Marriage and the Family When studying the dynamics of marriage, family, children, and all the interactions and psychological components that go along with being a family, there are decisions that must be made in that milieu that hold enormous importance. Those decisions should be based on a firm knowledge of what parents are supposed to do when it comes to children; what married people are supposed to do when it comes to their love and relationship; and what the family is supposed to do when it comes to being part of a neighborhood and of a community. This paper is a personal reflection on those dynamics but I zero in on the psychological needs of the child, no matter how successful the marriage is or isn't. In fact, when things are not going well in a marriage or a relationship that has produced a child -- or when the child has special needs that the parents are not able to provide -- and that is where I will come in when I complete the required degrees and training to become a child psychologist. This paper is about my career goal and how I can be important in the life of a child with special needs.

My Story and My Goals

I am determined to become a child psychologist because I had an eye-opening, wonderfully positive experience a few years ago; I supervised a group home with children who had developmental disabilities. In the process of my supervision and of getting to know these children, I came in close contact with the psychiatrist working with these children. The long, substantive conversations we had regarding the emotional and physical health of these children was in effect my brush strokes across my future life's canvas. Many colors and shades went onto that canvas and now I...

They use a specific formula as they seek happiness, using positive brush strokes on a canvas that reflects their visions for their most positive future. Whether gay or straight, the American person available for a relationship initially seeks and then finds romance. Following romance a deep sense of love is expected to follow. That emotion is followed by a period of courting which is followed in many cases by an official engagement and the various celebrations associated with future nuptials. Lastly in this preliminary scenario for life-long happiness, in most cases there is a wedding -- although according to Pew Research Institute, the number of couples who were married in 2010 dropped "…a startling 5%" from 2009. Americans are not only getting married "less frequently, they're doing so later in life," the data shows (Hallett, 2011).
So let's assume a loving couple (man, woman) does get married and within a year and a half their first baby is born. The child seems very normal in all respects but within a few years it is clear there is something psychologically and physically wrong with the child. Before the child is old enough to attend preschool, the parents witness serious problems with their little boy. The scholarly literature describes ADHD as developmentally "inappropriate levels of inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity" (DuPaul, et al., 2013,…