Personal Narrative: My Brother's Recovery

In 1991, my brother was born with Meconium Aspiration which is the swallowing of his own bowel movement. As a result, he was in a vegetative state at the infancy stage and suffered severe intellectual and developmental delays. With the appropriate referrals to (a) neonatal care hospitals, (b) behavioral intervention specialists, (c) social workers, (d) speech language pathologist, and (e) occupational and physical therapist, he made a full recovery. Notwithstanding the past medical mistakes, the early interventions helped him to reach developmental milestones at a latent age. Moreover, the use of early interventions led him to the normal adaptation to his interpersonal, social, economic, and political environments.
Intrigued by my brother’s
recovery, I desired to conduct qualitative research and develop theory on (a) developmental trajectories, (b) genetic predispositions, (c) intervention strategies, and (d) successful outcomes. I want to help this population achieve a facet of interpersonal, social, economic, and political understanding or even a full comprehension of his or her environment. I want to reduce the recidivism of this population in mental health institutions and increase community and independent living. From my research, the only means to accomplish such a great task was to further my education. Unfortunately, a Masters in the Science of Social Work and a potential doctorate in the Science of Social Work was not conducive to conducting scientific research and developing theory on this population. Therefore, I had to change disciplines. To validate my need for change, I began research on the developmental trajectories of intellectual and developmental disabilities and the correlation between intervention and success and found that a psychology discipline was more appropriate for that research. Unexpectedly, I found a paucity of research on the aforementioned subject matter. For the various aforementioned reasons and the paucity of scientific research on the development of intellectual and developmentally delayed youth and adolescents and the correlation between early interventions and success, I decided to pursue my doctoral education in general psychology. The pursuit of my doctoral education is not for personal gain; however, it is for the advancement of the (a) professional community of psychologist and (b) betterment of multiple client populations.