"He Has an Irrational Fear of Pinecones"

Before I'd even met the two-year-old boy, his mother told me, "He has an irrational fear of pinecones."This was important for me to know because there was a pine tree on the playground. And she knew it. I quickly considered how I should respond if she asked me to remove pinecones from the playground. Thankfully, that's not where she was going. Instead, she said, "I wonder how he's going to react when he notices."In recent years, we've seen an uptick in mental health diagnoses in young children, especially anxiety disorders. The jury is still out on why this is happening. It may well be that society, the environment in which our children are growing up, is causing it (e.g., early academic pressure, technology, decreasing opportunities for outdoor play, and so on). But it's almost certain that at least some of the increase is simply a statistical phenomenon based on improved diagnostic methods and earlier intervention, rather than an actual increase in anxiety disorders. I've known many…