Make one paragraph comment for each
1): Jemal is in counseling because he has been struggling with his social interactions both at home and at school. Jemal has been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, level one, and was in a special program at his school from Kindergarten through fourth grade. It was recently decided that Jamall should transition back to the mainstream classroom. Jamall has a hard time interpreting social cues and gets frustrated easily. Jamal stated that he did not want to talk in counseling because the office walls were blue and he does not like blue. When his grandmother sternly tried to redirect him in the session Jamal shut down and refused to talk the remainder of the session.
Significant Developmental Issue
The trauma of losing both parents and his Autism has caused significant developmental issues for Jamal. The loss of his parents has had a negative impact on his ability to cope and communicate his feelings about the event. Jamal’s Autism causes him to struggle with understanding and interpreting social cues making it difficult to make connections and relationships both at school and at home. More specifically Jamal has developmental delays in social skills and social cognition. Learning about social interactions, including how to make and keep friends should begin in early childhood (Broderick & Blewitt, 2020). As Jamal moves further into middle childhood friendships take on an enormous importance (Broderick & Blewitt, 2020). Hart Barnett (2018) shares that children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) experience challenges in developing social skills that are key to establishing lasting relationships. Due to the lack of social skills, Jamal struggles to initiate and create interactions with his peers and family members. Jamal has recently transitioned back to his mainstream class with his typically developing peers, prior to this he was in a program within his school for grades Kindergarten through fourth. Children with ASD are frequently educated in more restrictive and segregated settings allowing them fewer opportunities to access their typically developing peers and the interactions they do have are limited (Hart Barnett, 2018).
Broderick & Blewitt (2020) state that a child’s characteristics may affect parental behavior, the degree to which the child affects the parent’s practices can depend in part how the parent handles their emotional state and manages their stress. Due to the inability to cope with her emotional and mental stress, Jamal’s mother’s behaviors were impacted and her parenting style changed to a more neglecting an uninvolved style. Her responsiveness to all three of her children was low and she invested little time or attention to each child. Because of this she neglected to socialize her children to others (Broderick & Blewitt, 2020). With Jamal’s ASD he needs continued support in social interactions as well as opportunities to practice his skills. Jamal’s mother was unable to provide him with this experience.
Interventions to Enhance Development
It is recommended to implement evidence based strategies that support social skills and play for children with ASD both at Jamal’s school and at his home to help enhance Jamal’s social and emotional development. These are strategies that can be first taught in his counseling sessions and then taught to his grandparents and teachers to implement at home and at school.
The first strategy is play. Play is an integral part of early development. Children with ASD do not develop along with the standard pattern of play development (Hart Barnett, 2018). Behaviors that are foundational to social communication are learned through play. These behaviors are eye contact, joint attention, sharing, and turn-taking. These are things that children with ASD are often missing. It is important to teach play skills to children with ASD to help promote their development of friendships (Hart Barnett, 2018). As the counselor, it would be beneficial to use play within the counseling session to help teach Jamal social communication skills. It is also important that the teachers within Jamal’s school are given specific direction on how to create opportunities that address social communication for students with ASD during naturally occurring instructional routines.
A second strategy that can be used to help Jamal learn to initiate and prepare for conversations is scripts. Scripts can be used in the counseling sessions, at home, or at school to help inform Jamal of how to respond in a social or learning situation (Hart Barnett, 2018). As the scripts are created it is important to ensure that they align with Jamal’s verbal skills, needs and that they reflect on his interests and preferences. We can create a script to target a specific skill of social behavior. However, to help Jamal gain independence it is important to fade the scripts over time. Hart Barnett (2018) shares that scripts have helped to increase the duration of time children with ASD spent playing appropriately in preferred and non-preferred situations.
A third strategy that could be used within his counseling sessions is video modeling. Video modeling allows the child to watch a skill being modeled and then they are given the opportunity to practice the skill that they have just finished watching. It is important to keep the videos short. Video models can be created using peers or Jamal himself to act out the targeted skill or action. Video modeling helps to increase social initiations, social interactions and play (Hart Barnett, 2018).
A final strategy that could be used at home and at school would be offering Jamal choices. Allowing Jamal to make a choice between a limited number of options gives him the opportunity to make a choice and convey his preferences. Choices can be used when presenting materials at school, food to eat, activities, or who he wants to play with. It is beneficial to pair verbal cues with visuals as children with ASD are more successful when they have a concrete way to visually understand what their options are (Hart Barnett, 2018). By implementing this strategy we could help to decrease Jamal’s disruptive behaviors and increase his play skills.
Conclusion
Jamal is in need of intervention to help enhance his social skills and social cognition. Jamal’s mother neglected to socialize her children and teach them fundamental social skills. Jamal needs more intensive intervention in social skills and social cognition as he is diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Jamal’s recent transition into a mainstream classroom has also had a negative impact on his behaviors, as he did not yet have the social skills to initiate interactions with his peers to help him create meaningful relationships. It is recommended that play, scripts, video modeling, and choice be used as interventions to help teach Jamal fundamental social skills and help him to be successful in creating positive and meaningful relationships.
References
Hart Barnett, J. (2018). Three evidence-based strategies that support social skills and play among young children with autism spectrum disorders. Early Childhood Education Journal, 46(6), 665–672. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1007/s10…
Broderick, P., & Blewitt, P. (2020). The Life Span: Human Development for Helping Professionals (5th ed.). Pearson.
2) One thing that stands out to me is Hunter’s emotional regulation. Hunter was possibly abused. He struggles with getting aggressive and agitated easily. He shows physical aggression towards his younger sister who is four. Hunter lives in a single-parent household. His mother works two jobs and goes to school online. Hunter doesn’t have a male role model in his life. Hunter has no extended family support. He does not have a secure attachment with his caregiver.
Significant Developmental Issue
Some concerns with Hunter are his behavioral issues, physical aggression towards his younger sister, and possibly abuse by a family friend that was babysitting. During the session, Hunter was resistant to answering questions, tense, and belligerent. He also used inappropriate language. Hunter is easily agitated and aggressive. He is also anxious. All of these behaviors are concerns for me as a counselor. I think the most concerning thing to me is the possible abuse. I feel that if he was abused, this could be the root of all of these behavioral issues. Also, along with this abuse, I personally think that if it did happen, Hunter is struggling with trying to express/regulate all of his emotions.
According to Broderick and Blewitt (2020), emotional regulation is essential to controlling behaviors. Hunter could be struggling with emotional regulation and this could be causing him to behave like this. According to Warmingham, Handley, Russotti, Rogosch, & Cicchetti (2021) if emotional regulation is not understood now, and worked on during childhood, then decision-making can be an issue later on in adulthood.
Interventions to Enhance Development
One intervention that I would like to see Hunter and his mother start working on together is emotional regulation and ways to express himself positively. I feel that if Hunter can control his emotions, then his behavior will get better. When parents focus on emotional socialization practices with kids that have disruptive behaviors, they see lower behavior issues in their child. I would also like to give Carol any resources that she may feel she needs. Also, we are legally mandated to report abuse so I would proceed with further steps to get that situation checked out.
Conclusion
One presenting issue that Hunter has is his lack of emotional regulation. My concern with his lack of emotional regulation is that it will affect him later on in adulthood when it comes to decision-making skills. I recommend working on zones of regulation with him and also having Carol work with him on emotional socialization skills. I also would like to provide a list of resources that Carol can use if she feels she needs them.
References
Aghaie Meybodi, F., Mohammadkhani, P., Pourshahbaz, A., Dolatshahi, B., & Havighurst, S. S.
(2019). Improving Parent Emotion Socialization Practices: Piloting Tuning in to Kids in Iran for Children With Disruptive Behavior Problems. Family Relations, 68(5), 596–607. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1111/fare.12387
Broderick, P. C., & Blewitt, P. (2020). The life span: Human development for helping professionals (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ
:Pearson Education.
Warmingham, J. M., Handley, E. D., Russotti, J., Rogosch, F. A., & Cicchetti, D. (2021).
Childhood Attention Problems Mediate Effects of Child Maltreatment on Decision-Making Performance in Emerging Adulthood. Developmental Psychology, 57(3), 443–456.
