Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Xbox

Ive been working on a case study for a paper called Integration of Practice.
The case study is about a 14 year old boy called Josh (pseudonym) and I have to make an intervention plan thats focused on aggression. Josh plays xbox most nights til 5am in the morning and as a result he hardly goes to school and when he does he have shown aggressiveness to peers and teachers as well as to his parents. Josh has been expelled before from another school and left another voluntarily. He likes to also skateboard (alone) and play online with buddies. (There are major other issues as well but I can only focus on aggression) There are a lot of things I dont know that I'd like to know like:
  • What is the parental history of his parents. What style of parenting do they use? What punish and reward systems do they use?
  • What do his two siblings do with their day? What are they into?
  • Has he physically met his online buddies?
  • What xbox games does he play? (I suspect GTA & Halo)
  • In what way is he aggressive to his parents?
  • Is he interested in any other games
  • Is he interested in the future and what he wants to do?
One thing thats really nagging me and its so simple but I know I cant use it. Get rid of the xbox. As plain and simple as that. But if Josh is my client as well as the parents that would not be a great start. In fact it would ruin any initial developments of rapport.

I have a few ideas (other than above lol):
  • Communication skills (self awareness, assertiveness, expressing aggressiveness appropriately)
  • Community sport involvement (sport= exercise+endorfins&tiredness+social interaction)
  • Routine: structure set hours of xbox time with spec games. Evaluate with parents appropriateness of games. PLUS set sleep hours (if xbox in bedroom negotiate having it in lounge). Set up reward system for this.
I might put the communication skills and routine as a priority then add the sport thing later (I'm limited in how much I put in intervention plan).
I'd really appreciate some feedback on this by my non existent readers (HELLO OUT THERE!)

I'm definitely going to use the above two now that I've looked at them. Its just finding the rationale now. I have no experience in child truancy casework just so you know so I'm very VERY new at this.

PS I forgot to mention - My intervention HAS to be based on the Behavioural Approach model

Adios

1 comment:

Cheryl said...

I'm assuming that "Josh" is a figment of one of your professors' imagination... If he doesn't have a coexisting diagnosis, then a simple behavioral modification plan should work. And maybe a parenting class.