The mental health of the little ones is more delicate than it may seem. In this sense, child psychology is becoming, increasingly, a more essential branch.
Today, multiple studies are available to us that show that various psychological disorders have been on the rise for a few decades, as the busy lifestyle to which we expose ourselves daily (and a greater recognition and vocalization of our problems) expose more quickly our shortcomings and lack of emotional management tools.
This is common, and when faced with these types of issues, seeking help and professional advice are always the way to go. Before addressing delicate issues such as the one that concerns us today, it is important to have a clear idea: psychological care is not a symptom of weakness or madness, but anecessity in a world that increasingly presents us with more challenges.
Of course, an overwhelming amount of knowledge sources and an unbridled pace of life also make the smallest of the house sometimes do not even know how they feel. Reaching the minds of children as parents is a titanic task, which is why resorting to child psychology as a resource is, in many cases, the best tool for an emotional, cognitive or behavioral problem of the child.
For all these reasons and many more, today we tell you what child psychology is and how it canhelp our children in the present and in the future. Undoubtedly, investing in emotional management today will foster future generations that are much more self-aware and empathetic.
- We recommend you read: “The 5 differences between Psychology and Pedagogy”
The need for child psychology in modern society
To frame the need for the child psychologist in modern society, we show you some data of great interest collected by several medical sources:
- According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one in 160 children has anautism spectrum disorder (ASD).
- In the last 10 years, anxiety disorders diagnosed in children under 17 years of age have gone from 3.5% of the child population to 4.1%.
- According to US sources, this translates into at least 117 million children and adolescents worldwide having suffered from an anxiety disorder.
- Even so, it is estimated that 80% of infants with this type of problem do not receive treatment due to lack of diagnosis or protocol failures.
Of course, this type of data puts into effect the need for a professional figure to guide the new generations in termsof managing emotions and behaviors.
Perhaps today’s society promotes these types of conditions, or perhaps new diagnostic methods and freedom of emotional expression allow general disorders to be found more quickly. The fact is that these problems are on the rise, and therefore, in many cases psychological attention is required.
What is child psychology and what is it for?
From a terminological point of view, we can define child psychology as a branch of psychology that accompanies patients indevelopment from birth to young adulthood. It is one of the three essential pillars together with the family and the pediatrician in terms of addressing cognitive, behavioral and emotional disorders of the infant.
For its part, the work of a child psychologist is to improve the quality of life of children in terms of the way they interpret what happens to them. It is not so much about telling children how they should act, but about giving them tools and management methods that allow them to put into perspective the situations they are experiencing.
We must remember that we are facing a society in profound change, characterized by technological advance, new models of social and economic organization, globalization, accessible, new and exponentially growing information. Simply put: too much forone child to manage it all alone.
Thus, the functions of the child psychologist will begin with the observation of the behavioral patterns and the clinical history of the young patient. This will then make a diagnosis, based on the application and interpretation of psychological instruments that allow him to have sufficient elements to make a judgment. It should be noted that there does not always have to be an underlying problem for a child (or anyone, failing that) to go to the psychologist, because the search for tools for a future challenge is also a perfectly valid reason to go to this type of professionals.
After observation and diagnosis, the professional in question can proceed to the intervention, that is, the application of strategies that allow him to address the problem, offer guidance to the patient and provide mechanisms tosolve problemsin his field of action. This intervention must meet certain objectives:
- Set general and specific goals and clear terminals with each child. The infant must be an essential participatory part in the whole process.
- Set objectives that allow the development of skills, abilities and adaptive assessments of each child in accordance with their environment.
- Prioritize problems and strategies to follow, both central and accessory.
- Perform individual follow-ups per session, including readjustments when necessary.
- Help the child to build and configure his affective-emotional sphere in a stable and healthy way.
In summary, we can say that child psychology seeks to teach children to reason through strategies that affect more effective processes. It’s about looking more at performance, not the results themselves.
The ethics of working with children
As with treatment in adults, the ethics of procedures are above any other value. Therefore, work with children should be subject to the same considerations applicable to any other patient: honesty, trust, confidentiality, clarity regarding goals and objectives, transparency, understanding of the consequences and choice of joint therapeutic goals, among many other parameters.
Of course, this work is not only attributable to the psychologist in question, as parents also have various roles to play in the process. For example, in the past it was common for the parental figure to fail to make the infant understand why and why he is being evaluated in this regard, because going to the psychologist was usually used as a punishment or reprimand: “if you do not fall asleep soon, I send you to the psychologist”.
This type of interaction has historically generated fears and confusion in children towards the figure of the child psychologist, emotions that greatly hinder a positive interaction with the professional. Let’s remember: the psychologist is a positive tool, not a method of reprimand.
Differences with psychology in adults
Of course, we can list infinite differences in the approach of the adult and child human mind, but one of the most important is theplasticity of the infant brain. An alteration at the neurological, cognitive, emotional and behavioral level in an adult is under an umbrella of little changing processes.
On the other hand, children are constantly changing and developing. This meaning is essential, because in the infant, an alteration can obey normal developmental processes. Therefore, evidencing whether the variation is part of their normal development or due to a variation in which a disturbance is already observed becomes essential before continuing with any treatment.
Another essential difference is the range of action of the professional. In this sense, many of the infant’s reactions are completely linked to their environment. Therefore, in many cases communication with the patient’s closefamily nucleusis of vital importance, whether family, school or other contexts depending on each case. The work should consider both the child’s environment and its perception (description of the problem by parents or guardians) and self-reports, that is, how the child interprets his own state and situation.
Summary
As we have seen, child psychology aims at the observation, diagnosis and intervention in children with some type of emotional, cognitive or behavioral disorder, or simply in those that arise in order to prepare for future challenges and stimuli present in the globalized world in which we find ourselves. Although it shares many bridges with classical psychology, this discipline also reports certain differences with the approach of an adult.
For example, children must be considered as “systems” much more dynamic and changingthan a fully formed individual. For this reason, special care must be taken when considering a possible disorder, as it may be a phase of normal development or, indeed, some kind of individual imbalance.
References
- Donovan, D. A. (1988). Paediatric psychology. Latin American Journal of Psychology, 20(1), 91-101.
- 80% of children and adolescents with anxiety disorder do not receive treatment, according to a report, INFOCOPonline. Collected on October 15 in http://www.infocop.es/view_article.asp?id=7689
- Ferreira Arza, Y. (2000). Child psychology today. Revista Ciencia y Cultura, (8), 155-162.
- Autism spectrum disorders, World Health Organization (WHO). Collected on October 15 in https://www.who.int/es/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/autism-spectrum-disorders
- Vasta, R. (2009). Child psychology. Barcelona: Ariel, 2001.
To the classic question “what do you do?” I always answer “basically I am a psychologist”. In fact, my academic training has revolved around the psychology of development, education and community, a field of study influenced my volunteer activities, as well as my first work experiences in personal services.
