PSYC 345 Week 1 DB Forum 1 Example

Discussion Board Forum 1: Thread and Reply

PSYC 345 Exceptional Child, Discussion Board Forum 1 (thread and one reply)

Thread by [Student Name]

The prompt, the composite children and the classmate's post are composites standing in for the course's own forum; the textbook, Scripture and published article are real; the requirements follow Liberty's public course guide for PSYC 345.

Thread

Two brothers, eight and ten years old, went to live with their grandmother after their mother was sent to prison. Both had seen violence at home and had changed schools three times. By middle school, the older brother was failing classes and had been suspended twice. The younger brother was earning B's, playing trumpet in the school band and spending afternoons at a neighbor's auto shop. Same family, same losses, very different outcomes. Their grandmother told a school counselor she had treated them the same, and she probably believed it.

Parritz and Troy (2018) present the developmental psychopathology perspective, which looks at how normal development and disorder emerge from the same processes and how risk and protective factors interact over time. Risk factors, such as parental incarceration, exposure to violence and instability, raise the likelihood of problems. Protective factors, such as a warm relationship with a caring adult, self-regulation skills and connection to school, lower that likelihood. Resilience refers to positive adaptation despite significant adversity.

Masten (2001) argued that the most surprising finding of resilience research is its ordinariness. In her reading of decades of studies, children who do well despite hardship are rarely relying on special gifts; they are drawing on the same equipment every child needs, a bond with a capable caregiver, the ability to think and manage impulses, the urge to get good at things, and homes, classrooms and neighborhoods that function. The greatest threats to development are those that damage these systems. Seen this way, the younger brother may have had a few more of those ordinary supports. The band director checked on him, the neighbor taught him to fix engines and gave him responsibility, and his grandmother, exhausted by the older boy's crises, found peaceful time with him in the evenings. None of these was remarkable on its own, but together they formed a protective web.

This view gives hope, because ordinary supports can be strengthened. A school can assign a mentor, a church can invite a boy into its youth program, and a counselor can help an overwhelmed grandparent find respite so she has energy for both children. It also warns that adversity is most dangerous when it removes those supports all at once.

Psalm 68:5-6 describes God as a father of the fatherless who settles the solitary in a home (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016). Scripture places caring adults and families at the center of God's protection for vulnerable children, which fits remarkably well with the research. Churches, mentors and extended families can be part of that ordinary magic.

Classmates: who was an ordinary protective adult in your own childhood, and what did that person do?

Reply to Hannah

Hannah, you argued that resilience is mostly a matter of temperament, since some children are simply born easygoing and others are not. I agree that temperament matters. Parritz and Troy (2018) describe temperament as one of the child characteristics that can act as a risk or protective factor; an easygoing child may elicit warmer responses from caregivers and teachers, which in turn protects the child. In the example of the two brothers, it is possible that the younger one's calmer temperament drew the band director and the neighbor toward him, while the older brother's anger pushed adults away at the very time he needed them most.

But I would not say resilience is mostly temperament. Masten (2001) emphasizes that resilience emerges from interactions between children and their environments, especially relationships with competent, caring adults. A child with an easy temperament who has no such relationships may still struggle, while a more difficult child who is given steady support and clear structure can do well. Temperament, in other words, is one thread in the web rather than the whole web. The developmental psychopathology framework that the textbook presents insists on looking at multiple levels at once, from biology to family to community, precisely because no single factor explains outcomes.

This matters practically, especially for the older brother. If resilience were mostly inborn, there would be little for teachers, counselors and churches to do. Because it depends heavily on relationships and contexts, adults can make a difference even for children whose temperament makes life harder.

The picture in Proverbs 22:6 of a child trained early and carrying that training into adulthood (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016) suggests that formation, not only temperament, shapes a child's path. What do you think the older brother needed that might have changed his direction? My guess is that one adult outside the family, someone who saw his strengths before his suspensions, might have made a difference.

References

English Standard Version Bible. (2016). Crossway. (Original work published 2001)

Masten, A. S. (2001). Ordinary magic: Resilience processes in development. American Psychologist, 56(3), 227-238. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.56.3.227

Parritz, R. H., & Troy, M. F. (2018). Disorders of childhood: Development and psychopathology (3rd ed.). Cengage Learning.