My Hypothetical Family

Who Are You?

     My hypothetical family consists of two young parents who already have a two year old daughter and have just found out they are expecting again.  The twenty year old parents struggle to maintain the household and their relationship is like a roller coaster.  The young lady is very unstable emotionally. She is very over protective of her daughter to the point that the child has no independence from the mother.  The mother has completed her classes for her high school diploma but has put on hold her plans to further her education in order to work.  The husband works in construction with the wives family member, but does not work regularly.  He is often sick, or they wake up late and therefore he misses days of work because he cannot meet the work van.  The stress of the financial situation adds further stress to the young relationship. The husband is a high school drop-out, has no driver’s license and smoke marijuana daily.  He loves his children and his wife but has difficulty with meeting the expectations that she has for him.

     The daughter attends child care while the mother goes to work.  The department of social service pays the majority of the fee and the parents are responsible for a small portion.  The daughter is perfectly healthy except that she has eczema. She is developmentally on target and at times appears ahead of her peers.  She is happy and loving.  She appears nervous around loud noise or people arguing, and often needs comforting or reassurance that everything is okay when she has encountered such a situation. 

     The young couple cannot foresee that the child that they have conceived will later be diagnosed with autism.  According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, autism is a “developmental disorder that appears in the first 3 years of life, and affects the brain’s normal development of social and communication skills”. (National, 2010) 

     Of the comprehensive systems, Health would offer the newborn the best chances of being diagnosed early and therefore being set on a path to receiving services that would improve his development, social experiences and education in later years.  Health and observation of the parents will be key to diagnosing this child with autism.

     Early Learning and Development programs will be able to provide him with developmental, social and communication skills that are modified to meet the needs of an autistic child if he is diagnosed at an early age.  Autistic children require a staff that understand that they are distracted by visual and audial clutter and therefore the environment in which autistic children are in has to have clear and defined boundaries and must not be cluttered with “distractions” such as art projects, student work, PA systems, music, computer sounds etc. that the children are not supposed to be attending to or may be distracted by.  Autistic children, depending on the severity of their autism, require modifications to their environments in order to promote their development. (Stokes, 2011)

     Family Leadership and Support can take place when parents are informed on the needs of their autistic child.  They take leadership in informing the educational staff of practices that are working at home and allow the staff to share practices that are working in the classroom setting.  The family and school staff should work together to create a relationship that encircles the child with emotional, developmental and social skills that will enhance their well being. (Stokes, 2011)

Questions that I have at this point are if autism will work for this assignment, should I say "I" in the assignment instead of the wife/mother or husband, and am I doing this correct????  Any feedback would surely be appreciated. 

Also I appreciate the patience you all are having with me during this time.  I am working hard to get back on my feet, but I know that this leaves Debra working alone for the most part. Thank you all for your patience.

Jennifer