Over 20% of Irish children report hearing voices

its called daydreaming, can kids just be left be kids anymore?

They assessed 2500 children in Dublin and then claim its nationwide.
Surly a comprensive assessment should be of children from all over Ireland.
I agree with this.
Do you?
Yes I do.

krudler wrote: »

its called daydreaming, can kids just be left be kids anymore?

No, at least not until every nuance of human existence has been labeled a condition.

I don't know what to make of this "study" tbh.

How do you explain to a child what "hearing voices" should sound like? There's a general theory that it takes a little while for humans to make sense of how their head works, and so children tend to have difficulty integrating the inner monologue with the rest of their thinking, and so may often describe this as "someone inside me telling me what to do". As an inner monologue isn't always a single train of thought either, it would be very easy to describe it as a conversation going on between two or more people inside your own head.

The maturation of the brain leads to better control of the inner monlogue and more understanding internally of how it all fits together.

I don't think it's a massive leap then to suppose that most of this 20% is the simply the result of immature brains failing to understand the difference between inner monologues, daydreams and actual auditory hallucinations. This would also explain why it spontaneously "goes away" as they get older.

Note, its OK to hear your own voice in your head. It is when you hear other people's voice when you shouldn't be able to, that's when it might be a problem.

krudler wrote: »

its called daydreaming, can kids just be left be kids anymore?

While this is AH, I think thats may be a bit glib.Pretty much everyone daydreams, not everyone hears voices.

Once, I saw three coffins in the office at work. My eys were telling me there were coffins, logic and common sense told me that we don't keep coffins in work. I was only able to deduce I was halucinating.
Sometimes the mind has difficulty reconciling perception with reality.

IM0 wrote: »

well that fits in with 1:4/5 people will develop a mental illness stat. makes sense.

decyphering your mathematical notation would make me develop a mental illness.

seamus wrote: »

I don't know what to make of this "study" tbh.

How do you explain to a child what "hearing voices" should sound like? There's a general theory that it takes a little while for humans to make sense of how their head works, and so children tend to have difficulty integrating the inner monologue with the rest of their thinking, and so may often describe this as "someone inside me telling me what to do". As an inner monologue isn't always a single train of thought either, it would be very easy to describe it as a conversation going on between two or more people inside your own head.

The maturation of the brain leads to better control of the inner monlogue and more understanding internally of how it all fits together.

I don't think it's a massive leap then to suppose that most of this 20% is the simply the result of immature brains failing to understand the difference between inner monologues, daydreams and actual auditory hallucinations. This would also explain why it spontaneously "goes away" as they get older.

exactly, everyone has that "ah sh1t I forgot to do that thing, ah well do it tomorrow" voice in their head, but its not an actual case of hearing voices, my inner monologue is always going.

I'm willing to bet that 19% of Irish kids answered Yes just to wind up the researcher.