Discussion Question: A parent is at his or her wit's end over a seeming lack of ambition and drive in his 8-year-old son has come to you for help. All the child wants to do is play video games, the parent reports. As a clinical mental health counselor, how might you separately counsel both the parent and the child? Formulate your response around your understanding of physical development and multiple-intelligences theories as well as parenting styles. Classmate Response: As a counselor, it is important for counselors to not take sides but rather view the different perspectives and in this case, the parent and the son. The parent obviously has complaints but it is important to understand the son and where he is at with the situation. The child may have hidden feelings that may need to be addressed as a family. Regarding video games, depending on the games that are being played, it enables the son to gain some sort of benefit from the game (APA, 2014). Due to the son still being at such a young age, it would be difficult to get a full aspiration from the child but maybe getting some sort of idea. Also, having the son talk about any other interests he could be into that could possibly turn into something more in the future. Conversing with the parent could be difficult because as it was mentioned that the parent is at their wit's end with the child's lack of ambition showing authoritarian parenting. Being strict on a child will not create a healthy relationship with a child, it will create a negative impact on the child. As the median of the parent and child, it is important to listen and understand the parents' perspective and concerns. Asking open-ended questions during a session is vital in a session in order to gain more insight. Being able to see how involved the parent really is in regards to the son's life, how well does the parent know about the son's friends, school, and other activities that the son likes to take part in. There could be different aspects both parties could see regarding the son's interests. Playing games may be viewed as a waste of time to parents, but it may become a learning skill for a child. Creating a healthy boundy of caring and enforcing respective rules with the child which will help the parent gain authoritative parenting skills (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2016)