Identification of Behavioural Pattern and Diagnosis of Dyslexia in Children

This assignment discusses the importance of counseling for children with dyslexia, a common learning disorder. The hypothetical case study presents a child's struggles with concentration and self-esteem due to lack of appreciation from parents and therapist. A humanistic counseling approach was implemented by the therapist to improve the child's learning abilities and boost confidence levels.

COUNSELLING SKILLS
WITH CHILDREN AND
ADOLESCENTS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................................3
An overview of the case.......................................................................................................................3
Importance of Child Counselling.....................................................................................................3
Skills and attributes required in a counsellor to support the child..................................................4
Counselling Theories involved in supporting the child...................................................................5
Methods and techniques involved in supporting the child..............................................................5
Impacts of child behaviour and attitudes on the counselling...........................................................6
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................................7
References............................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
At every phase of life everyone struggles with some sort of problems and childhood and
adolescence are no exception. Kids and teenagers face several issues related to personal, academics,
family, social and career development. They need proper guidance to solve these issues and this is
where a counsellor comes into picture. Counselling can be defined as an act of providing assistance
to an individual facing an issue by identifying different problem causing determinants and making
people copying with unfavourable situations through various techniques (Aldridge, 2013).The
present report talks about different aspects of child counselling in a given hypothetical case. It also
features the importance of counselling and evaluation of role of counsellor in resolving the child's
issue.
AN OVERVIEW OF THE CASE
Peter, a 7 year old boy visits a child counsellor on a random evening with his parents. After
an interrogative session the boy was diagnosed with Dyslexia. It is a disorder which affect the
reading and learning ability of children that causes poor academic performance (Welfel, 2015). The
child finds difficulty in processing information by looking at letters in a word. Therefore Peter lacks
ability to write, spell, speak and calculate numbers. In the given scenario, Dr. Jane, a 32 year old
counsellor play a very crucial role in assisting the child in pacifying the boy's emotional state and
assisting him to score better grades at school. The following passages walk the readers through
different facets of child counselling (Child Counselling. 2015).
Importance of Child Counselling
Kids often show reserved behaviour in portraying their feelings and emotions in response to
a particular situation (Baraldi and et. al., 2013). They may not talk about their issues in an explicit
manner to their parents and teachers. In the given scenario, Peter is struggling to identify letters,
colour and numbers which is obstructing his learning at school. His parents do not understand the
reasons for his low grades therefore they felt the need to consult with a child counsellor. The
importance of counselling a dyslexic child include the following key points:
 Dr. Jane is a well qualified and trained child therapist. She can easily comprehend the issues
of a dyslexic child and is therefore capable of resolving problems in the most effective
manner.
 The counselling can pacify the boy's mental state which is a necessary step to initiate the
treatment(Moodley and Kinha, 2015).
 Counselling can help in identifying the weaknesses and strengths of the dyslexic child.

 Learning ability of the kid can be improved by employing various learning tools.
 Counselling enables the parents of dyslexic child to understand the disorder.
 Parents are invited for an active participation in the process and encouraged to appreciate the
kid for every effort he makes to improve his learning (Aston, 2013).
 The child therapy encourages the dyslexic child to participate with zeal by involving
activities like sports, art and other non-academic activities.
 Positive feedbacks from the child therapist and parents help in increasing the confidence
levels of child suffering from dyslexia.
Skills and attributes required in a counsellor to support the child
In the given case, the role of Dr. Jane becomes very crucial in assisting Peter in overcoming
dyslexia and promoting his overall development. In order to offer assistance to dyslexic kids in the
most effective manner, the counsellor need to have key skills and attributes. The skills required in a
child therapist are as follows:
 Sound knowledge of learning disorders : The child therapist should be well versed with
different kind of learning disorders including dyslexia. Besides this, he possesses sound
knowledge of methods and techniques that can be used to overcome the issues (Children
Counseling Focal Points, 2013).
 Understands child psychology : A successful child counsellor has a clear understanding of
child psychology which enables him to recognize behavioural patterns of the child suffering
from dyslexia and other learning disorders. A therapist effectively identifies the behavioural
reactions of child in response to a particular situational stimulus (Moodley and Kinha,
2015).
 Empathetic communicator : Kids with dyslexia are not open to communicate their problems
to others. Therefore it becomes very important for the child counsellors to make them talk
about their feelings and emotions related to the issues. In the given scenario, Dr. Jane
through interrogative session enquires Peter about his problem and based on their
communication she reached to conclusion that the boy is suffering from Dyslexia. Besides
this, regular interaction with parents is also necessary to encourage their involvement in the
treatment (Krause and Schneider, 2015).
 Affinity towards kids : The effectiveness of child therapy depend significantly on the
therapist's love for children. The counsellor can expect great outcomes from the counselling
sessions by showing gentle and kind attitude towards his minor clients (Pasch and Holley,

2015).
Counselling Theories involved in supporting the child
There are a number of theories involved in child counselling. Some therapists techniques to
address child's issues are based on one therapy or sometimes the combination of one or more
approaches. Some of the important therapies related to child counselling are as follows:
 Humanistic theory: It is the most popular approach to child counselling. This concept is
considered the most suitable by child therapist to resolve the issues of their clients and care
for overall development. It is a person centric approach to explore opportunities for growth
of the dyslexic child (Shute, and Slee, 2015). The therapist understands the strengths and
weaknesses of the kid in order to develop a method which is the most appropriate to
examine the areas of self growth. The therapies involved in humanistic counselling are client
centric and gestalt. Gestalt therapists major focus is to observe the activities of client rather
than his words during counselling session(Counselling Staff. 2015).
 Behavioural Theory: Behavioural child counselling theory is based on the fact that a desired
behaviour can be learned. The therapists can alter the specific behaviour in a child by
bolstering positive or negative impacts of the behaviour (Wang and Yang, 2015).
 Cognitive Theory: Cognitive therapists focus on the present mental condition of the clients
rather than their past conditioning (Welfel, 2015).
Methods and techniques involved in supporting the child
In the giving scenario, the learning specialist Dr. Jane in the above case made use of different
methods to support Peter in fighting dyslexia and promoting his overall development. These tactics
and tools implemented are briefly discussed in the following points:
1. Visual learning methods: In this method the counsellor use pictorial diagrams and
multimedia resources to improve learning ability of the affected kid. The dyslexic kid is
asked to read after looking at colourful pictures as it would aid in letter recognition. Besides
this, the child is taught with the help of effective visual software modules(Baraldi and et. al.,
2013).
2. Auditory learning tactics: In this method the dyslexic kid is asked to talk about the books
which were to be read. Briefing about the book before reading it out to the kid provides
better understanding about its contents.
3. Kinaesthetic learning methods: It is a method that involve the senses to inculcate learning.
For instance, Peter is asked to draw letters on sand instead of paper. Similarly several tools
like wooden letters and abacus are used to enhance basic skills of the dyslexic child.

4. Playing with numbers: In order to assist in number recognition and calculating figures, the
child is asked to count while performing everyday activities like climbing stairs, favourite
cartoon channels, coins in his piggy bank, friends house numbers, etc. This would help in
building a strong memory association with numbers(Lansten, 2010).
5. Enhancing reading : Providing appropriate reading material to dyslexic child along with a
list of same sounding words included in the book (Child Counselling. 2015).
6. Creative Learning: In the interrogative session it is found that Peter is very fond of painting.
Therefore Dr. Jane asked him to pursue his hobby as much as he can.
Impacts of child behaviour and attitudes on the counselling
The dyslexic child's behaviour can affect the counselling process to a significant level. To
discuss the impact of child's behaviour on the therapy following points can be considered. In the
given scenario, initially the kid suffering from dyslexia was not participating with the counsellor as
he was not very open to respond to the therapist's questions. The counsellor need to dig hard to
reach to the roots of the problem by gently convincing the kid to communicate. Therefore
cooperation from the child becomes an important step in initialising the therapy (Pasch and Holley,
2015).
The dyslexic child often faces difficulty in concentrating on the learning modules for a
longer time therefore the counsellor need to break the module into smaller parts for shorter
durations in order to keep the child focused on the learning(Currie and et.al., 2015).
Dyslexic child is very sensitive when it comes to self esteem. If the child's efforts are not
appreciated on a regular basis then it can potentially harm the kid's confidence level. This may
consequently affect the effectiveness of the therapy as the kid may not respond as per required.
Opinions of the counsellor on child's behaviour
In the given case, the views of the therapist on the behaviour of dyslexic child are featured
in the following points. Based on which the counsellor opted the most suitable counselling method
to address the problems of the kid.
 The dyslexic kid was introvert hence the counsellor had to convince the child to interact
openly with her. Once the communication was initiated the learning specialist recognized
the behavioural pattern of the affected child and diagnosed dyslexia (Colangelo and Wood,
2015).
 Weak concentration issues are also faced by the child when the learning program was

stretched to a certain length. Therefore the counsellor reduced the duration of each session
to improve the focus of the dyslexic kid.
 To boost the confidence levels of the kid regular encouragement was provided. At the initial
stage the counsellor observed that the kid was not responding in the desired manner due to
lack of appreciation from parents and the therapist (Zieman, 2015).
CONCLUSION
In a nutshell, the above hypothetical case study presents a clear understanding of several
aspects of counselling a child with dyslexia, which is not a disease but a common learning disorder
among children. It has been learned that child counselling is different from that of adults. Thus a
broad range of skills and attributes are required by a child therapist to support the client and raise
his self esteem. The child therapist implemented humanistic counselling approach to improve
learning abilities of the boy. Besides this, implications of child's behaviour on the counselling
process is also evaluated.

REFERENCES
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