Adolescent Medicine and Child Psychology

pediatrics is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers patients until age 18. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends people seek pediatric care through the age of 21, and some pediatric subspecialists continue to care for adults. Worldwide age limits of pediatrics have been trending upward year after year. A medical doctor who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician, or paediatrician.

Neonatal underscore on the primary month after the introduction of tyke .It incorporates the experience of the person from pregnancy till the labor. Neonatology is a well-established sub-discipline of medicine, concerned with the medical care of the newborn; of particular importance are the at-risk newborn or premature infants. Neonatology is a hospital-based specialty usually practiced in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU). Neonatology in the 1970s and 1980s was developing very rapidly and acquiring multidisciplinary connotations; this progress has shown the importance of bringing together the knowledge and experiences of the medical professions, health professionals, psychologists and parents to improve the quality of physical and psychological care of the newborn; this is particularly true for hospitalized preterm neonates.

Therefore, with the establishment of Health Psychology in 1994 the time was appropriate for me to redefine neonatal Psychology into Neonatal Health Psychology (NNHP). Still using the same theoretical framework but defined as "the scientific study of biopsychosocial and behavioural processes in health, illness, and health care of the preterm (and fullterm) neonate during his/her first 28 days of life, and the relationshipMeasuring and monitoring are essential to ascertain the Quality of Care being it medical or psychological.

Teenagers live in an exhilarating time of transition from childhood to adulthood. This time can be full of exciting discoveries as teens develop their unique personality traits and skills. On the other hand, there are also challenges that accompany the process of becoming an adult. Because teenagers differ fundamentally from children and adults, it’s important to understand them psychologically so you can support them better as they grow.

Adolescence is a time of great change for teens, not to mention everyone involved in their lives. It’s important for teenagers to develop an identity and independence. At the same time, they face growing pressure to be responsible and trustworthy while they grapple with new-to-them issues like sexuality, drug use, and peer relationships. Adolescent psychology seeks to understand teens and help them make the transition from child to adult.

The term psychological disorders are sometimes used to refer to what are more frequently known as mental disorders or psychiatric disorders. Mental disorders are patterns of behavioral or psychological symptoms that impact multiple areas of life. These disorders create distress for the person experiencing the symptoms.
In 2019, common mental disorders around the globe include depression, which affects about 264 million, bipolar disorder, which affects about 45 million, dementia, which affects about 50 million, and schizophrenia and other psychoses, which affects about 20 million people. Neurodevelopmental disorders include intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorders which usually arise in infancy or childhood. Stigma and discrimination can add to the suffering and disability associated with mental disorders, leading to various social movements attempting to increase understanding and challenge social exclusion.

 Clinical child and adolescent psychology is a specialty in professional psychology that develops and applies scientific knowledge to the delivery of psychological services to infants, toddlers, children, and adolescents within their social context. Specialized knowledge of particular importance to the specialty of clinical child and adolescent psychology is an understanding of the basic psychological needs of children and adolescents, and how the family and other social contexts influence the socio-emotional adjustment, developmental processes, mental and behavioral disorders and developmental psychopathology, behavioral adaptation, and health status of children and adolescents.

Educatinal Psychologyis the branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of human learning. The study of  learning processes, from both cognitive and behavioral perspectives, allows researchers to understand individual differences in intelligence, cognitive development, affect, motivation, self-regulation, and self-concept, as well as their role in learning. The field of educational psychology relies heavily on quantitative methods, including testing and measurement, to enhance educational activities related to instructional design, classroom management, and assessment, which serve to facilitate learning processes in various educational settings across the lifespan.

Educational psychology can in part be understood through its relationship with other disciplines. It is informed primarily by psychology, bearing a relationship to that discipline analogous to the relationship between medicine and biology. It is also informed by neuroscience. Educational psychology in turn informs a wide range of specialities within educational studies, including instructional design, educational technology, curriculum development, organizational learning, special education, classroom management, and student motivation.

Positive psychology  is the scientific study of what makes life most worth living, focusing on both individual and societal well-being. It studies "positive subjective experience, positive individual traits, and positive institutions...it aims to improve quality of life It is a field of study that has been growing steadily throughout the years as individuals and researchers look for common ground on better well-being

Positive psychology focuses on Eudaimonia, an Ancient Greek term for "the good life" and the concept for reflection on the factors that contribute the most to a well-lived and fulfilling life. Positive psychologists often use the terms subjective well-being and happiness interchangeably.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability caused by differences in the brain. Some people with ASD have a known difference, such as a genetic condition. Other causes are not yet known. Scientists believe there are multiple causes of ASD that act together to change the most common ways people develop. We still have much to learn about these causes and how they impact people with ASD.

People with ASD may behave, communicate, interact, and learn in ways that are different from most other people. There is often nothing about how they look that sets them apart from other people.  The abilities of people with ASD can vary significantly. For example, some people with ASD may have advanced conversation skills whereas others may be nonverbal. Some people with ASD need a lot of help in their daily lives; others can work and live with little to no support.

ASD begins before the age of 3 years and can last throughout a person’s life, although symptoms may improve over time. Some children show ASD symptoms within the first 12 months of life. In others, symptoms may not show up until 24 months of age or later. Some children with ASD gain new skills and meet developmental milestones until around 18 to 24 months of age, and then they stop gaining new skills or lose the skills they once had.

Psychopharmacology is the scientific study of the effects drugs have on mood, sensation, thinking, and behavior. It is distinguished from neuropsychopharmacology, which emphasizes the correlation between drug-induced changes in the functioning of cells in the nervous system and changes in the conscious and behavior.In psychopharmacology, researchers are interested in any substance that crosses the blood–brain barrier and thus has an effect on behavior, mood or cognition. Drugs are researched for their physiochemical properties, physical side effects, and psychological side effects. Researchers in psychopharmacology study a variety of different psychoactive substances that include alcohol, cannabinoids, club drugs, psychedelics, opiates, nicotine, caffeine, psychomotor stimulants, inhalants, and anabolic-androgenic steroids. They also study drugs used in the treatment of affective and anxiety disorders, as well as schizophrenia.

The term child health psychology refers to the field of research on the behavioral aspects of children's health and illness. At this time we need to continue the work of the child health psychology special interest group and to draw into the Division of Health Psychology a much larger number of developmental psychologists, who need to be informed about the relevance of their scientific training to child health issues. We call the Division's attention and that of granting agencies such as the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to the following high-priority child health research issues: adherence to pediatric medical regimens; child health promotion; family influences on child and adolescent health and disease; and stress and coping in childhood illness.

Human development is influenced by, but not entirely determined by, our parents and our genes. Children may have very different personalities, and different strengths and weaknesses, than the generation that preceded them. Caregivers should pay attention to their children's distinct traits and the pace of their development, and not assume that the approach to parenting that worked for their mothers and fathers will be equally successful in their own families. Parents, and the home environments they create, can also have an important influence on a child's development; in fact, a child's home environment can affect the ways that certain genetic traits express themselves, or if they will at all. Caregivers who have a consistent approach, who are warm, and who can give children a sense of security, generally have the most positive influence on a child's development; meeting a child's physical and dietary needs are also essential as research finds that childhood neglect can disrupt development, perhaps even more than abuse does. But parents are far from the only influencers in a child's life: Siblings, grandparents, neighbors, peers, celebrities, and policymakers all may contribute to who a young person becomes as well.

Child psychology is one of the many branches of psychology. This particular branch focuses on the mind and behavior of children from prenatal development through adolescence. Child psychology deals not only with how children grow physically, but with their mental, emotional, and social development as well. Child psychology encompasses a wide range of topics, from the genetic influences on behavior to the social pressures on development.

Toddler development looks into the life stage of children where significant developmental milestones occur. Toddlers, while one of the more charming and adorable times in human development, but also one of the most challenging for parents, marked by significant developmental milestones. Toddlers are defined as any child between the ages of one and three. Toddler development during this time includes great strides in physical size, gross and fine motor skills, speech, and socialization.
At one year of age, a neuro-typical child should be able to display most, if not all of several important skills, including being able to pull them up to a standing position, be able to sit without assistance, respond to his or her name, and be able to say short words such as “mama,” and “dada.” By the age of two, a child has about a dozen of their baby teeth, with the full set arriving by the age of two and a half.
Toddler development proceeds so that by the age of two, the child has a vocabulary of approximately 350 words, the most frequently used of which is “no.” Toddlers at this age also, while being able to begin to dress themselves, see every possession as their own. The “this is mine” phase is a foundation of the stereotypical Terrible Twos.

Children at all ages are going to experience anger management problems. , as they are going through transitional stages of development, this can be a very difficult time for them. They are trying to evolve, either by themselves, or as a result of social they are receiving from their peers. They have a much larger sense of self, and as a result of that, they are going to try to force their own agendas. Dealing with children that are experiencing anger management issues such as tantrums can be very trying for adults. Whether this is happening at home, or if children are doing this at school, strategies must be implemented in order to redirect their anger or help them understand why what they are doing is wrong from a perspective other than their own.

Topic that also relates to these stages of a child’s growth includes socio-emotional development.  Realizing that life was nothing more than a series of crises that a person must endure in order to develop and survive. These changes were not just experienced by children, but would continue on through adulthood. However, by properly dealing with the early crises of human development, children would be better equipped to handle future situations in which they would need to resolve identity issues. Part of the solution was realizing that this was not a psychosexual problem , but was a socio-emotional development issue.

Adolescence is the phase of life between childhood and adulthood, from ages 10 to 19. It is a unique stage of human development and an important time for laying the foundations of good health.Adolescents experience rapid physical, cognitive and psychosocial growth. This affects how they feel, think, make decisions, and interact with the world around them. 

Despite being thought of as a healthy stage of life, there is significant death, illness and injury in the adolescent years. Much of this is preventable or treatable. During this phase, adolescents establish patterns of behaviour – for instance, related to diet, physical activity, substance use, and sexual activity – that can protect their health and the health of others around them, or put their health at risk now and safe and supportive environments.

Child counselling helps children to cope better with their emotions, understand problems and make positive choices and poor performance in studies. Our friendly counsellors encourage your child to express their feelings through one of different means like talking, artwork, telling stories, drama, play etc...