Scope of child psychology
The following are outlined five of the Children's psychology scope:1. Child Development
Studies of child development are often divided into three major areas: physical, cognitive, and social-emotional. Physical development, which generally occurs in a relatively stable and predictable sequence, refers to the change in physical bodies and includes the acquisition of certain skills, such as rough motor coordination and fine motor. Cognitive or intellectual development, meanwhile, refers to the process that children use to gain knowledge and include language, thought, reasoning, and imagination. As social and emotional developments are intertwined, these two areas are often grouped together. Learning to connect with others is a part of the child's social development, while emotional development involves feelings and expressions of feelings. Trust, fear, confidence, pride, friendship, and humor are part of a person's social-emotional development.
While they can be divided into categories for easier understanding, the physical, cognitive, and societal areas of the child's development are all closely related. Development in one area can greatly affect it in other areas. For example, writing words requires fine motor skills and cognitive language skills. And, as well as research has known various areas of development, it also shows that development follows the main pattern or principle. Understanding these principles has had a great influence on the way we care for, nurture, and educate children today.
2. Milestones
Developmental milestones are an important way for psychologists to measure the progress of a child in some important developmental areas. Essentially, they act as checkpoints in the development of the child to determine what the average child can do at a given age. Knowing milestones for different ages helps psychologists understand normal child development and also helps identify potential problems with delayed developments. For example, a 12-month-old child can usually stand up and sustain his or her weight by holding something. Some children at this age can even walk. If a child reaches the age of 18 months but is still not able to walk, it may indicate an issue that needs to be investigated further.Child psychologists see four major milestone categories, which loosely follow the major developmental areas discussed above.
- Physical, related to the development of coarse and fine motor skills.
- Cognitive or mental, which refers to the child's developmental ability to think, learn, and solve problems.
- Social and emotional, relating to the ability of the child to express emotions and respond to social interactions.
- Communication and language, involving children to develop verbal and non-verbal communication skills.
3. Conduct
All children can be naughty, challenging, and impulsive over time. The conflict between parents and children is also inevitable when the last struggle, from the "terrible both" to the youth, to assert their independence and develop their own identity. This behavior is a normal part of the growth process. However, some children have very difficult and challenging behaviors that are beyond the norm for their age. In fact, behavioral disorders are the most common reason that parents seek the help of child psychologists.In some cases, this behavioral problem is a temporary problem that is largely caused by stressful situations, such as the birth of a sibling, divorce, or death in a family. Other cases involve a sustained pattern of hostile, aggressive, or disruptive behavior that is not appropriate for the child's age. The most common disruptive behavioral disorders include ODD, opposition disorder (CDD) and Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). These three behavioral disorders have some common symptoms and can be exacerbated by emotional problems and mood disorders. Child psychology involves seeing all possible roots for this behavioral problem, including brain disorders, genetics, diet, family dynamics and stress, and then treat it accordingly.
4. Emotions
This complex process begins in infancy and continues into adulthood. The first known emotion in infants includes joy, anger, sadness, and fear. Then, when children begin to develop a sense of self, more complex emotions such as shame, surprise, glee, shame, shame, guilt, pride and empathy emerge. The things that lure emotional responses also change, as do the strategies used to manage them.Learning to organize emotions is harder for some children than others. This may be due to their emotional temperament-some children just feel the emotions more intense and easier, more emotionally reactive and find it harder to calm down. Emotionally reactive children also tend to be anxious faster and easier than other children. Thus, it is the work of the child psychologist to identify reasons why children have difficulty expressing or regulating their emotions and developing strategies to help him learn to accept feelings and understand the relationship between Feelings and behaviors.
5. Socialization
Closely related to emotional development is social development. Simply put, socialization involves gaining values, knowledge, and skills that enable children to connect with others effectively and to contribute positively to families, schools and communities. Although the process begins soon after birth and continues into adulthood, early childhood is a very important period for socialization.One of the first and most important relationships that children experience is with their parents or primary caregivers and the quality of this relationship has a significant influence on social development at a later date. In peer-to-peer relationships, children learn how to start and nurture social interactions with other children, acquire skills to manage conflicts, such as taking turns, compromising, and bargaining. The play also involves the coordination of goals, actions, and sometimes complicated mutual understanding. Through these experiences, children develop friendships that provide additional security and support resources provided by their parents.
Factors that can contribute to the inability to develop age-appropriate social skills include everything from the amount of love and affection that children receive to the social-economic status of the family. Children who fail to socialize well have difficulty creating and maintaining a satisfying relationship with others that can be a limitation that many people bring to adulthood. The areas that psychologists will strive to work with these children include controlling hostile or aggressive impulses and, conversely, learning to express themselves in a socially appropriate manner; Engage in socially constructive actions (such as assisting, caring, and sharing with others) and developing a healthy sense of self.