A Counseling Skills Experiment As with all new skills, time and practice make a difference. The micro-skills used in counseling are no different. Practicing skills even in social conversation offers insight into the effects of applying these skills so that you can use them intentionally in counseling. Intentionally use one of this week’s micro-skills ( attending skills, encouragers, a reflection of content, or reflection of feelings ) in a social conversation with a friend or co-worker. In 3 or 4 paragraphs describe what happened and identify the impact that using this micro-skill had upon the interaction. Be specific.

Your 4-year-old nephew has been diagnosed with autism. Your dad doesn’t understand what that means. Explain to your dad the symptoms that comprise autistic disorder, and assess the potential for the treatment of autism. Next, your mom blames your brother, saying he’s too permissive and doesn’t give your nephew enough affection. Include in your essay an explanation to your mom why it is no longer believed that parenting plays a role in autism.

2.  Your 13-year-old sister has been diagnosed with ADHD. Your grandmother has no idea what that means, but she is very worried—she has heard that kids who get diagnosed with this disorder get put in “dumb” classes. Describe to your grandmother the symptoms of ADHD and assess the potential for treatment. In your essay be sure to explain to your grandmother the main concern for children diagnosed with ADHD, and evaluate ways that this concern may be addressed.

Explain how assessment is critical for learning and how reliability and validity relate to quality assessments that promote learning. Also, discuss one new idea from this chapter for you about assessment and how it changes your ideas of assessment as a student yourself.

Explain how the “mismatch hypothesis” explains the risks associated with pubertal timing. Additionally, provide at least one example of how this hypothesis might explain the risks to females of early pubertal maturation and how the hypothesis might explain the risks to males of late pubertal maturation.

Identify specific brain structures or functions that contribute to or impede the process of learning to make origami and for each identified function or structure, describe and define the structure of the brain and purpose in detail.