Childhood mental illness is grabbing the public’s attention – Oprah was the latest to highlight it by profiling a seven-year-old girl with schizophrenia – and the rise in diagnoses could create new challenges for preschool and pre-kindergarten educators.

These days, five-year-olds are diagnosed with depression, anxiety, and even bipolar disorder. Overall, 10 million children struggle with some type of psychiatric disorder, I learned from New York University's Child Study Center when reporting a story last year.

The numbers raise similar concerns for the early learning community as autism’s troubling rise. More children likely are landing in pre-kindergarten and preschool with a mental illness diagnosis, with their families in a confusing and shifting world where too often there is a lack of consensus. Health professionals worry about overdiagnosis, underdiagnosis, misdiagnosis and use of medication. They debate what childhood mental illness is and how to treat it.

That means teachers not only work with diagnosed children, but also stressed out parents, who are desperately trying to figure out what is going on with their kids. And there is another twist because while mental illness exists among children, it can change as they grow older.

As usual I have more questions than answers. What is this rise in diagnosis doing to classrooms? Are teachers dealing with the same problems they always have, only now the behaviors have names? Or, is something else going on? Any feedback from teachers would be great. So, post your comments here.

Thanks to Lisa Belkin for highlighting that this is Mental Illness Awareness Week. Belkin writes about the topic today on The New York Times blog Motherlode, “When a Child Has a Mental Illness.”