A persons childhood is often a very simple yet complicated time. It is also a very influential time in a person’s life, and most childhoods will have a big impact on the type of adult they turn out to be later in life.
Child psychology is a specialised branch of traditional psychology that focuses on children, mainly their development and behaviour. It is one of the most commonly studied types of psychology today. This type of psychology typically covers every child, from birth to adolescence. Some areas covered under child psychology include milestones like behavioural problems, social skills, mental and emotional well-being and development, etc.
Importance of Child Psychology
From an Adult’s point of view
- Child psychology helps in understanding and diagnosing the child’s Behavior
- Child psychology helps us to detect problems of child behaviour – either social or psychological
- Child psychology helps us to understand parent, child, teachers and peer relationships
From a Parent’s point of view
Parents have their way of interpreting their child’s abilities and skills, or lack of those. When you don’t understand your children, you may misinterpret or misjudge them. Sometimes these misinterpretations can be harmless, but most of the times they are not. Parents’ role is the most important in a child’s psychological development. Lack of awareness about child development can often lead to poor judgement of children, which in turn leads to poor parenting decisions. Hence it is important for parents to educate themselves about the different aspects of child psychology and development so that they can contribute meaningfully towards the child’s emotional and mental growth.
From a Teacher’s point of view
A teacher must deal with a group of students in the classroom with caution, because the characteristics of each student are different. It is therefore very important to understand the different characteristics of students at various levels of growth and development to create effective learning and efficient teaching. Child psychology can help teachers and prospective teachers in understanding differences in student characteristics. Child psychology plays an important role in helping teachers to create Socio-emotional climate that is conducive in the classroom, so that the process of learning in the classroom can be productive.
Apart from the aforementioned, one of the the most important benefit of child psychology is the improvement of the
Self -Esteem of a child!
Self-esteem is a major key to success in life. The development of a positive self-concept or healthy self-esteem is extremely important to the happiness and success of children and teenagers. Child psychology provides the framework and support for a child to develop a healthy respect and regard for self and for others!