Penfield Children's Center helps kids with emotional & behavioral disorders

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- Thursday, May 8th marks National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day, but Penfield Children's Center in Milwaukee is always working to help kids and families overcome these issues early on.

Three-year-old Keiondre is a little boy whose smile is infections as he plays with his great-aunt and guardian, Patricia Roberts, at the Penfield Children's Center.

"It's been a beautiful experience because Keiondre came a long way," said Roberts.

In his short life, he's already overcome a lot to get to this point.

"He used to cry a lot. I could never figure out why he was crying and throwing fits," said Roberts.

But Keiondre's behavioral issues were most likely created even before he was born.

"My niece, his mom's out on the street and doing the stuff, you know, while she was carrying him," said Roberts.

Roberts also says she didn't think there was help out there, until she heard of Penfield Children's Center.

"When we came into the home he had a lot of challenging behavior, difficulty with attention, attention span, frustration tolerance, and some oppositional behavior," said Michelle Rosenwald, family counselor.

"He could barely stand in front of me to say hello because his attention span was so short," said Kimberly O'Brien, family counselor.

Rosenwald and O'Brien are the Penfield counselors who work with Keiondre and his family.

"I got to work with Keiondre on his play skills and being able to hold his attention in play for a longer and longer periods of time as we worked together," said Rosenwald.

For Roberts, the help she found has been life changing, and now she's hoping others in a similar position can find the same thing.

Penfield serves nearly 500 children under the age of 6-years-old with emotional and behavioral disorders. More than 60 percent of the children diagnosed with a clinical condition before treatment no longer had that diagnosis afterwords.

CLICK HERE for more information on what Penfield Children's Center offers.