Understanding child psychology is a vast study and it is the need to know how does a child think and reciprocate. It is getting into the intricacies of making every little observation from a child’s movement to behaviour. Having said, As parents would you like to get enlightened on how does the child psychology work?
What is the need to learn child psychology? It is crucial to understand child psychology to determine and gauge the progress of a child’s mental, emotional and social behavioral pattern and the way a child responds in different situations. Once you get a clue of that, one can consider the areas of improvement that is needed for a child’s well being.
One of our famous psychologist named Piaget believed that children have a different approach in thinking when compared to the thinking of adults and intelligence in a child gradually develops at every age group.
This article has an eye to eye detail about child psychology and how it can help you in your day to day life in understanding your child’s behaviour
What Is Child Psychology?
Child Psychology is studying a child’s cognition not merely through his mind but through activities, body language, gestures and his over allbehaviour. A child’s capability to absorb every little thing is also examined while studying child psychology.
Basically focusing on the cognitive development of a child majorly sums up the study of child psychology. Cognitive development in kids comprises of learning, memory, attention and thinking.
The famous child Psychologist named Piaget has discovered a wonderful theory on the different stages of cognitive development in a child.
There is a direct link in child psychology and understanding cognitive development. Here is how the theory has been birfurcated into different stages of how a child’s brain develops.
Stage 1 – Sensorimotor Stage – Birth to 2 Years
This is a phase between birth and until the child is 2 years old. The phase where a child’s brain develops to understand things through their senses and movements, they get to feel touch and smell the world through sucking, looking, grasping and listening. A baby starts to interact with the environment and is ready to take over understanding the world bit by bit. This is the first stage where a child first gets to learn and grow.
Stage 2 – Preoperational Stage – 2 to 7 Years
In this stage of life, a child moves from the sensory phase of thinking and understanding to see and learn things as they are. Children learn to look at things and are able to name them, they cannot comprehend beyond that. Their thinking is limited to what they see. For instance, if they see an apple they can only understand that it is a an apple but they cannot think beyond understanding what is an apple and what can be done with it.
Stage 3 – Visible Prepoerational Stage – 7 to 11 years
Until now a child does not have any thought going into their ability to think. In this phase of life they learn how to give meaning to their thought, they begin to think logically and start to understand things, they go beyond the concrete thinking and can analyse better. Often they do get stuck in understanding what they analyse, but they slowly get there to the next phase of learning.
For instance, earlier they only understood that they can see an apple. Now they can further understand that an apple is a fruit, it is white from the inside and it tastes sweet. They are capable of analyzing now.
Stage 4 – Formal Operational Stage – Beyond 11 Years
During this phase a child is a level more understanding that what he/she was. This is a phase where children can sense, see, understand and be able to analyse things better. In short, they are capable to solve problems as well. It is an adolescent age.
They understand morals, emotions, philosophies, sociology and can reason out if there is a problem.
Hence, these were some of the stages of a deep study of child psychology. The crux of the matter here is that if this stage is going well it is well and good. But if there are concerns during this cycle of knowing, learning and understanding then parents have to help their child through these phases of learning.
What Is The Importance Of Child Psychology ?
Yes! Deep diving into knowing the importance of child psychology is a must because childhood forms the base and marks the beginning of your life ahead. Here are reasonable reasons as to why is it important to not just know child psychology but also stay educated about its importance.
Reason No 1 – To Ensure a Child’s Mental Well Being
When children are in the right form of catching up with the cognitive development phase their well being is assured because they are going with the flow of understanding things as per their age which is a good sign and is healthy or them.
Reason No 2 – To Work on Loop Holes
Only when you give importance to child psychology will you understand what is going right and wrong with your child. Only when we know there is a loop hole will we understand how to deal with it.
Reason No 3 – To Check on The Child’s Physical Growth
It is quintessential that not just mentally, but physically also a child should grow healthy and normal according to their age. It is a matter of concern if the child often falls sick or is not growing as per his/her age, to beat this concern understanding child psychology becomes important. You will definitely understand what your child likes and dislikes to eat or if there is a circumstance that is bothering your child. You can curb all the concerns that is diminishing the physical growth of your child.
Reason No 4 – To Ensure a Child’s Emotional and Social Well Being
You can identify how well is your child socially and emotionally sound only when you adjust your focus to understand child psychology. One can say that a child is emotionally doing well when he/she can express emotions such as pain, fear, anger and joy, when they are able to understand and express these emotions will they go on to understanding confidence, courage, respect and various other emotions. When a child gets a hang of these emotions, he/she is ensured being on the right track emotionally and socially.
How To Understand Child Psychology
We are aware of what is child psychology, the importance of child psychology and we know what are the factors contributing to all of these. The real task is to find a way in understanding how to understand child psychology.
Finding out hat your child has a problem is just like the tip of the iceberg. However, parents have to work on it all by themselves and here is what you can do to understand your child’s psychology.
According to one of the theories made by a psychologist named Freud, if a baby is around certain circumstances, that could influence his personality and behaviour in the long run.
1. Begin With The Basics
The first thing to do when you have to understand if things are going the right way or not is by making a keen observation. It is important that your observe every action and behavioral pattern of your child. Only when you observe will you know what to do next.
Observation Includes :
- When you feed your baby see what your baby likes and dislikes?
- Keep an eye on what are those things that make your baby fall sick?
- What are those things that worry your baby?
- Is our baby cool with mingling with all or is he particular to be around just known people.
These are some of the examples of the kind of observations you can make to reach to understanding child psychology.
2. Stay all Ears
Understanding psychology is certainly not jumping to conclusions. It is a step wise procedure where you bring together all your observations. Just watching your baby is not enough, you also have to hear what your child tells you. Just like how it is with adults that what we feel comes on to our tongue. Likewise, what babies say also is a sign of what they are feeling.
Do not just physically be present when your child is talking to you, hear your child out and probe to know more from your child if required.
Let every word said by your child be a cynosure for you at that time. Be keen on the words they are giving their attention to, look at their facial expression to understand how are they feeling at that moment, watch their body language and observe their movements.
3. Shower all Your Attention
It is essential that every child gets the right attention at the right age which can otherwise lead to your child becoming an attention seeker from the wrong people. This is a common problem with many adults these days. Hence, if you want to save your child from not turning that way, give your child the right attention.
When you deprive your child of attention and love, your child is going to get complex or feel unwanted which is not a good sign from an upbringing stand point. In order to be able to include this in your upbringing, dedicate special time just for your kid to hear, watch and pamper your kid.
4. Time is the Best Investment
When you specially spare time for your kids during the day while you are having your meals or taking your kid out to play. Your child is happy and tends to get more comfortable being with you. When your baby finds it easy to relate with you, your baby’s talks and actions will help you understand your child better.
Yow will get aware of who are your child’s friends, how does your child feel in school, how is your child able to cope up with studies and activities. Although with schedules being hectic it is tough to give special time to your child, but parents have to make time to be able to understand their child’s mentality better.
5. Advert Your Focus on His/Her Surrounding
I is rue that we become what and whom we are around. Same goes with the little one’s, keep an eye of whom does your child interact with in school, how are the teachers in school and how is your child treated there. Pay attention to every little detail of the surrounding of your child.
By doing this you will be able to understand what is the reason for your child to get sad angry or happy.
6. Notice How They Express Themselves
One of the powerful an effective source of communication is non-verbal communication. Several times children express what goes unnoticed. Pay attention to every activity of theirs.
You can read a lot of your child’s personality from what they write to what they scribble, that’s the power of knowing what they have to saying without actually saying it.
There are some psychologists who study babies and they came up with a term called temperament, which means studying babies personality. This was a research done in New York in 1950 by interviewing children until they were 30 and they found out that children fall into one of these categories of temperament and those are ‘easy children’ ‘difficult children’ and slow to warm up children.
These were some of the ways to understand child psychology. If you are good at making the right assumptions you can be a genius in understanding your child’s psychology.
Child Psychology Disorders
According to the Child Mind Institute there are about 17.1 million kids suffering with psychiatric disorders and it is most common in children who are below 14. This issue has to be addressed and most of us can work on it if it is not genetic. Get educated about the disorders that occur in children.
It is tough for any parent to watch their children not keeping well physically or mentally. In order to avoid facing that scenario in life, parents have to take their children seriously by taking special care of their children from time to time. Do the right psychological reading for your child and make corrections for your child at an early stage before it goes beyond control.If necessary do consult a child psychologist for further help.
– Neha Makhija
