Child Psychology. Answers to Questions

by julien

1. What aspects of child development does child psychology study?

Child psychology is a branch of psychology that is concerned with describing and explaining the mental processes in the lives of children between the ages of one month and eleven years. These processes occur because of interactions with biological and socio-environmental factors. They are subject to such strong changes as do not occur at any other stage of human life. 

Below are the aspects of a child's development that child psychology studies in order to get a comprehensive assessment of his or her mental state: 

Body development - Physical and motor development in infancy and early childhood. Good physical development is important for socialization with other children. Comparing games, measuring strengths with peers helps build self-confidence. Physical development also affects adult behavior toward children. Older children are often overrated.

Development of sensory functions (perception) and motor skills. Motor development is the development of voluntary motor processes. Basic motor skills are already present in people at birth, and many are just beginning to mature. In some cases, they directly replace early childhood reflexes, such as the grasping reflex, which is suppressed by purposeful grasping movements.

Cognitive development. A child's cognitive development is also known as mental or intellectual development. Cognitive functions include, for example, language, abstract thinking such as problem solving, memory, attention, action planning, or perception.

Emotional development. Emotional learning begins before birth and continues through childhood (and beyond). The biggest steps in emotional development are taken by the child in the first six years of life.

Language development. Speech development refers to the acquisition of phonetic rules, vocabulary, grammar, and textual competence (storytelling, description of events).

Gender Role. When it comes to defining gender roles, boys predominantly adopt the behavior of their father, and girls equally often identify with their father or mother.

Moral development. Over the course of their lives, children gradually learn the values of the society in which they live and decide for themselves whether they want to act in accordance with them. This process is very tedious and requires thousands of small experiences and reflections.

Social development. A child's social development is related to the ability to establish relationships with other people. The basis for this is the mother-child relationship.

There are many theoretical perspectives and scientific approaches that attempt to explain and make sense of human development. They may differ greatly from each other, but all diagnostic and therapeutic procedures always take into account the family and social environment of the young patient.

2. Who is the founder of child psychology?

It is not possible to answer this question unambiguously. 

The origins of child psychology can be traced back to the nineteenth century, when The Soul of the Child was published in 1882 William Thierry Preyer. After him. William Stern и Clara Stern systematically observed their children and recorded their observations in the form of diary entries. Even Jean Piagetwho later defined the course of pediatrics with his "theory of learning," learned from his children, especially the development of intelligence from birth to language acquisition. 

In the first quarter of the 20th century, academic developmental psychology was actively developing in Vienna, especially in the Charlotte Buehler, in competition with Anna Freud's early child psychoanalysis. In 1933, Charlotte Bühler made the first serious attempt to fully explore and describe the life course in her book The Human Life Course - A Psychological Problem. In doing so, she drew upon extensive biographical material. Bühler views the human life course as a curve of biological life, which is characterized, on the one hand, by growth and, on the other hand, by reproductive ability.

Carl Buehler In his work The Spiritual Development of the Child (1918), he held the view that the child from 3 to 4 years of age has virtually all the possibilities for later thinking. 

Sigmund Freud attributes sexuality to the child and argues that the early years of childhood are crucial to a person's later life. 

BehavioristsIn particular, they postulate that all people are equal from birth and that everyone can become anything, so early childhood education attaches great importance.

Theoretical outline of the biography Eric H. Erickson is based on his clinical and therapeutic work in the tradition of psychoanalysis. Above all, Erikson developed a Freudian approach to psychosexual development in childhood. But also the life stage of adolescence was an important focus of Erikson's work, where he introduced the concept of identity. He sees a predetermined sequence in which identity growth occurs, with each stage building on the previous one. However, each stage has a critical phase. For Erikson, individual development from early childhood to old age occurs through dealing with specific stages of life.

In 1930, a textbook was published Alfred Adler "Raising Children," in which he applied individual psychological concepts to child development and to education at school and at home. Around the same time. Rene Spitz began systematic psychoanalytic studies of infancy and demonstrated the connection between disorders in the early mother-child relationship and infant illness. 

 In 1951 John Bowlby published a study on the relationship between maternal care and mental health. 

Walter Toman studied the importance of family formations and their influence, especially on children, through empirical and theoretical analysis of the formative influence of sibling positions. 

3. What determines a child's mental development?

Your child's weight and height are easy to measure. But figuring out what is going on in your baby's brain is not so easy. The parts of the brain that control physical functions and ensure our survival, such as breathing, drinking, sleeping, and digesting, are already embedded in the autonomic nervous system. But, the parts of the brain that help your child understand the world around him or her still have a lot of developmental work to do.

Your newborn's brain cannot yet manage imagination, thinking, memory, language, and more complex coordination. The process by which your baby gradually learns all of these skills is called mental development.

Mental or emotional well-being is one of the cornerstones of healthy child development. 

The mental health of young children is closely related to the health, well-being and behavior of their immediate caregivers. Social and

The economic conditions and culture in which the family lives also have a great impact on the well-being of the child.

If the soul is constantly out of balance, children and adolescents are diagnosed with psychological disorders - fears, depressive disorders, hyperkinetic disorders such as ADHD. Triggers and reasons for this can range from biological factors to particularly stressful and unfavorable living conditions. 

Often, parent and caregiver insecurities about daily family life and parenting contribute to the development of mental disorders and behavioral problems. Conversely, parents and other caregivers can take a number of preventive measures to ensure that the child develops mentally healthy and feels mentally well. A sensitive approach to children's needs is as important as clear limits and rules.

It is important for parents to know how they can accompany and support their children in their development so that they can successfully cope with age-related developmental challenges, develop confidence to acquire skills and abilities for an independent life. 

Each stage of a child's life presents new challenges for the parent. There are many decisions to be made. Each of these decisions also affects the psychological development of your children. That's why it's a matter of continuous, not constant, doubt. Did I have the right response? How could we have handled this problem better? How do I want to react next time?

Conversations with other parents and caregivers are helpful, as well as (critical) reading of study guides. In the end, it's a matter of developing your own clear direction in education with all of these aspects in mind. Because, of course, in addition to love and care, you also need consistency to be a good role model for your children. What that path looks like is a matter of specific circumstances.

In the end, you can probably figure out for yourself what's really good for your kids.

4. Why is child psychology necessary?

Child psychology is a branch of psychological science that studies the conditions and drivers of children's mental development, as well as patterns of child functioning as a personality. It is engaged in the study of children's activity and features of this process. 

A child psychologist is a child development expert who works with children and adolescents to diagnose and help solve problems that cause emotional or behavioral problems. Child psychology is important because it can help us better understand what children do, as well as how best to support them to become diverse individuals. Therefore, it is helpful to help parents and teachers better understand children and help them in their care.

Child psychology covers 5 main areas: development, milestones, behavior, emotions, and socialization,

Almost all parents sometimes worry about whether their children are developing normally and whether behavioral problems are temporary. Children's health is a priority for all parents. When parents find it difficult to deal with their child and do not know how to help them, they turn to a psychologist for advice. Difficulties can be of many different types: they can manifest as behavioral problems, attention deficits, mood problems or physical symptoms or impairments.

The psychologist's task is first of all to determine the cause of the problem and also to determine whether it is temporary and will pass by itself or whether the child really has a psychological abnormality. He or she can assess whether these deviations require treatment and what kind of therapy is most appropriate. 

Of course, all children are different and may experience the same event quite differently, but there are several life situations that most often become a reason to consult a child psychologist. Among them:

  • parents' divorce;
  • lack of friends;
  • younger siblings, to whom more attention is paid;
  • The departure of a beloved teacher from kindergarten;
  • the death of a loved one;
  • defeat in sports;
  • relocation 

But besides the fact that we think of child psychology when something happens, it is also constantly present in our daily family life, in the processes of parenting. For example, when we think about how right we are and how we should respond to our children. When we deal with problematic situations and when we teach our children to be confident and independent people. 

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