Reaction to Psychotherapeutic Approaches to the Treatment of Children and Adolescents
Palombo’s article focuses on the differences between children rather than their similarities. According to Erik Erikson, children go through eight developmental stages; however, their personalities or behaviours may differ. Every child differs from one another. Some have normal developmental processes, while others face difficulties such as neuropsychological deficits, in this case, learning disability. This disability may affect an individual’s different aspects, like perception, attention, memory, executive function, verbal and nonverbal language, affect regulation, or social functioning. To address these problems adequately, clinicians need to know the signs of neuropsychological deficits because some kids are smart and gifted, but they still struggle with this condition. Therefore, they inhibit their condition. As a result, therapists may assume that the manifestation of dysfunctional behaviour or emotional problems is other forms of mental health conditions, and he might be misdiagnosed or mistreated the condition.
As the author stated, if the therapist does not know about learning disorders, he may intuitively grasp the source of some of the child’s struggles. Still, he will not understand their origins as related to neuropsychological deficits. My question would be, how does the therapist master this specific approach? Do they have to go through special training? I like the therapeutic approach they used to help the individual! ( moments, concordant moments, and empathy).