What kind of problems does a child psychologist deal with?
These are the main problems that child psychologists deal with on a daily basis.
In recent decades, child psychology is receiving the importance and recognition it deserves as an essential therapeutic modality to ensure the mental health and well-being of children.
Fortunately, more and more parents are choosing to go to a child psychologist to treat any type of problem that their child may present at any level, and nowadays there are more and more areas of intervention in which a professional in this field specializes. However, most people do not know exactly what kind of problems are addressed in this field. what kind of problems are dealt with in a child psychologist's office.. If it is your case, this article will interest you.
What are the main problems that a child psychologist treats?
If you want to know the main problems that a child psychologist treats, read on, as we will see their characteristics and symptoms (in the case of those that constitute a psychopathology).
1. Learning disorders
Learning disorders are one of the main specializations that child psychologists deal with in children. in children. This type of alterations have part of their causes in the functioning of the brain and affect an essential area for the later development of the child: the correct learning at all levels of the educational system.
An early detection of this type of disorders will ensure that the child will overcome his problems in the educational field; on the contrary, in case of not detecting the learning disorder in time, it can keep on giving many problems throughout the person's life and because of that other emotional, behavioral or cognitive disorders can be added to the initial disorder.
The main learning disorders are dyslexia or specific learning disorder with reading difficulties and dyscalculia or specific learning disorder with mathematical difficulties.
ADHD
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurobiological disorder that occurs in the brain. is a neurobiological disorder that is first expressed in the infantile stage, more present in boys than in girls.Its main symptoms are inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity.
To be able to speak of a case of ADHD, these symptoms must not be caused by another medical problem, and they must interfere with the child's correct performance, occurring very frequently.
Finally, it should be noted that adhd is often associated with other typical childhood disorders, including learning disorders.
3. Conduct disorder
Conduct disorder is composed of antisocial behavior patterns that usually appear in childhood and are related to aggressive behaviors. and are related to aggressive and destructive behaviors that affect the public, private property or the physical integrity of others, such as vandalism and theft. In addition, these types of disorders may be related to irresponsible behaviors such as truancy....
The causes of conduct disorder are considered to be multifactorial and are composed of biological predispositions and to be propitiated by negative or unstructured family environments.
4. Lack of social skills
The lack of social skills in children are those that prevent or hinder a correct and normal functioning of the child in a social environment with other people. This This translates into lack of friends, social anxiety, shyness and excessive introversion..
5. Behavioral problems
Another area that child psychology professionals address in their consultations are behavioral problems of all kinds that the child or adolescent may present.
These types of problems are also based on a willingness on the part of the child to break the rules, but are less serious than conduct disorders.
The most common behavioral problems are tantrums in young children, deficits in anger management, aggressiveness or impulsivity.
6. Fears and phobias
Phobias and extreme fears that occur in childhood are other very common problems that can be present in the development of children until adolescence, and like many other disorders, should be treated during childhood to help the person not to maintain them when they reach adulthood.
There are many types of fears and phobias that usually appear in childhood and adolescence, and as it happens in adults, these have very diverse causes, but in this case they are reinforced by the tendency to magical thinking of the little ones.
Thus, the most common childhood fears and phobias are fear of the dark, social phobias, fear of imaginary beings, school phobias and phobias of certain situations or objects.
7. Self-esteem problems
The self-esteem of the children is the starting point of the person that they will be in the future.. That is why problems of this type in the infantile stage can suppose a real source of discomfort in the long term for the correct development of the child so much to emotional level, as cognitive and behavioral.
These problems are currently one of the most common reasons for consultation in child psychologists, and the main problems of self-esteem in children and adolescents usually occur in the social, family, academic or body (the latter may worsen in adolescence).
8. Trauma
Traumas are intense and negative experiences that significantly affect the unconscious and by extension the life of a person. In the case of childhood traumas, they can have a damaging influence can have a damaging influence for decades in the person who suffers it if they are not treated as soon as possible during the first years of life..
There are many causes of a specific trauma; among the main ones are cases of mistreatment or sexual abuse, intense fears, school bullying or the sudden death of a loved one.
9. Family problems
Problems in the family environment are also common reasons for consultation with child psychologists as well as with specialists in family psychology or mediation.
Family problems frequently dealt with by a child psychologist are cases of parental separation or divorce, poor management of arguments about rules to be followed at home, frequent quarrels with siblings or the problems in the way to regulate the impulses of the smallest.
10. TEA
Finally, Autism Spectrum Disorders can be highlighted as a common reason for intervention by a child psychologist, since they are psychopathologies that must be treated by a child psychologist. are psychopathologies that need to be treated as soon as possible to enhance the quality of life of the people who develop them, taking into account that the symptoms appear in childhood.
These disorders are neurological and developmental disorders that have effects on the way the child communicates and behaves in society, as well as on the way the child learns; in many cases, they are associated with intellectual disability.
(Updated at Apr 12 / 2024)