Differences in Developmental Stages

Solution Preview

•Describe the relationship between counseling needs and the developmental stages of a child or adolescent.

The purpose of the Zayas (2001) study is to revive the topic of counseling children to aid counselors in enhancing their skills with child clients. To facilitate counseling, he suggests using micro skills with the child that consists of basic skills. In acquiring basic skills counselors learn to use micro skills as communication skills that help individuals to act more purposefully. According to Zayas, micro skills are the "threads: that the counselor weaves into techniques to help form the process of counseling. Further the micro skills as relevant to child counseling such as suicide ideation reflecting meaning, interpreting, and making use of metaphors. Besides attention to micro skills in counseling children, Velsor (2004) emphasizes the important of process in counseling children. For example, process denotes the interaction that occur during counseling that suggests a change has taken place. According to Velsor, the child-counselor relationship is realized by building trust through listening and communication.

•Explain the differences between counseling a child and counseling an adolescent, based on the appropriate developmental stages.

Velsor (200) presents research to explain the various counseling stages as follows: (1) the initial state, (2) the building stage, (3) formation, (4) contact, (5) egalitarianism, and (6) permissiveness. During the initial stage children present in counseling in an exploratory mode in which they warm up to the counselor. In the building stage, a client-counselor relationship develops. Formation is the stage in which trust is ...