"Very seldom that children under the age of 11 are able to ask for assistance such as: counseling. They may ask for help from their parents or family members but generally adults, parents, and care givers may have to make the decision for their children. As children they have only began to understand what it is to have a voice for themselves. Even though children may not be wanting or willing to enter counseling; however, counseling can still be very effective as the child begins to build rapport with their counselor.With adolescents 12 and up, asking for help can still be difficult, but adolescents will at times ask for their own help. It is still rare, but when they do those are the best moments to seek a counselor for them. It is still tough at times for them to see what they are doing to themselves in order to coop with the world or situation they are in. Although their minds and their thinking is growing, they lack two very important things: 1) Life experience; 2) And the next developmental shift in thinking where teenagers more from emotional thinking to logical adult thinking. It is not that adolescents do not have enough life experience to make the changes they need too. They do have experience, but many times the struggles they are facing keep them from coming forward and asking for the help they may need. At times, adolescents are not able to ask for help because they are seen as "needing to have an attitude change" and parents or caregivers have the ability and authority to reward or punish the adolescent"s decision on whether or not to enter counseling. It may also become the parents or court"s decision for the adolescents to enter counseling and although it is always easier in the beginning if the adolescent is choosing to enter counseling, it can still be effective for them even if they are not"
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