Multidisciplinary Team In Rehabilitation

The aim of this assignment is to discuss the importance of inherited and environmental factors to human development and the role of a multidisciplinary team in rehabilitation using the case study of Genie. Resources from the library and textbooks will be used as well as internet searches, the aspect of human development, nature and nurture will be discussed in relations some theorists. The roles of different professional in a multidisciplinary team in rehabilitation process will also be discussed.
The ways we feel, think, speak and behave are usually as a result of genetic or environmental factors. Our genetic inheritance and upbringing as well as the environment we live in determine to an extent what we are therefore our heredity and environment
There are different aspects of human development; these include physical, intellectual, language, emotional and social aspect. These aspects are all affected by our genetics and environment. Looking at the language aspect for example, when a child is born, naturally we expect the child to start using words at about 12months old. Chomsky (1959, cited in Barbara woods, 1997) argues that this was possible because children are born with a language acquisition device; this means that humans have an inbuilt mechanism to help them recognise and speak languages. He also said that human being has got innate abilities which help us make sense of language and use it. Vygotsky (1894 –1934, cited in Berk, 2009) on the other hand believed that language development was motivated by the experience of communicating with others; he believed that social interaction or provides the basis for both the development of thinking and language ability. This means that the environment a child is born
Genie seemed to have learnt some language through her innate ability, this was evident in the video when Marilyn Rigler asked Genie what she was thinking about and Genie replied “father”, she could remember her father and how she was tied to a potty and chair but could not expressed herself properly. This goes further to show that sometimes the environment can help to reactivate the innate abilities. If Genie was referred to a multidisplinary team with professionals who would be sincerely ready to help and if they could come up with a good and reasonable care package for her, taking into consideration the Maslow hierarchy of needs, there would be about 75% hope that she would lead a normal life, though she might not get to the top hierarchy of Maslow’s theory. The video(BBC,1994).shows that the professionals were not keen on helping Genie, they only used her case for scientific research and they caused more damage to her socially and emotionally and one of the reasons she could not form an attachment was because there was a lot of people involved in her life, she was moved from one place to