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What does a Child Psychologist do?
A Child Psychologist is a mental health professional who specialises in the assessment, diagnosis, and management of children's emotional, behavioral, and developmental issues. They are usually used to describe an Educational Psychologist or a Clinical Psychologist specialising in children, although there are differences between the two. Child Psychologists work with children, adolescents, and families to help them understand and manage various psychological, social, and behavioral problems.
In addition to the above, Child Psychologists may receive special training to assess and evaluate neurodevelopmental disorders in children and adolescents. Child Psychologists use their specialist knowledge to assess, diagnose and provide psychological interventions to children and young persons on concerns regarding their learning or academic performance, behavioural, social and emotional development. Because their work involves a deep understanding of developmental issues across a person’s lifespan, they may also provide developmental assessments across the range of ages from the child, adolescent and adult populations.
Some of the specific tasks that a Child Psychologist undertake include:
Assessing and diagnosing developmental disorders, learning disabilities, and mental health conditions, such as ADHD, depression, anxiety, and autism spectrum disorders.
Providing therapy or counselling to children and their families to address emotional, behavioural, and social issues, such as depression, anxiety, anger management, and social skills deficits.
Developing and implementing individualized management plans for children with mental health or behavioral problems.
Collaborating with teachers, parents, and other professionals to create supportive environments for children and adolescents.
Conducting research on childhood development and mental health issues to improve therapeutic approaches.
Consulting with schools and other organizations to improve their understanding of childhood development and to develop appropriate interventions for children with special needs.
Simply put, Child Psychologists identify and provide psychological interventions to children with learning or developmental concerns.
Other disorders that Child Psychologists assess for and address include Intellectual Disability, and Specific Learning Disorder (known as Dyslexia for reading impairments or Dyscalculia for math impairments). They also administer Psychometric Assessments such as verbal and non-verbal measures of intelligence, behavioural scales and ratings, and Functional Behavioural Analysis measures (FBA).
High-quality early intervention from an experienced Child Psychologist can change a child’s developmental trajectory and improve outcomes for that child and his or her family.
For early intervention to yield the best results, Child Psychologists work closely with children and their parents, teachers and other allied health professionals (such as Speech Therapists and Occupational Therapists) to deliver evidence-based psychological interventions for learning and developmental problems.
If you have concerns that your child may need a Child Psychologist, our child psychologists are happy to discuss your concerns with you.
Ask for a call back from one of our Child Psychologists to find out more.