What kinds of problems does a child psychologist treat?

In recent decades, child psychology is receiving the importance and recognition that deserves as an essential therapeutic modality to ensure the mental health and well-being of the most little ones.

Luckily, more and more parents are choosing to go to a child psychologist to treat any type of problem that may arise. present your child at any level, and nowadays there are more and more areas of intervention in which a professional in this field specializes branch. However, most people don't know exactly what kind of problems are addressed in the consultation of a child psychologist. If this is your case, this article will interest you.

• Related article: "The 6 stages of childhood (physical and mental development)"

What are the main problems that a child psychologist treats?

If you want to know the main problems that a child psychologist treats, keep reading, as we will see their characteristics and symptoms (in the case of those that constitute a psychopathology).

1. Learning disorders

Learning disorders are one of the main specializations that child psychologists address

in boys and girls. These types of alterations have part of their causes in the functioning of the brain and affect an area essential for the subsequent development of the child: correct learning at all levels of the system educational.

An early detection of this type of disorder will ensure that the child overcomes her problems in the educational environment; On the contrary, if the learning disorder is not detected in time, it can continue giving many problems throughout the life of the person and because of that other emotional, behavioral or cognitive disorders can also be added to the disorder initial.

The main learning disorders are dyslexia or specific learning disorder with difficulty in reading and dyscalculia or specific learning disorder with mathematical difficulty.

2. ADHD

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a neurobiological disorder that is first expressed in childhood, more present in boys than in girls, whose main symptoms are inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity.

To be able to speak of a case of ADHD, these symptoms must not be caused by another medical problem, and must interfere with the correct performance of the child, occurring very frequently.

Finally, it should be noted that ADHD is usually associated with other typical childhood disorders, among which learning disorders stand out.

3. Conduct disorder

Conduct disorder is made up of antisocial behavior patterns that usually appear in childhood and they are related to aggressive and destructive behaviors that affect the public, private property or the physical integrity of other people, such as vandalism and theft. In addition, these types of disorders can be related to irresponsible behaviors such as truancy.

The causes of conduct disorder are considered to be multifactorial and are composed of biological predispositions and are caused by negative or unstructured family environments.

4. Lack of social skills

The lack of social skills in children are those that prevent or hinder a correct and normal functioning of the child in a social environment with other people. This results in lack of friends, social anxiety, shyness, and excessive introversion.

5. Behavior problems

Another area that child psychology professionals address in their consultations are behavioral problems of all kinds that the child or adolescent may present.

These types of problems are also based on a willingness to break the rules on the part of the child, but they are less serious than conduct disorders.

The most common behavior problems are tantrums in young children, deficits in anger control, aggressiveness or impulsiveness.

6. Fears and phobias

Phobias and extreme fears that occur in childhood are other very common problems that can be present in the development of children until their adolescence, and like many other disorders, should be treated during childhood to make it easier for the person to not maintain them when they reach age adult.

There are many types of fears and phobias that usually appear in childhood and adolescence, and like happens in adults, these have very different causes, but in this case they are reinforced by the tendency to the magical thinking of the smallest.

Thus, the most common childhood fears and phobias are fear of the dark, phobias social situations, fear of imaginary beings, school phobias and phobias of certain situations or objects.

7. Self esteem issues

Children's self-esteem is the starting point of the person they will be in the future. That is why problems of this type in childhood can be a true source of long-term discomfort for the correct development of the child both emotionally, cognitively and behavioral.

These problems are currently one of the most common reasons for consultation in child psychologists, and the main problems of Self-esteem in children and adolescents usually occurs in the social, family, academic or physical sphere (the latter can be aggravated in the adolescence).

8. Trauma

Traumas are intense and negative experiences that significantly affect the unconscious and by extension a person's life. In the case of childhood trauma, these they can have a damaging influence on the person who suffers for decades if they are not treated as soon as possible during the first years of life.

There are many causes that a specific trauma can have; the main ones include cases of mistreatment or sexual abuse, intense fears, bullying or the sudden death of a loved one.

• You may be interested in: "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: Causes and Symptoms"

9. Family problems

Problems in the family environment are also usually common reasons for consultation both in child psychologists and in specialists in family psychology or mediation.

Family problems that are frequently addressed by a child psychologist include cases of separation or divorce of parents, mismanagement of discussions about the rules to be followed within home, frequent fights with siblings or the problems in the way of regulating the impulses of the little ones.

10. TORCH

Finally, Autism Spectrum Disorders can be highlighted as reasons for habitual intervention by a child psychologist, since they are psychopathologies that must be treated as soon as possible to enhance the quality of life of the people who develop them, taking into account that the symptoms appear in childhood.

These disorders are neurological and developmental disorders that have effects on the way they communicate and behave in society, as well as the way the child learns; in many cases, they are associated with intellectual disability.