Outline:
1. Preparation of Clinical Child Psychologists
2. Child Psychology How Does it Compare?
3. Assessment
4. Childhood Disorders: Classification and Treatment
5. The future of Child Psychology
Definition of Clinical Child Psychology :
A specialty of professional psychology which integrates basic tenets of clinical psychology, developmental psychopathology, and principles of child and family development. Clinical child psychologists conduct scientific research and provide psychological services to infants, toddlers, children, and adolescents. The research and services in Clinical Child Psychology are focused on understanding, preventing, diagnosing and treating psychological, cognitive, emotional, developmental, behavioral, and family problems of children. Of particular importance to clinical child psychologists is an understanding of the basic psychological needs of children and the social contexts that influence child development and adjustment.
1. Preparation of Clinical Child Psychologists:
· knowledge of normal developmental processes as a prerequisite for distinguishing between normal and abnormal behavior and development, and for understanding developmental factors as they relate to assessment and intervention;
· normal family processes as they relate to children's development, including the impact of family dynamics, normal family functioning, and child rearing practices on normal child development and on the development of children's problems;
· child and adolescent psychopathology including epidemiology of children's problems, assessment and classification of problems across the age span, etiological models of child and adolescent psychopathology, research finding related to etiology, treatment options and treatment efficacy related to specific problems at different ages and knowledge of family and other problems requiring treatment;
· theories and research evidence for treatments of childhood mental disorders, adjustment reactions of childhood, family problems, and adaptation to stressful conditions or to chronic illness;
· special ethical and legal issues in research and practice with children;
· an appropriate appreciation for and understanding of principles of diversity and cultural context as they relate to professional behavior and clinical practice.
- from the Commission for the Recognition of Specialties and Proficiencies in Professional Psychology
CRSPPP Description of Clinical Child Psychology
2. Child Psychology How Does It Compare?
Compared to clinical psychology of adults in child psychology there are special conditions that apply. These include modifications in the assessment techniques, the use of psychological testing and in the assessment of family and peer interactions.
For both children and adults the assessment process is one that is designed to aid in making a diagnosis, make treatment recommendations, and offer information about long term prognosis. However special considerations must be made in the case of child clinical psychology. Namely in the assessment process special emphasis is placed on the referral process. The information given by parents and teachers takes precedence over child self reports for they have been proven to lack validity due too children's unrealistic memories and concrete cognitive styles (Edelbrock et al., 1985). The assessment of children also includes reviewing the child's behavior within the family; such as mother-child interactions and that of parental functioning.
3. Assessment
As noted above there are some very special considerations when handling children in the psychological assessment process. A standard assessment battery for children includes behavior raring scales from multiple informants, intelligence and achievement testing, observations and an evaluation of family functioning.
· Behavior Rating Scales: The rating scales generally consist of a list of childhood behavior problems and a parent and/or teacher rates each behavior according to how well it represents a problem for the child. Some scales such as the Child Behavior Checklist (CBLC) cover most areas of child behavior problem while others focus just on specific disorders.
· Intelligence and Achievement Tests: A large amount of referrals comes from poor school performance, additionally for children with behavior or academic problems to receive the needed school support services (i.e. tutoring, special placement) must receive standardized achievement and intelligence testing. Although the validity of such testing can be argued most clinicians agree that this type of testing is beneficial to the assessment process.
· Family Observations and Interactions: Because children are impacted by a number of different social worlds it is important to look at that impact of these multiple social environments. Peer as well as family interactions are important factors in the child's assessment process. Peer relations can be examined through adult questioning or through the interviewing of the child's peer group. Family interactions can be examined by looking into the family history, parental mental state, marital state, and stress and peer support.
4. Childhood Disorders:
Compared to the clinically derived diagnostic classifications of adults children's diagnostic categories are based upon empirical classifications. In empirically based classifications the data is allowed to speak for its self. Factor analysis is used to determine the relationship among behavioral symptoms. The use of factor analysis based scales such as AchenBach & Edelbrock (see link) have identified two main types of childhood disorders: externalizing problems (i.e. hyperactivity, aggression) and internalizing problems (i.e. depression, anxiety).
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