The David Case and the Ben Case, Reaction Paper Example

From the beginning of David’s case, the problem is immediately seen: “I was expecting a bully, a rather uncontrolled child who would be difficult to like.” Sure, it cannot be argued that David had not had any problems in the previous programs he had been in, but through the simple fact that everyone whom David encountered had preconceptions about him played a major role in the kind of personality David would develop. Throughout David’s case, it can easily be noticed how his parents never expected much out of him. It goes without saying that this kind of attitude from the parents could have certainly played a major role in the kind of person David would become. This is due to the fact that since not one person expected greatness from David, he never learned to expect it from himself.

The fact of the matter is that David simply required someone to truly believe in him. As the quote explains, however, no one expected David to be an ordinary young boy. Because of the manner in which the parents had described David to all of the teachers, all of the teachers would give him special treatment and would even go as far as to treat him differently based on what his parents had told the teachers. Because of this mistake, it is a fair statement to say that a major reason as to why David had difficulty in bettering himself is because of what his parents thought of him. Now, this is not to say that David’s parents treated him bad, but it certainly shows how they did not expect much from David. It is only towards the end of the case that David’s mother begins to have hope that her son is indeed an ordinary child or will soon become one. If David’s parents would have believed in him all along, it is idealistic to believe that David could have improved his circumstances greatly within a shorter period of time.

Despite the fact that at the tim of Ben’s study “social-emotional learning disability” was not a common theme in the lives of many individuals, this case is invariably a case of actions versus inaction. This is said because of the following quote: “Despite the fact that the consultation was brief and was conducted exclusively with Ben’s mother, I was able to encourage her to assist her husband in grasping the idea that he would never be able to shame his son into relinquishing his fantasy experience.” The fact that Ben’s parents were putting in their best efforts into making Ben believe that his fantasy world was not real, they should have accepted that their son was so intrigued with his fantasy world. Indeed, a better approach that could have been taken by the parents, especially the dad, would have been to play along with the fantasy world that Ben had created. When this is performed in the case, the mother is able to interact with Ben on another level.

Having said this, it goes without saying that in order for Ben’s parents to be able to understand what Ben is going through, they had to become players in his game. This is often the case with many children. When Ben’s father was trying to make Ben believe that his fantasy world was non-existent, this only made the situation much worse because Ben so strongly believed in his made-up world. Therefore, the best course of action that should have been taken by the parents was to accept Ben for who he is and the world he thought to be realistic.