Clinical and Educational Child Psychology

An Ecological-Transactional Approach to Understanding Child Problems and Interventions

Linda Wilmshurst

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781118439982
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Psychotherapy
• Index: Psychology

Clinical and Educational Child Psychology

"There is no shortage of books on developmental psychopathology, but what is unique about this one is the effort to bridge clinical and educational practice with school practice. It is very well conceptualized, and the ecological and transactional approach is very appropriate to the subject matter. In fact, it is the only framework capable of providing a full picture of children's mental health problems. This book is highly relevant for psychologists working with children and families, as well as for teachers and special education professionals."

Isaac Prilleltensky, PhD, Dean, School of Education and Human Development, Professor of Educational and Psychological Studies, University of Miami

Clinical and Educational Child Psychology: An Ecological-fransactional Approach to Understanding Child Problems and Interventions examines developmental patterns in children aged 3 to 18 and the challenges that influence their developmental trajectory. Adopting a transactional-ecological perspective, Linda Wilmshurst explores the reasons why some children exposed to a variety of stressors may become vulnerable to a host of clinical, educational, and mental health problems. Initial chapters explore theoretical models and developmental milestones from early childhood through adolescence. Coverage also includes a variety of contemporary issues in the psychopathology of children and adolescents, with discussion of neurodevelopmental and disruptive behavior disorders, anxiety and mood disorders, attention and learning disorders, later onset disorders such as substance abuse and eating disorders, and issues of maltreatment that can result in trauma disorders.

Through an innovative presentation that combines clinical and educational psychological approaches, Clinical and Educational Child Psychology offers unique insights into our understanding of behavioral issues during the transition from childhood to adolescence.

Part One

The Foundations

1

Child and Adolescent Development: Normal and Atypical Variations

Introduction

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Case study of Pat: an introduction

Pat is experiencing problems in sc-hool. Pat never seems to finish assignments on time and takes forever to get started on a task. Yesterday, Pat sat for 15 minutes staring into space, before putting pencil to paper.

When Pat enters the classroom, you can tell immediately if it is going to be a good day or a bad day. One day, Pat can be moody, irritable, and very hard to get along with, and on another day, Pat can be happy and almost giddy with excitement. However, on these occasions, it is very easy for Pat to escalate out of control.

Because of the mood swings, Pat is not popular with peers, and basically has no friends, at school. As a result, Pat is often on the sidelines watching as others socialize and have fun.

Fortunately, Pat is a member of the community soccer team, which affords an opportunity to engage in activities with peers on the weekend.

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What is normal behavior and when does deviation from the norm become serious enough to warrant a label of “abnormal” behavior? Can behavior be considered normal in one context and abnormal in another? Can behavior be considered “normal” at one age and “abnormal” or atypical at another age? These are some of the questions that will be addressed throughout this book and in the case study in this chapter.

A case in practice

As you read the case study in the sidebar, ask yourself the question: “How serious is Pat's problem?” Pat is experiencing problems in a number of different areas, including social, emotional, and educational. If you were a clinical or educational/school psychologist, and Pat's mother or teacher asked if you thought Pat was in need of intervention, how would you determine the severity of Pat's problems and what important information would you need to know? What is the first question you should ask? The first question should be: How old is Pat? Because children are growing and changing, it is imperative to know what the expectations are for Pat, given the age level. If Pat were a preschooler, the mood swings would likely be due to immaturity in emotional control and emotion regulation which is in the process of being stabilized during this period. However, if Pat is an eight- or 10-year-old child, then our expectation would be for significantly more maturity in areas of emotional control and self-regulation. Additionally, the age of the child would determine which assessment instruments should be used and the type of pre-assessment information that might be useful. Initially, regardless of the focus of concern, understanding the problem requires a fundamental understanding of the nature and course of development.

The nature and course of development

The study of human development in the formative years focuses on predictable “age-related changes that are orderly, cumulative and directional” (DeHart, Sroufe, & Cooper, 2004, p. 4). Knowledge of normal development is a prerequisite to understanding the extent and nature of any deviations from the norm that may exist in social, emotional, or behavioral functioning. In normal development, skills and competencies build on previous foundations, becoming increasingly refined and complex. It is from this predictable framework that deviations in the acquisition of developmental milestones (physical, cognitive, behavioral, emotional, social) can be assessed using normal developmental expectations as the guide.

There are several guiding principles from the study of normal development that have significant implications for understanding deviations in child development from a clinical and educational perspective. Some of the salient features are presented in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1 Guideposts to the study of child development

1. Development unfolds in a predictable pattern. 2. Patterns of behavior and skills (thoughts, emotions, motor skills) build upon previously acquired skills and progress towards increasingly complex variants of these behaviors throughout childhood and adolescence. 3. Although children pass through similar stages or sequences of development, the rate of mastery of various milestones can vary widely due to individual differences. 4. Some factors that can influence a child's rate of skill acquisition, for better or worse, include: child variables, such as heredity, temperament, cognitive ability, motor, affective, and social maturation; and environmental variables, such as parenting practices, socio-economic status, peers, quality of schooling, culture, as well as availability of and access to community resources. As a result, development is the outcome of the on-going transactions between the child and his or her environment. 5. In the transactional model (Sameroff & Chandler, 1975), child and parent outcomes are seen to be the result of the on-going interplay of child and environmental factors that influence, respond to, and adapt to changes on several ecological levels (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). The application of these models as an over-arching framework for understanding child development across biological, psychological, and social domains has resulted in a complex and comprehensive perspective: the ecological transactional model (Cicchetti & Lynch, 1993).

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Transactional processes

The term “transactional” is used to refer to the “interrelations among dynamic biological, psychological and social systems” that provide the necessary framework for the “ongoing and multiple transactions among environmental forces, caregiver characteristics and child characteristics as dynamic, reciprocal contributions” that increase or decrease the likelihood of well-being or psychopathology (Cicchetti & Toth, 1998, p. 226).

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The nature of developmental change

Historically, developmental change has been conceptualized as following either a discontinuous or continuous course, while the major contributing forces have been attributed to the influences of nature (heredity) or nurture (environment). Within this framework, outcomes in the form of milestones or benchmarks assist in making comparisons between levels of achievements mastered relative to predicted developmental expectations. The following discussion looks at how theorists have conceptualized the nature of developmental change over time.

Discontinuous versus continuous change

Discontinuous change

Theorists who propose a discontinuous pathway conceptualize development as a series of steps or stages which involve the mastery of levels that are distinctively different at each stage. Theoretical models that share this framework include, but are not limited to: Piaget's stages of cognitive development, Freud's psychosexual stage theory, and Erikson's stages of psychosocial development. Within this framework, theorists view change as quantitative and universal with a consistent set of sequences and a fixed order of progression, regardless of cultural or global context.

Continuous change

Other theorists believe that developmental change progresses in a smooth and continuous manner. For example, information processing theorists would be interested in studying how a child's memory strategies evolve over time, as the child adds new strategies and skills to his or her repertoire. Memory strategies adopted later in development would be qualitatively different from earlier methods used and would build on earlier skill sets. Within this framework, behavioral theorists would also consider the development of behavioral patterns as a continuous process of increasingly complex skills that build upon earlier patterns.

Nature versus nurture: historical beginnings

One of the most controversial themes surrounding child development that has sparked endless debate is the relative contribution of nature (heredity) versus nurture (environment).

Nature

On one side of the historical debate, the eighteenth-century French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau challenged assumptions regarding the importance of the environment for one's development and argued that nature was the supreme influence over the course of development. According to Rousseau, if parents were to adopt a laissez-faire approach (leaving the child alone and not interfering), the child would unfold naturally and blossom like a flower. For Rousseau, development was best represented as a series of stages (infancy, childhood, late childhood, and adolescence) that were programmed to unfold in a predictable pattern (discontinuous process).

Nurture

On the other side of the debate, proponents supported the views of the seventeenth-century English philosopher John Locke, who argued for the importance of “nurturance” in child rearing. According to Locke, children begin their existence as a tabula rasa, or blank slate, and are dependent on those around them to nurture their existence by filling their slates with knowledge. Locke would have been supportive of change as a continuous process, evident in the increasingly complex changes that result under the tutelage of adult mentors.

Nature's child

Just prior to 1800, a 12-year-old feral child was discovered in a forest in Aveyron, France that would put the nature/nurture debate to the test. A medical student, Jean Itard, took the wild boy of Aveyron into his home and devoted years to an attempt to civilize the boy whom he named Victor. However, after many years of instruction, Victor mad...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Part One: The Foundations
• Part Two: Child and Adolescent Problems and Disorders
• Index