...Grief counseling and children: Ambiguous loss and its effects on children: Implications and interventions for school counselors. By K. Guidy, C. Simpson, T.Test, and C. Bloomfield. Texas A &M University Commerce. * In addition to emotions, children experience physical responses to a loss such as exhaustion, insomnia, headache, stomachaches, and regressive behaviors. * Just like adults children process grief in different and unique ways, there is no right or wrong way to grieve. * Grief work is essential in order for the individual to become actively engaged in their own life again. * Children need adequate information, reassurance, routine, validation, active listening, and adult models to demonstrate mourning behaviors constructively and appropriately. * When a child losses someone in their family they are grieving the loss of the systemic role in the family, the loss of a relationship, loss of an emotional connection and the fear of possibly losing someone else in their family. * May have self-blame, confusion, fear, isolation, or alone * Faced to deal with the changes in their new family systems, adjusting to the remaining parents new way of life may be difficult * SC should build meaningful relationships with the student as well as validate, understand, listen, and normalize their loss when the child is comfortable enough to share with them * You need to meet children and families where they are, support them with patience, compassion...
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...Death and Children Capricia Wilder University of Phoenix PSYCH/600 April 7, 2014 Sarah Dross Death and Children This paper will discuss the finding from research gathered and personal experience that a child who loses a parent at a young age may struggle not only emotionally but also academically and socially. Losing a parent as a young child can have a detrimental effect on a child’s learning ability and emotional growth. Losing a parent at a young age can scare a child for life and make them emotionally detached and cause the child to have abandonment issues as an adult. How a death of a parent effects a child scholastically The death of a parent on any aged child is extremely painful and very difficult to understand. For a child who is still very young and just starting on their scholastic journey a death of a parent can be very confusing and hard to accept. A child in elementary school may not know how to answer the questions that their peers may ask them about the death. The child may also not understand how to handle the rush of emotions that they may experience when something reminds them of their parent that was lost. This is a very hard age to explain in great detail what has transpired and the child will have trouble grasping the reality of the situation. A child who loses a parent in middle school or junior high is more capable of grasping the situation and the finality of the event. According to "When...
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...Divorce and Children According to the study that was done in 2004 "In the United States, between 43% and 50% of first marriages end in divorce"(U.S Census Bureau qtd inLansford 140). One can assume that many children will experience some affects caused by divorce. There is evidence to support that children would be better off if the parents stayed married and there is equal supporting evidence that it would be better off if they divorced. A survey done in 2009 by 1000 teenagers "When asked what the teens wanted their parents to know they said that divorce "hurts," "sucks" and that they "don’t want to be blamed for it" or caught in the middle"(GordonPoll Youth Survey qtd inJolivet 175). There are three main areas that impact children's experience with divorce such as behavioral, psychological, and social issues. Children are effected by divorce in many ways which cause their behavior to not be normal. When children go through a traumatic event, such as losing a parent to divorce, they want to act out because they are hurt, and do not know what to do with their emotions. An article written by Ahron Constance states "…..divorce prevents certain risks, is an emotionally stressful and complex transition for families, and continues to affect children into adulthood" (55). Divorce is a hard thing for children to learn how to cope with. Children of different ages rebel in different ways; they do this because at different age levels they cannot comprehend certain things and are...
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...How do you feel when knowing that you are just an adopted child - not the biological child? These conditions are experienced by many children after they have grown up they eventually find out that they are not the biological child of the two parents who have raised them. Surely knowing that they are only adopted children is very painful. It really hurts. So as parents what actions would you take after the children you have raised know the actual condition? Why do spouses have to adopt a child? Spouses sometimes have difficulty having children until they finally decided to raise a child as their heart entertainer. But parents sometimes do not realize that raising a child will become a problem later on if the child knows that they are only adopted children. When parents decide to adopt children, they should be able to keep it secret by moving to a new house or moving to another city. It's very important to keep the adopted child's feelings. I know a friend of mine who is in fact an adopted child. He told me he was deeply hurt when he found out he was only an adopted child. His foster parents kept it secret but neighbors let the cat out of the bag. He overheard a conversation that mentioned him being an adopted child. He was not brave enough to ask his parents. In my opinion, adopted child or biological child is not a problem. Adopted child who has grown up since he or she was a baby is just like a child of their own. He will have the nature of people who raised him....
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...members of the family especially the children, and other family members. DIVORCE Today’s divorce rates are at an all-time high, 2 to 5 children will experience the divorce of their parents before they reach 18. About 25% of all children will spent some time in a step-family. Every year over one million children under age 18 are involved in a divorce. Divorce effects not only the family of the divorce couple and children but also mother and father-in-laws, nieces, nephews, and society. The sudden change in the family support system is very dramatic for all in the family. Divorce is more complex than it appears on the surface, it is not a onetime event. Divorce is a most stressful for all involved especially the children, that are involved of the divorce couple, they are likely to be dropouts or have some of emotional problems. Than with parents who are together. Children of divorce begin to feel sadness, anxiety, abandonment, anger and some might think that it was their fault. Children might fear that one of parents don’t love them as much and they might not see the other parent or lose time with that parent. Children of divorce parents also have psychological problems such as having difficultly forming relationships with peers, or discussing their feelings with others. Some children suffer from depression and headaches that might happen in some children. Children that were doing good in school...
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...Ron Deal wrote “Dating and the Single Parent”. He starts his book with a foreword, as most books do. However, this is one of the most powerful portions of the book because it gives the reasons for the book. While the content will be summarized, many people (especially the church), have not been dealing or addressing the blended families that are in need of help because the single parent is so prevalent and many people are not going into marriage of blended families with an awareness of how to do this effectively. Here are some shocking, but not unbelievable statistics: 1. “Forty two percent of adults are in a step relationship of some kind. 2. Thirty percent of marriages to attend Family Life’s Weekend to Remember marriage getaways are in blended families. 3. Two-thirds of marriages where one or both partners brings children into the relationship end in divorce” (Deal, 2012). He continues to explain upfront that many of the issues are understanding the difference between “coupleness” and “familyness”, and that the latter is what will create a legacy. The book chapter’s attempts to guide both the single parent and the person interested in dating the parent advice and guidance in the process. The first portion of the book consists of five chapters and it titled “Getting Pas the Butterflies and Warm Fuzzies.” The first chapter “Dating in a crowd: Dating with purpose” (pg. 29) starts off the book with a reminder that when one dates a single parent, he/she...
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...mass index (BMI), is a measure of weight in relation to height. If the weight is higher than what is determined by the CDC (Center for Disease Control), a child is considered overweight or obese. For children, obesity is defined as having a BMI at or above the 95th percentile for children the same age and sex. BMI is also a useful index for cardiovascular risk. It has been established that childhood obesity has many factors to it, but what percentage of it is due to parents allowing their children to become a product of their environment? The imbalance of caloric intake with actual calories used for growth, development, metabolism, and physical activity is one of many factors involving childhood obesity (Karnik, Kanekar, 2011). Genetics play a part, by altering body fat content and absorption of energy. “Heritability of obesity from parents also influences obesity in children.” (Karnik, Kanekar, 2011). The behavioral factor of childhood obesity is directly correlated to lack of physical activity. A lot of children spend a great deal of their time indoors watching television, playing video games and being on the computer. Television advertisements related to unhealthy snack foods contributes to a child’s choice for unhealthy, eating behaviors and obesity. The children of today want instant gratification, and what better way to get it by grabbing a bag of candy, chips or something else that is readily available, and takes no time to prepare. Environmental factors are seen...
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...Foster care is a temporary arrangement in which adults provide for the care of a child or children whose birth parent is unable to care for them. Today, there are almost 428,000 children in foster care. Foster care is not a way for someone to make a little extra cash or have a kid keep you some company and if the child acts out you just get to harm them. Foster children are not toys or less of a human in any way but the sad part is, they have become looked at that way. They are uprooted from all that they had known and have a hard time adjusting to a new, strange environment. A survey from 2011 states that thirteen percent of foster children run away at least once in their time in the system and another nine percent abandon their foster homes...
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...Experimental Learning for Parents Remembering the lullaby “Hush little baby”, I never considered what might actually happen "when the bough breaks" in real life until I found myself with a close friend one night, trying to comprehend the loss of her older brother, who had just been killed in a car accident. The circumstances required me not only to cope with my own sense of grief but also to understand and respond to the intense trauma her and her parents were experiencing. Since that night, I have considered how parents respond when a child dies. Given the complexity and gravity of individual human responses, I hope is that this paper will provide insight into my experience as well as help members of families and friends to better understand how the loss of a child affects parents and siblings while highlighting ways to provide meaningful support. For most bereaved parents, the consequences of the death of a child cannot adequately be expressed in words. Despite extreme efforts to empathize, those who have not experienced a child's death cannot fully know what it is like. However, I have found that knowledge surrounding bereavement can provide a helpful glimpse of understanding, as well as ideas for how to respond to parents and needs when their child dies. For most people, our family defines who we are. We do not identify ourselves simply as mothers, fathers, spouses, in-laws, or grandparents, but as family members. For example, "I am not a mother of 3 children. I am a mother of...
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...on Children of Divorced Parents Kenneth Sepulveda ENG/135 February 22, 2014 Valerie Carnevale DeVry University Effects on Children of Divorced Parents Divorce can be a traumatic experience for children to go through when separations occurs. The effects on children are by far the most significant factors, sometimes resulting in behavioral disorders and developmental issues, as a result of alternating between households, economic instability, and behavioral related issues. However, children of divorced parents could be helped when parents place their children first, develop communication and problem solving skills and use family programs to help their children deal with life altering changes. Parents that relocate after a divorce can have lasting effects on their children’s' mental and emotional wellbeing. When children hop between two separate households it can put a large amount of stress on an already bad situation. Uphold-Carrier & Utz (2012) research experts in the field sociology point out that children moving between parent’s households are at a greater risk for social networking disorders and educational issues (Uphold-Carrier & Utz, 2012). This is because, children lose important ties with existing friends that possibly may help them adjust to their new circumstances. While this may be true, parents are subject to custody agreements and have little choice were they can live because of the economic difficulties after divorce. Nevertheless, children who...
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...so many challenges that we are faced with. People of today are dealing with the loss of a job, death, poverty, low income, no income, and are unable to provide and care for their family. The social problem that was selected to discuss and talk about is grandparents raising grandchildren. Today grandparents not only have to play the role as a grandparent but they too have to take on the task of being a parent as well. Grandparents do not sign up to be the care taker of their grandchild or grandchildren however when there is a dramatic change or transition in the life of the child and there is no other family member who can provide and care for the child the grandparent then will be the next of kin to care for them. Grandparents whom are raising their grandchildren is not something that is new and has been an epidemic for quite some time. Grandparents are playing role models to their grandchildren due to the circumstances and situations of their parents such as mental illness, substance abuse, incarceration and so many more reasons as to why the grandparents are raising their grandchildren. The paper will discuss the important facts that lead up to why it is a social problem with grandparents whom are raising their grandchildren. In the paper it will discuss how the grandparents age can play a major role in the raising the grandchildren and if something were to happen where would the children go and who would continue to care for them. Grandparents are important in children’s...
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...parent's love makes them unable to let go. I've seen so many parents put their needs above their infant's because they just can't bear to suffer the grief of losing a child. It's heartbreaking when you can see parents in total denial and you know that the end will come one way or another but they just can't accept it. I don't know if that's the case here or not, but it's certainly a possibility. Parental Grief The theme of parental mourning has been a universal one throughout the centuries. In the literature on bereavement, writers repeat certain themes, thoughts, and reflections; they talk of the powerful and often conflicting emotions involved in "the pain of grief and the spiral of mourning; [they refer to] the heartbreak at the heart of things...grief's contradictions"; they speak of parents devastated by grief (Moffat 1992, xxiii). It is frequently said that the grief of bereaved parents is the most intense grief known. When a child dies, parents feel that a part of them has died, that a vital and core part of them has been ripped away. Bereaved parents indeed do feel that the death of their child is "the ultimate deprivation" (Arnold and Gemma 1994, 40). The grief caused by their child's death is not only painful but profoundly disorienting-children are not supposed to die. These parents are forced to confront an extremely painful and stressful paradox; they are faced with a situation in which they must deal both with the grief caused by their child's death and with...
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...ADHD, Whether or Not to Medicate a Child Samantha Edmondson COM/155 September 21, 2014 Laura L. Griepp ADHD, Whether or Not to Medicate a Child With the diagnosis of ADHD in children becoming such a controversial subject because of the medications that doctors prescribe; parents have difficult decisions to make. My son, T.J., has had ADHD since he was five years old, and has had many trials and tribulations with the medication that his doctor placed him on to help with the issues that come from ADHD. The medication has made him very violent with his little brother, and he has had emotional episodes to the point of hospitalization and has also excelled in school because of the choice that I made to place him on the medication. For parents, there are many things that need careful consideration when deciding whether medication is the right avenue to take for their child’s course of treatment. Things to consider are diagnosis and treatment, what the pros and cons of taking the medication be, and whether or not the medication is the right decision for their child because of all the controversy behind this disorder. When a parent first starts to question if their child has a diagnosis of ADHD there are a couple things that need addressing in order to find out for sure. In order to receive a diagnosis for ADHD; the child needs to be showing certain symptoms that go along with the disorder. Symptoms to look for in a child that could have ADHD are things like having trouble focusing...
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...Abortion Sheila Brewer Bryant & Stratton College Online PHIL250: Practices in Analytic Reasoning and Critical Thinking J. Styles 7/29/2014 “About 2% of U.S. children under the age of 18 are adopted.” (Birthmother Ministries, n.d.) This is quite a low number considering how many out there have not been adopted or have been aborted. I understand both sides of this argument but I have a very strong opinion about this subject. Everyone has an opinion but I will be showing both sides to the subject at hand and then everyone can have a better understanding. First off we will start with adoption, adoption is a very generous act and should only be done if you really want to be responsible for someone else’s well-being for the rest of their lives. I believe that adoption is the best option no matter the circumstances. There is always someone out there that cannot have kids but would love to have one or two. I am one of those people; I have two children but have developed a rare blood disorder that will not allow me to have more not without endangering me and the unborn child. Children are a joy and blessing to me and should be treated that way. “Adoption is a complicated entity. Anyone who has gone through the process as an adopted person, an adoptive parent, or as a birth parent knows this is true. The process can be so complex and filled with so many “potholes” that the subject could fill several books. While keeping much in common with adoption processes of the past...
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...The Affect of Developmental Factors on how a Five-Year-Old Child Copes with Loss Loss is an unavoidable experience for all children through the different developmental stages of life. These loses may be seen through a child losing or breaking a favourite toy, or through parents being divorced, moving houses, the loss of familiar routines, schools, or friends, and also through the death of someone close to them (Corr, Charles; Balk, David. 2010). Regardless of the type of loss experienced, it will bring sadness and grief upon the child, and the way a child deals with the loss is dependant on their cognitive and psychosocial development. There are many different theorists with varying ideas on the developmental stages of life. A five-year-old child, in Jean Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory is explained to be in the preoperational period (2 to 7 years). During this period, children develop symbolic thought marked by irreversibility, centration, and egocentrism (Gill, A., 2012). This means that children are unable to completely grasp concrete logic and are unable to take in the point of view of other people. Children also increase their use of symbols and therefore increase in playing, role-playing and pretending (Cherry, K. 2004). The psychosocial development theory by Erik Erikson, describes a five-year-old child being in the initiative versus guilt stage. In this stage, Children try to function socially with their family and with other individuals. Success in this leads...
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