Educating on Psychology - Clinical Psychology and Working with Children
I've been keeping myself busy studying and writing articles on Psychology and Neuropsychology.
Back in the days, whenever I had to study or look for information on a specific subject, I couldn't find much on the internet about the Psychology Model I use in my clinical practice: Relational-Dialogic Model.
So I decided to read everything I have in paper and share my thoughts and scientific information on this Model. This is what makes my new Project: Through Psychology!
read the first part here
PLAY-THERAPY AND NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL HABILITATION
With children that come with behavioural issues, I usually do Play-Therapy. Basically, we play! Yes, we play!
I will talk about Play-Therapy in another post, but for now we can think about this: play is the main mean of communication children have. It allows children to express themselves, their feelings and emotions, their thoughts, their behaviour. If they find an attentive Other, they will be more and more willing to put out all of them.
Then, it only depends on us, psychologists, to understand what can be an important initiative the child is trying to show, and then to be contingent - show a mirror behaviour - to that initiative.
In cases of autism, the child has given up sending initiatives because the parents cannot understand that those behaviours - the simple smile, the giggle, the crying, throwing objects on the floor, are all initiatives.
They are calling for someone to respond to them in the most basic tools they have. They need that basic communication to feel protected and safe, to feel they are part of a caring group of humans. And they need that communication to start organizing their chaotic mind, full of stimuli.
If that does not happen, if no one answers or have a bad timing in answering their "calls", if no one is contingent or is poorly contingent to their initiatives, they start shutting down, they start closing up into their own chaotic world, they start giving up sending initiatives.
The work of a psychologist here has to be very watchful: because autistic children send so few initiatives - that call for an action -, everything that happens in the office has to be mirrored and understood as an initiative. With time, we start entering his own world so that he understands there is someone that is trying to communicate with him.
With time, we will start sharing a mean of communication only the two of us can understand and, only after some more time, will the autistic child understand we can share a different mean of communication - a tool that can be understood by his parents, his family, his classmates, his teachers...
Here he will start feeling as a part of that community, with an organized mind and a less chaotic world.
In cases of hyperactivity, the initiatives come in a flood, almost all at the same time, because the main issue here is that they don't know to which initiative will we pay attention to, so they keep sending and sending initiatives.
These initiatives are in the form of extreme activity: inability to sit down for more than 2 minutes, inability to stay in the same task for some period, constantly changing tasks, constantly talking about several subjects... And as a psychologist, one must be able to focus on the main initiatives.
At the beginning it is a strenuous task, but with time the technician starts focusing on the ones the child spends a little bit more time than the others. And then the child will perceive that the psyhologist is paying attention to those actions, so he understands that someone can follow his communication.
So, both will carry this type of communication until the child is able to control his behaviour in a more coherent way.
In cases of defiance or authority problems, the initiatives are more elaborate, as usually they are part of the growing process of the adolescent!
Here, the initiaves will be rudeness, arrogance, angriness, even rage, that can also be shown as severe actions such as beating up classmates or teachers. They are trying to say that, even though they are growing up, they still need strict limits and affection.
Here they already know to which initiatives their parents are paying attention to - the bad ones. So, they will repeat those actions several times until one of the parents give the strict limit and affection they are asking for.
That is what happens inside the psychology office. We try to contain those actions, all those strong feelings, and give them the boundaries necessary for them to feel that it is safe to grow up because there will always be someone significant looking up for them.
When children come with academical issues they are usually sent by their teachers.
In most cases, after a psychological and neuropsychological assessment, I endure on neuropsychological habilitation (other cases turn out to be an emotional issue that is preventing the child from learning, so we move to Play-Therapy).
For that, I have to pay close attention to the results of the assesment so I can work specifically on the affected function.
Sometimes, it is a matter of Voluntary Attention. So we practice that function with specific exercises to improve the Voluntary Attention, plus the basic rules of neuropsychological habilitation:
Sitting straight with feet on the ground and arms on the table,
All the reading part must be done with the indicator from the right hand, while the indicator from the left hand marks the beginning of the line,
And an error is never accepted, that means that we cannot move forward unless that task is successfully completed.
Only following these rules, we are able to say that the tasks are re-shaping the brain of that child.
If it is a matter of Memory, we will work with Memory exercises plus Attention exercises. If it is a matter of Reading, we will work it with texts and interpretation exercises, plus Attention ones. And so on, and so on...
You can read more here! All the contents are my own thoughts or interpretations I made from scientific articles! Feel free to share this contents as long as you quote my name!