Human Growth and Development
Emerging Themes
One thing that stands out very clearly is that the two professionals take very strongly opposed views of the same family, with Deanna strongly supportive of Estrela as a parent, while Tracey is much more critical, to the point that she feels that the home environment may be seriously harmful to Xenia. This is quite a gap to bridge! Such differences can arise for a number of reasons:
- Different professionals have different ‘primary clients’, meaning that the needs of different family members come to the fore for them. Deanna’s primary client is Estrela. Tracey’s is Xenia.
- Different professionals have different training, with different theoretical frames and different value bases.
- But professionals are also individuals, each with their own developmental history, which will have an effect on what they notice in any given situation, who they identify with and who they don’t, what makes them anxious (and even sometimes what makes them so anxious that it’s easier not to notice it at all). For this reason, in the Concepts section below, we look individually not only at Xenia but at the two professionals. (We are not suggesting that exploring of each other’s personal histories is appropriate or practical in real life situations! However, it is helpful in this context to give some thought to the degree to which our own histories influence our perceptions.)
- It’s also sometimes the case that, if one person takes a very firm and unyielding position, a degree of polarisation occurs. In our desire to compensate for what seems an overly one-sided view, we can overcompensate and become equally one-sided in the other direction (something that can happen in arguments in everyday life). Perhaps this is more likely to happen if the professionals, for whatever reason, simply don’t warm to each other very much?
Coming to Xenia, you may feel that both Deanna and Tracey have a point. One might agree with Tracey that this is an environment in which there is not very much of the encouragement, warmth and stimulation that a child of Xenia’s age needs to thrive, but at the same time have sympathy with Deanna’s view that children are resilient and are willing and able to help when they see that their parent (or parents) are restricted in what they can do by their physical health, mental health or disability. Deanna also makes an important point that, instead of focusing on what Estrela is failing to do as a parent, it might be better to look at what help Estrela needs? (On the other hand, Tracey might ask whether, even if practical help and support were given, would this necessarily help with the underlying problem, as she sees it, which is that Estrela is simply not focused on Xenia’s needs?)
Perhaps a key need here is to find a way to have a professional conversation that will allow both of these different perspectives to be heard?
Neither Deanna nor Tracey have much to say about culture or language, but it is important to bear in mind that ideas and assumptions about family roles are not necessarily the same in Portugal as they are in the UK (not that ideas do not vary within both countries too, of course!) And, although Estrela is fluent in English, the fact that it is not her first language may well have some bearing on how she comes across in interviews, as will the presence of an interpreter in the later visit.