Child Psychology is the study of change of human mind and behavior through the time he/she is born to when they become adults. Human minds go through a lot of chains during the span of life. Infants have a very different thought process than 5-year old kids and this difference continues as they become teenagers and adults. The study is also called Child Development because basically, our minds develop over the time from when we are born and continue to develop for a long time. The subject of child psychology is vast with a lot of segments to study but the important thing to keep in mind is that every child has a different mind and that is why the psychology of one kid would never be identical to another kid.
That is the basis of psychology studies. This is the factor that makes studies of all field of psychology more versatile and vast.
Due to a range of factors contributing to a child’s psychology, researchers have divided the studies into some major categories. These categories are:
Physical development
Cognitive development
Socioemotional Development
These are the broad categories into which the study of a child’s psychology is generally divided. Psychology is affected by a great number of things including environment, society, media etc. Everything that comes into contact with a child has some sort of effect on that child’s thinking. The surroundings that a kid lives in matters the most when it comes to analyzing the psychological state of a person be that a child or an adult. The field of child psychology has broadened since its first mention and has turned into a wide concept usually known as Development Psychology. This wide field doesn’t study just children, it studies teenagers and adults as well. It is an overall view of psychological changes in a human at every stage of his/her life.
The field has become a well-known area of study with a lot of psychologists entering and showing interest in the studies happening. Many initiatives are being taken for the same. This field has a great scope and a number of career opportunities because of its constant expansion and development all across the globe. Many students are opting for child development as a field of their studies because it has interesting things to offer along with an amazing career opportunity.
A number of parents are also taking interest in the field. With researchers constantly telling that parents play a crucial role in their child’s psychology; many parents have become more aware of the fact and are taking a keen interest in the studies so as to take care of their child better and understand kid’s psychological state better.This has been a popular concept recently, considering a high rate of mental issues in teenagers and young adults. The interest of parents shows initiative on their part to do their bit in a total well being of their child.
With increasing use of technology and ever-growing stress level in this age, a step towards well being of kids’ psychology is of paramount importance.
The changes and studies have been divided into age groups that researchers study. By dividing them into age groups, the results acquired can be more accurate and the studies become easier and more concentrated on even the little aspects of change. This helps us provide a detailed insight into a process that happens in different duration amongst children, it is a better way to the full understanding of the process through which all kids go through. The studies are divided into the following age groups:
New-born (0-4weeks)
Infants (4 weeks-1 years)
Toddler (1-3 years)
Pre-schooler (4-6 years)
School-aged child (6-11 years)
Adolescent (12-18 years)
These are the age groups under which the three broad categories which were mentioned earlier are studied. The developments of children are noticed through these age groups.
Development of cognitive, physical and socioemotional factors is separately studied in each age group. By categorization of age group and subject of study, the vast sea of psychology is divided. So that it can be easily handled and later on studied.
With such division, the studies give better results and become considerably easy to handle for researchers as well as students and parents.
Would you like to read more about this topic? This book might interest you: Child Psychology.