Tiny Influences free essay sample

â€Å"Please, can we have a story?† â€Å"Okay, but only one because it’s bed time.† Two heads scramble for a place on my lap as if it’s stadium seating. Their freshly-shampooed heads dampen my shirt with a unique, fruity fragrance. As I turn the book pages, I hear a crisp rustle that comforts me more than any other sound. While Kyle and Marissa are lost in the magic of the story, I am drawn back in time to when their adventure began. I remember traveling through the NICU thinking how polished, clean, and organized it was compared to the rest of the hospital. My shoes squeaked across the linoleum. The tang of antibacterial soap lingered down the hall. A steady thrum†¦thrum†¦thrum of monitors came from every direction and fluorescent lights quivered in never-ending rows. Pushing through the maze of incubators, I saw the crowd of white coats before I heard the alien cries. We will write a custom essay sample on Tiny Influences or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page When I first laid my eyes upon my brother and sister, they were tiny, red, squealing bodies in a sea of frantic doctors. Fear grasped my heart at the sight of the twins, for they appeared inhuman. Fused eyes greeted me like a newborn kitten’s. I gaped. I boggled. Their size was minute. One pound 13 ounces and one pound 15 ounces are just numbers until they are associated with living†¦breathing†¦beings. All I got was a glance, until the doctors dragged us away because we had not washed our hands. We were oblivious to the immense danger of germs in premature lives. Retreating into our hospital room, we gathered around a bed with tear-streamed faces. I felt like I’d swallowed a boulder. In need of an activity, I scrunched the worn bedspread between my palms. Since we were situated roundabout, I searched my family’s faces. No one seemed to know where to look. Each of us had the same question. â€Å"How could children so delicate possibly survive?† We said a heart-felt prayer that our new family members would make it. I knew at that moment that it was out of our hands. Over the course of three months, Kyle and Marissa kept fighting despite all the odds. To this end, morphine administration was essential just to touch their bodies. A micro-ventilator kept them alive, providing every morsel of oxygen for them. Also, the twins each underwent thoracic heart surgery in their first week of life. They suffered through numerous blood transfusions and spinal taps. Pneumonia infected their feeble bodies four times altogether. Being able to suck wasn’t instinctive. All in all, they had to be trained to do most everything I was born knowing how to do, but they succeeded and came home. When I supported their fragile heads for the first time, I experienced terrifying rapture. It was so strange to hold faces I had gazed at for months but had never been able to touch. I could not fathom that Kyle and Marissa were real. Peering into pairs of blue eyes, I thought of what they had endured to be nestled in my arms. Coming home, however, did not make them normal twins. On the contrary, they needed constant attention. Exposure to any bacteria could easily have killed them; consequently, they barely left our house for a year. Hence, our family became the hermit crabs on the block. Surgical masks became regular attire in our home, and oxygen tanks were a fundamental appliance. Neither flu shots nor friends coming over with a cold were negotiable. In short, Kyle and Marissa took up an ample portion of my life. As I finish the storybook, I examine Kyle and Marissa’s captivated faces and I realize that the twins have no memory of the experiences I cannot forget. Their lives are not about what they conquered in the past but about what they confront each day. Recently, a lady commented to me, â€Å"You are so good with those kids.† In contrast, I believe they have been â€Å"so good to me.† Caring for them has taught me more than I could ever hope to give in return.

Child Psychology Essays - Substance Abuse, Abnormal Psychology

Child Psychology This paper is intended to explore the childhood psychological disorders associated with drug use. The paper will mention the risk and protective factors associated with drug use and the disorders they may cause. Also, the research proposal will explore the perceptions that adolescents have about substance abuse prevention programs. Drug addiction afflicts many adolescents in the United States. Moreover, the occasional or recreational adolescent drug user is more common than most Americans think. This literature review and research proposal is intended to: (1) summarize adolescents' perceptions and the effectiveness of drug prevention programs (a protective factor) and (2) propose a research to examine the correlation between drug prevention programs and the rate of psychopathology in adolescents. Increase in drug use by school-aged children has led to the enactment of the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act in order to enhance drug education prevention programs. In addition, there is conflicting evidence in the literature regarding the effectiveness of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.), one of the more famous drug prevention programs. Therefore, the research proposal will attempt to clarify the effectiveness of D.A.R.E., which is a protective factor for several childhood psychological disorders. Drug use during adolescence is a risk factor and predictor for several psychological disorders. The effectiveness of D.A.R.E., and other drug prevention programs, is important to the field of child and family child psychopathology because they help to prevent and understand some disorders. The D.A.R.E. program has been described as a ?psychosocial? approach to drug prevention. The sessions include training for personal, social, and resistance skills. The articles pertaining to D.A.R.E. essentially state that program has good short-term results but less successful long-term results In the first article by Rosenbaum (1999), the subjects he studied were in the fifth and sixth grades, about eleven and twelve years old. The six year longitudinal study was illustrates how the effectiveness of D.A.R.E. can predict the RESEARCH DESIGN QUESTION: What are adolescents' perceptions of substance abuse programs and strategies? 333333333333 With growing awareness that even very young children are at risk of drug and alcohol Psychology