Please review the Case of Micah listed below and respond to the prompts provided using the proper APA format to support your statements.
Micah, a 4 1/2 yr old Hispanic male, lives with his mother and 3-year-old sister. Micah’s mother requested counseling services due to growing concerns surrounding his medical condition, cerebral palsy (CP). Services were sought to help provide emotional support to Micah in helping him understand his disability, as well as the “limitations CP, would present in his life.”
Systemic Influences
The family is generationally and currently from a lower socioeconomic status, which makes acquiring services for health care, therapy, and disability education a challenge. Micah has not been educated on his disability, which began to cause social and emotional difficulties for him. As such, it is important that Micah’s mother, medical team, therapist, and school work together to create an environment of consistent care and education.
Developmental Considerations
Early intervention services at the school diagnosed Micah with mild impairment of cognitive functioning. His preschool reported that although his early intervention assessments showed he tested below average range of intelligence, he understood and practiced new concepts well, and seemed able to assimilate information with visual examples and repetition.
Micah was born prematurely and had a low birth weight. He was diagnosed with CP shortly before his 1st birthday. He struggled with issues related to weak muscle tone and poor muscle control and coordination which impacted his ability to walk with fluidity and struggled to control his arm movements. The school also diagnosed him with mild speech impairment, and he received speech and language services at home and preschool.
Micah has typically been noted by his teachers as being attentive, and cooperative, getting along well with others, and having a good sense of humor. More recently, however, his teacher began to notice he experienced more “sad” or “down” moods in the past few months, and he refused to interact with the other kids at gaming and free play time. He cried more frequently and became less attentive during lessons. He would become frustrated easily. When speaking with the school nurse, he told her he found it difficult to play with others because “his legs didn’t work like theirs” and he did not understand why. He viewed his physical differences as “bad” and “wrong” and would make negative comments about himself. Other than CP, Micah seemed to be in good health.
Relational Considerations
Micah’s mother reported his CP symptoms seemed to impact him more negatively on emotional, social, and academic levels, and felt it was necessary to share more details with him regarding his condition. She had previously delayed informing him and had simply told him that his arms and legs were a bit weaker than other kids which caused him to need extra help sometimes. She did not want his diagnosis to make him feel different or scared.
Prior to preschool, Micah had limited interactions with other children besides 2 mornings a week in a small day-care setting run by a family friend. Recently Micah began asking more questions about his condition and seemed to be searching for understanding.
After reading the Case of Micah, use what you have learned from the text as well as additional research on this topic to help answer the prompts listed below. Please respond from a clinical perspective and provide headers for each section. Use a title and reference page as well as proper APA format for your response along with appropriate headers.
1) What Categories of Disability does Micah’s case fall under, and how could the information be used in forming an IEP plan? – Cite/Support [You are not being asked to do an entire IEP, just answer the previous 2 questions]
Examples of IEPs for students with CP: https://chasa.org/individualized-education-program-examples/Links to an external site.
https://www.cerebralpalsysymptoms.com/cerebral-palsy/hemiparetic-hemiplegicLinks to an external site.
2) What Psychoeducation would you provide to Micah about his disorder that is developmentally appropriate? How would you use that information to help him improve emotionally, socially, and academically? – Cite/Support
3) What Psychoeducation would you provide to Micah’s mother and preschool teacher as part of a collaborative approach to care and assist in meeting emotional, social, and academic goals for Micah? – Cite/Support
Use the text and additional resources to support your statements.
