The Importance Of Child Psychology

A well-known psychoanalytical theorist, Sigmund Freud once said, “What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult.” This quote helps to enforce the importance of children in society by acknowledging how truly miraculous a child’s mind is; Hence, the study of child psychology. Child Psychology is the study of physical, cognitive, social and emotional development of children and it focuses on how different physical, social and cultural environments influence an individual child’s behavior. Children’s development can vary drastically depending on their age and a critical period in a child’s life is toddler age. Toddler age represents children from the ages of one

A temperament is an individual difference in style of reaction that is present in early life and it includes many aspects of behavior. A study from 1989 found that many children could be classified into 3 types of temperament: easy, difficult, and slow to warm up. Easy has consistent sleep and feeding schedules, approaches new situations with zeal and acclimates effortlessly, and is usually jaunty. Difficult child has irregular sleep and feeding schedules, slow to attune with new individuals and circumstances, yields a long time to adjust and reacts to hindrances with tantrums and crying. Slow to warm fall between the two. Maddie displayed the ability to maintain a regular sleep schedule and feeding schedule, in fact, if her schedule is not followed she becomes cranky or agitated. According to her mom, every night Maddie goes to bed around eight o’clock and sleeps till eight in the morning. As soon as she wakes up, goes downstairs to drink her milk and eat breakfast and has a regular eating routine for the rest of the day. An example of her temperament is the fact that I was a stranger to Maddie and she was very welcoming and quick to show me all her toys and play with me. However, I did go to her house and her mom was present for most of my observation which could have caused her to be so okay with the presence of a stranger. A little while after first meeting, Maddie and I were working on a puzzle together, she was having trouble figuring out how one of the pieces to fit and she quickly became frustrated and gave up on the puzzle and threw a tantrum over the puzzle. After her tantrum, it took a while for her mother and I to get her to calm down and for the rest of the time I was with her, she refused to resume the puzzle. Maddie therefore showed both characteristics of an easy and difficult child and there are many aspects that may affected her reactions to all the stated