Discussion Board DUE Sunday 7/18 at 9PM EST

Week 7 Classmate Responses

Classmate 3:

Chapter 19: Counseling Children with Special Concerns

1. Briefly outline your treatment with a 10-year-old-male whose parents have just divorced. What symptons of trauma would you expect to see and what kinds of counseling interventions would you plan?

Treatment includes acknowledging the reality of the marriage breakup by providing children with a clear explanation by both parents; Disengaging from parental conflict and distress and resuming customary pursuits which require parents working to help children keep their lives in order and not letting the divorce overshadow all their activities and familiar routines; resolution of loss, which require as much as possible a consistent pattern of visitation by the absent parent; resolving anger and self-blame, this require helping the child not to blame themself for the decison of the parents; Accepting the permanence of divorce, reality therapy may be of help in this acceptance; Achieving realistics hope regarding relationships by helping children realize they are loved.

Symptons of trauma can range from mild to severe, based upon the age and development of the child. Preschoolers due to limited cognitive development are often frightened, insecure, experience nightmares, and regess to more infantlle behaviors. School age children (6-8-yers) often believe the divorce is their fault and may feel loss, rejection, guilt, and loyalty conflicts. 9 to 12 year-old may becom angryat the parent they blame for the divorce or may take a supportive role as they worry about their troubled parents. Due to their anxiety they may develop somatic symptoms, engage in troublesome behaviors, or experience a decline in academic achievement. Adolescent children may act out more severe behavior to include promiscuity, alcohor or drug abuse, due to low self-esteem.

2. Describe four goals you might include in your treatment plan for a child in an alcoholic family. What kind of counseling technique would you probably include?

Four goals for children includes: a. giving emotional support to the child; b. providing accurate, nonjudgmental information about chemical dependency; c. correct children's perceptions of being the cause of the parental problems and the attached guilt and shame; d. help children focus on their behaviors to gain a sense of control, to make responsible choices, and perhaps to teach them to have fun.

Age must always be a the primary consideration, but with that being said I would most probably use Reality Therapy because alcoholism or any chemical dependency addiction is not something an adult can hide as well, so the child need to be provided with information to help them understand the reality of the adult addiction. Through reality counseling techniques the counselor should be listening, be reflective, clarify concerns, help with problem solving and perhaps provide some stress-reduction techniques for the child, however it start with acknowledging the reality of the disease.

Chapter 20: Counseling with Children with Disabilities

1. Describe your plan for treatment for a 9-year-old-child from a single parent home diagnosed with an emotional disturbance and symptoms of hyperactivity, anxiety, sadness and is destructive with his acting-out behavior.

Treatement plan would include: Training for parents on how to handle child or adolescent behavior; family therapy; training in problem-solvingskills for children or adolescents; and community-based services that focus on the young person within the context of family and community influences.

2. List the categories and description of exceptionalities. Have you worked with any children in these catgories? Share what you can about your expereince.

Catgories and descriptions of exceptionalities include but is not limited to:

a. Intellectual: Significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning, existing simultaneously with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period, that adversely affect a child's educatonal performance.

b. Learning: Disorder in one or more of the psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language that causes difficulties in listening, thinking, speaking, writing, spelling, or doing mathematical calculations.

c. Physical: Refer to orthopedic impairments, these children have difficulty with the structure or the functionig of their bodies. Physical disabilty includes conditions that may be congenital, accidental, or related to a disease that cause physical limitations.

d. Behavioral-emotional disorders: This is associated with mental health or severe behavior issues, the types of emotional disturbances include anxiety disorder, eating disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and psychotic disorder.

e. ADHD: They show a persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that interfers with functionig or development.

I have experience with a child now an adult with autism as the non-custodial parent. My son who I personally rate as on the mild side of autism primarily was impacted by a lack of social interaction. Again more so on a mild side because he did go to an graduate from public school, however he prefer not to interact with to many people as much as possible.

Also, I recently had a first cousin who passed away. He was severly mentally retarded (maybe an offensive term to some) however he never spoke, he was not able to ever function on his own. Although he went to a school as achild for severe mental disorder he lived with his parents and once my aunt past away he was no far behind. Most of the family who was close speculate his ability of not being able to function without them was the reason why his death was within a couple of month of my aunt.