Pediatric psychology focuses on child development – physically, but above all emotionally. Specifically, it's the study of children's perception of themselves, including the environment around them.
Pediatric psychology specializes in the study of psychological processes during childhood as part of child development. It began in the 19th century with a more biological focus. However, in the 20th century the field expanded with theories such as psychoanalysis, cognitive psychology, and constructivism.
With an understanding of children as highly complex, this discipline covers children’s motor, linguistic, emotional, perceptive, physical, cognitive, and social aspects. Pediatric psychologists can be based in one scientific school or another, basing their interventions on the contributions of each theory.
Pediatric psychology addresses the way that each developmental stage operates for each child, or vice versa, establishing parameters and codes (generally maintaining a wide margin of relativity) within the field of children’s mental health.
To understand pediatric psychology it’s important to understand the way that the cognitivist Jean Piaget laid it out. Basically, he postulated the theory that, at each age, children naturally acquire the ability to solve certain problems: motor, cognitive, and emotional.
The stages of child development according to Jean Piaget are:
Today, cultural changes are vertiginous and children present very different behaviors from those of kids 100 years ago. These days you may hear terms like “anxiety disorder.” Or you may recognize “attention deficit,” “sleep disorder,” depression, or more broadly, “Autism spectrum disorder.”
These dysfunctions cause children not to respond to certain standard norms. The traditional theories of pediatric psychology are always being revised and modernized to apply to the needs of new and different generations.
The omnipresence of technology, the crisis of the hetero-patriarchal family, and the creation of new types of families require new theoretical approaches from pediatric psychology.
In this way, there are new ways to see things that continue to change for teaching, schools and learning centers.
In conclusion, an obsolete definition of childhood will create an unbridgeable gap between the new and old generations. As a result, many experts proceed to apply scientific parameters to childhood, widening the gap even more.
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