Debbané, M., Jenner, J., Kelleher, I., Dauvillier, Y., Plazzi, G., Demeulemeester, M., David, C., Rapoport, J., Dobbelaere, D., Escher, S., and Fernyhough, C. (2014). From phenomenology to a neurophysiological understanding of hallucinations in children and adolescents. Schizophrenia Bulletin.