What is Developmental Childhood Psychology?

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Natural Stages of Development

From the moment we enter this great big world to the time we pass on, all humans go through developmental growth both physically and mentally. These developments are marked as milestones and signify turning points in our lives. Most major milestones occur in the early years of our life up through puberty. Major turning points for adults generally are marked as educational fulfillment, job or career choices, marriage or even a major move.

Protecting Childhood Development

Developmental Childhood Psychology as a study did not exist until after the industrial revolution when the need for an educated workforce led to the need for a social division proclaiming childhood as a distinct stage in a person’s life. The early years of childhood development is the time of remarkable physical, cognitive, social and emotional development. Infants are born with limited skills and abilities, watching a child develop new motor, cognitive, language and social skills is still one of the greatest joys and wonder to parents, family and care givers alike.

Developmental Childhood Psychology is the study of these growths throughout the early childhood years through adolescence. A developmental childhood psychologist studies the mental, social and emotional development of children using these skills to aide in the overcoming disabilities. The developmental childhood psychologist is knowledgeable in using tests to aide in the diagnosis of a possible disability. In order to determine and understand the types of problems their patients may be dealing with, they are also skilled in interviewing, observing and interacting with children and adolescents.

Healthy Families

When studying developmental childhood psychology, you are also taught the skills needed to evaluate families to determine if the children are in a nurturing environment. You may also be required to evaluate prospective foster care parents.

A developmental childhood psychologist uses a variety of techniques in treatment, such as play therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy, parent child therapy, family therapy, group therapy, and anger control management. The extent of involvement with others depends on the needs of the client.

Other duties developmental childhood psychologists perform are designing treatment programs, such as self-esteem program for elementary school aged children or a series of classes for new parents. Their practice involves recording and evaluating the effectiveness of the treatment.

Special Needs Programs

Developmental childhood psychologists have a large range of fields they may choose from as a specialization. Their expertise may be in children suffering from mental health problems, such as anxiety, mood disorders like depression and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and children that have experienced a physical, emotional or sexual trauma.

Children with developmental illness such as autism, ADHD or learning disabilities are also included in specialized training, along with working with children who have physical disabilities to help them deal with the psychological drama associated to their condition.

Developmental childhood psychologists work in industries like hospitals, schools, clinics, mental health centers, social service agencies, and universities. Many developmental childhood psychologists choose to specialize in one or more fields and most have private practices. A developmental childhood psychologist is in all due respect, the mouthpiece and hope for many children with disabilities whether it is mental or physical.