How Does Autism Affect Families

When someone thinks of family, you always tend to think of the biological family that you ae born into, but now in today’s chaotic society, many people don’t have their biological families. Growing up I was very convinced that I was truly apart a dysfunctional family. A dysfunctional family is a family in which conflict, misbehavior, and often child neglect or abuse on the part of individual parents occurs continually and regularly, leading other members to accommodate such actions. Children sometimes grow up in such families with the understanding that such an arrangement is normal. A dysfunctional family may consist of abusive parents, lack of communication in the home, and controlling parents.

Parents negative responses towards an event influences their child 's behavior. Child abuse leaves child with long lasting effects of injuries and physical illnesses. Parents that abuse their child typically come from abusive childhoods themselves. They commonly began to abuse because of unrealistic expectation, alcohol and drugs, lack of support, emotional disorders. The center for disease, control, and prevention stated in their article “Child Abuse and Neglect: Consequences”, “At least one in four children have experienced child neglect or abuse at some point in their lives, and one in seven children experienced abuse or neglect in the last year” (Center for disease, control, and prevention, 3).

Geoffrey, however, is eight years older than Tobias and when their parents divorced, Geoffrey headed off to live with his father, and Tobias with his mother. To begin with, both books are similar in describing the horrendous childhood that Geoffrey, and Jack, endured. In addition to this, they’re complicated with mental illness, scenes of broken families, and lower middle class poverty. In The Duke of Deception, Geoffrey described his father, Arthur (Duke) Wolff as a “con-man” (Wolff 7). He ripped off family members, friends, and even his own son at times.

In the video, “ Autism Everyday ”, parents give personal testimonies of the difficulties and challenges to raising a child with autism. Autism can be best described as a spectrum disorder. Meaning, the individual has a severe developmental disorder that inhibits his or her ability to interrelate fully and converse with other individuals. Parents of autistic children become lifelong advocates and caregivers to his or her child throughout their life. Children with autism do not have the ability to communicate effectively with one another, which presents a rather challenging task in terms of expressing his or herself.

Starting nursery/ changing rooms- This also becomes a stressful time for both children and parents, especially if it’s the first time the child has been left without main carer for a long period of time. Birth of sibling- most children find the birth of a new sibling can be an exciting event for young children. However once the child’s

In today’s world, it is still not the same to be born as a man or as a women. Starting from the mother’s pregnancy already, the environment kids live in and society’s expectations differ according to their gender, and persist during their whole life. Indeed, indicators show that inequities between men and women begin during the first steps of one’s life and augment throughout life, becoming daunting at the elderly stage of life. Parents chose a name and prepare the family environment, setting distinctions, enhancing, stimulating and orienting girls to domestic and motherhood tasks and boys to physical and vocational tasks requiring more strength and involving more risks. Thereby begins the gender disparity cycle, a prejudicial social construction

Referring to ecological systems theory (in Chapter One), explain why parents of children with genetic disorders often experience increased stress. What factors, within and beyond the family, can help these parents support their children’s development? Be sure to include in your response information from the textbook or other psychology-specific sources. Parents of children with genetic disorders often experience increased stress because, based on Urie Bronfenbrenners’ ecological system theory, a child’s social and physical attributes and capacities can affect adult’s behavior, (Berk, L., 2014). According to this theory, parents of a child with a genetic disorder are more likely to be more impatient because of the behavior the child may have.

The family experienced many stressor events that can be broken down to the ABC-X model. The first family’s stressors was their infertility issue. They were finally able to have babies because of using infertitliy treatment. Then, their twins bought on more family’s stressors because of their premature births. Their premature births led to different health issues.

As dementia is a neurodegenerative disease, individuals diagnosed with dementia face frustration and difficulty functioning in their day to day lives. Family caregivers face similar frustration in assisting their loved one in everyday tasks. Informal care giving is a demanding responsibility and experience on family members. Psychological demands, physical demands, time demands, emotional demands are necessary to meet the needs of their loved one with dementia, therefore experiencing burn out and related emotions is quite common. Furthermore, family caregivers who may experience depressive symptoms can be less capable in managing the behavioural symptoms of dementia (Takai, Takahashi, Iwamitsu, Oishi, & Miyaoka 2011).

Following the death of Hamlet’s father, he is stricken with grieve and it is evident that his social/emotional function is impaired. Hamlet makes irrational decisions, which can be explained by the fact that he held an extremely close relationship with his father, which increased Hamlet’s psychological distress. (67) Fanning, Karen. “Step by step: fifty percent of kids in the United States live in stepfamilies. Here’s how they handle the challenge of holding on to their old families while accepting their new ones.” Scholastic Choices Sept. 2005: 18+.