Page 75 - Meeting with Children Manual

Section 5

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 You suggest the child choose cards to represent his/her thoughts or feelings about
family members. The child chooses cards but will not or cannot engage in any
discussion or comments about what he/she chose
 The child (even if asked very normative family questions such as which house were
you at to open your Christmas presents?) remains silent

ITEM 2. Child’s Development: Developmental Charts
This item is related to rating a child’s development as related to developmental charts.
This item does not imply you are “assessing” developmental factors, rather it is related
to you reviewing what you should be expect from a normally developing child. The
charts are useful in reviewing age and stage of development within a normative range
of differences. In addition to various charts related to age and stage of development,
you will need to use developmental literature, information provided to you by the
parents and school reports to support your rating.

Not all 7, 8 or 10 year olds are alike. As is true with all people, we have individual
differences. It is not individual differences that you are concerned with, (although you
may be able to identify the variation of ability between a number of 7 year olds) rather,
you are interested in any significant delays in development that may impact what you
observe during the meeting. Delays can be physical, emotional or cognitive. You will
most likely be alerted to any significant delays in development through parent
interviews. You will otherwise look to the charts to guide your observations of the
child. A child will rate low on the scale if you observe the following:
 The child does not appear to meet a number of age/stage items listed for the age
of the child on the development charts
 The child’s speech, hand-eye coordination, cognitive and/or emotional
presentation does not match the descriptions provided by the development charts
or the descriptions provided by the parents

ITEM 3. Child’s Level of Defensiveness
Children are no different than you. If you were peppered with questions or placed in
a position of having to be disloyal to someone you relied on, you may also feel the
need to defend yourself. This item is related to the point that we all make use of
defensive strategies to ensure homeostasis. Defense mechanisms help us to create
distance from and/or avoid stress and distress. During a meeting with a child, if you
observe high use of defense mechanisms (related to item #1) the child may earn a low
rating on the scale. Defensiveness may appear in a number of ways:
 Outright refusal to engage in the activity
 Refusal to talk about the activity/art product
 Staring and not responding
 Ignoring you
 Acting out behaviorally
 Changing the subject as though you never raised the topic
 See Defense descriptions for more possibilities

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