Journal 2 - The Importance of Stability

Journal 2

These past two weeks at my internship site I have gained a multitude of experiences, both good and bad. With the increasing workload that has come from a client being back in town from the holidays, I am grateful for the abundance of experiences, but having to learn how to best balance my time – between school, work, and social life – is difficult. Working between fifteen to twenty-five hours as a young adult, much less with the added stress of college and figuring out plans for the future, is challenging. Thankfully, however, some of the mentioned experiences at my internship site have done just that: help to solidify my career plans.

I mentioned in my previous journal that I have observed a demand for stability in the treatment and intervention of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This constancy stems from a treatment team who knows their clients well, has the knowledge to best intervene, and shows up time and time again, without inconsistency of time or providers, for the betterment of the client. Another pressing issue in the treatment of ASD has become apparent to me: parental effects.

A parent of one of my clients has been extremely involved in our company’s treatment plan. While the situation of a caregiver being present and engaged in her child’s therapy sounds positive, it begs the question of “how much parental involvement is too much?” From the start of my working with her child, this mother has voiced her concerns about the validity of our treatment. While I understand wanting the best for your child, I cannot help but notice that the perspective from which she regards her concerns is faulty. The caregiver works a challenging job, and it is apparent that excellency is the expectation of the family. With such high expectations, the parents try to push their kid beyond his limits. But without being present in the child’s day-to-day life for much of the time, the caregivers are unable to accurately observe and differentiate the child’s abilities. This puts the child’s treatment team in a tricky situation, as we want to respect the parent’s wishes but see the child’s needs from a different perspective, needs that demand the parent’s understanding of the child’s true capabilities.

This has sent me on a search for parent resources, one that produced little results. I cannot help but notice that, if the parents of my client were given more information about their child’s diagnosis, provided with mental health resources, and even given financial assistance, that treatment would be more effective. I do not doubt that this is a situation that occurs often. A 2019 study found results that support this: “Mothers of autistic children generally exhibited high levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms. The core symptoms of the autistic children were observed to be strongly associated with both maternal anxiety and depressive symptoms.” (Zhao et. Al, 2019), suggesting that other factors such as mental health could in fact impede treatment. I plan to incorporate this into my final project and look for more ways that I can contribute to the betterment of ASD treatment, maybe even by going into a field that incorporates parental counseling.

Resources

Karst, J. S., & Van Hecke, A. V. (2012). Parent and family impact of autism spectrum disorders: a review and proposed model for intervention evaluation. Clinical child and family psychology review, 15(3), 247–277. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-012-0119-6

Roselló, B., Mira, Á., Berenguer, C., Baixauli, I., & Miranda, A. (2022). Personal and Family Childhood Predictors of Functional Outcomes of Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder. Psicothema, 34(4), 508–517. https://doi.org/10.7334/psicothema2022.81

Zhou, Wensu MDa; Liu, Dan MPHb; Xiong, Xiyue PhDb,∗; Xu, Huilan PhDa,∗. Emotional problems in mothers of autistic children and their correlation with socioeconomic status and the children's core symptoms. Medicine 98(32):p e16794, August 2019. | DOI: 10.1097/MD.0000000000016794