Counseling Children

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Counseling Children

Dr. Esther Park

6th class

+ Review of Last Class

!  Any Comments?

!  Any Questions?

!  Next week—Mid term exam: Lecture and textbook

Developmental Domains 3

+ Topics for each age range

!  Normal development

!  Brain development

!  Attachment

!  Grief and loss

!  Red flags

!  Implications for counseling and practice

!  0-2; 3-5; 6-12; Adolescence

+ The brain

!  Most complex organ in the human body

!  100 billions of neurons

!  Each neuron making 10,000 connections with other neurons

!  Trillions of synapses

!  Prime mandate is survival

!  Creation of relationship building is the primary survival mechanism for human brain

+ Synaptic Density*

•  Born with 100 million neurons

•  Brain develops more rapidly and extensively during the first year than previously thought

•  Significant influence of environment & experience

•  Synaptic Pruning: “Use it or lose it”

* (Perry 2002)

6

Birth Six years old 14 years old

+ Responses to Disruptions in Attachment—Insecure (0-2) !  Protest

!  Despair

!  Detachment

!  Vigilance

!  Decreased activity

!  Sleep disturbance; weight loss; does not grow well

!  Lack of empathy

+ Interrupted Attachment (3-5)

!  Low self esteem

!  General distrust of others

!  Mood disorders

!  Inadequate social skills

!  General cognitive and language delays

+ Grief and Loss in 3-5 old Children

!  May think separation as punishment

!  May have trouble eating and sleeping

!  May regress in bowel and bladder control

!  May think death is temporary, or reversible

!  May use magical thinking to explain loss

!  May think parents and families are gone foreever

+ Grief and Loss in 6 -12

!  May be curious and ask many questions

!  May become fearful and anxious

!  May withdraw from others

!  May feel abandoned by parents

!  Have increased activity to understand reason for separation

!  May worry about family more than self

+ Specific Problems and Disorders (Chap 6: pp 60 -85)

!  Shy child

!  Non-affectionate child

!  Slow to develop child

!  Generalized and pervasive delays in development

!  Oppositional child

!  Gifted child

!  Emotional disturbed/disordered child—Chap 7(86-107)

+ Nature of Oppositional Behavior— Conduct disorder (PP 70 – 81) !  Goals of Oppositional behavior

!  Attention seeking !  Control power !  Animosity or revenge !  Reflection of inadequacy (low

self esteem)

!  Intervention !  Time out !  Turn-offs !  Hold-downs !  A consequence charts—limit

setting !  Use of “No” and spanking

+ Depression in Children

!  May appear as sad or irritable

!  Symptoms include: !  School difficulties, refusal to attend !  Withdrawal, isolation !  Physical complaints !  Negative attitude !  Aggressive or antisocial behavior

+ Two types of trauma: A and B

!  Trauma A: Absence of positive experience (love, encouragement)—absence of appropriate stimulation at the right time

!  Trauma B: Bad things added (abuse, or violence): Over stimulation at the wrong time

+ Effects of Maltreatment (trauma, abuse, neglect, abandonment) !  Anxiety and an inability to perform

!  Impulsivity and compulsivity

!  Maladaptive Behaviors: !  Misbehavior; Truancy, unruly acting out behavior !  Lack of confidence about the future !  Depression !  Feelings of guilt, shame, self doubt, lack of self-worth !  Avoidance of intimacy !  Lack of empathy; can be violent to self or others

+ Learned Helplessness

+ Learned Helplessness

!  experimental research on classical conditioning, Seligman inadvertently discovered that dogs that had received unavoidable electric shocks failed to take action in subsequent situations—even those in which escape or avoidance was in fact possible—whereas dogs that had not received the unavoidable shocks immediately took action in subsequent situations.

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!  The experiment was replicated with human subjects (using loud noise as opposed to electric shocks), yielding similar results. Seligman coined the term learned helplessness to describe the expectation that outcomes are uncontrollable.