Understanding your child’s needs and wants is an essential part of parenting. It can make a difference between having a fully functional child or a dysfunctional and troubled one.

Needless to say, raising a child is no walk in the park. To truly understand a child’s psychology, parents need to first understand how it works.

Child psychology is one of the many branches of psychology and one of the most frequently studied specialty areas. This particular branch focuses on the mind and behaviour of children from prenatal development through adolescence.

Child psychology involves analysing all possible reasons for behavioural issues, including brain disorders, genetics, diet, family dynamics and stress, and then treating them accordingly.

It is part of developmental psychology as it deals with the psychological and cognitive development within children.

Being aware of various facts relating to child psychology is absolutely crucial for new parents and first-time parents to understand and follow. That includes being able to know when to bring a child psychologist into the picture. That being said, here’s why child psychology is important.

1. Diagnosing behavioural issues

Having a good understanding of your child’s psychology can help you understand irregularities in their behaviour.

Everything from tantrums to aggression can be better understood if you look into their psychological behaviours, with the help of child psychologists.

2. Unravelling trauma

Having a clear understanding of a child’s psychology can also help in unravelling and healing childhood trauma.

Countless children grow up in compromising and sub-standard living environments due to negligence or abusive parents.

Having these experiences at a young age can deeply scar a child and cause Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

3. Diagnosing developmental delays or abnormalities

Through the help of child psychologists, a child’s developmental delays or abnormalities such as autism or dyslexia can also be detected early so preventative care can be administered to ensure that affected children have a good shot at recovery and healing.

The recent weeks have seen the emergence of new Covid-19 clusters in schools, forcing students back to remote learning. This has badly affected those particularly in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Kelantan.

It is fair to say that adults are not the only ones feeling overwhelmed by the precariousness of the current situation. This is because school children are also facing uncertainties with the opening and closing of schools.

Having to quickly switch from classroom to home learning causes great emotional and mental distress for them. As parents, having basic knowledge about child psychology is important especially during this time to help make this transition more bearable for them.

Some of the early signs of mental and emotional distress in children are unusual patterns of crying such as crying for more than 10 minutes. Many also display a lack of motivation to study and loss of appetite.

Child psychology deals not only with how children grow physically, but also their mental, emotional, and social development. All these factors come together to create the child’s psyche as we know it.

A child psychologist has the expertise to assist parents to understand their kids better. They are trained to observe how a child interacts with their parents, themselves, and the world.

In a statement, Befrienders Kuala Lumpur patron, Lee Lam Thye said that parents should seek help from professionals if they care about their children’s mental well-being as experts are more capable of assessing their children’s condition.

“If you are concerned about your child’s mental health, please reach out for help and speak to a professional, such as a psychiatrist or counsellor,” he said.

Parents or other adults may be able to read cues and understand communication on a surface level, but to understand deeper emotional and mental development, relying on a child psychologist is the way to go.

Child psychologists have the skills to assess all the factors affecting a child’s life and provide answers and guidance to ensure the optimal growth of your child.

With these points in mind, both parents and other adults alike should bear in mind that the psyche of a child is completely different and unique from that of an adult.

They should also remember that the mental and emotional development of a child is as important as their physical development, if not more.

Therefore, adults should be more aware of the general wellbeing and behaviour of their children and strive to provide them with the opportunity to grow and evolve.

SchoolAdvisor.my provides information on private and international schools, after-school activities as well as other education-related topics in Malaysia.