Child psychology is a new branch of psychology associated with the personal and social development of children. In fact, it can be defined as a branch of developmental psychology which focuses on the changes of human psychology at each phase of life. It is one of the most interesting career options that let you study various perspectives of child psychology including issues of nurture and whether the child is a product of heredity or a product of society and environment.

As a child goes through several stages before stepping into the adult world, he or she creates several thoughts in his or her mind. Children don't handle the situations in the same way adults do. They are vulnerable in nature and easily get affected by all events in the immediate environment. Events which may be small or unimportant to adults may sometimes leave deep scars or memories in a child’s mind. As a result, understanding the psychology of children is becoming more important.

These days the study of child sexuality and moral development has become very vital. Many sole living parents and educational institutes are taking help from child psychologists to understand their children in much better manner. Consequently, today the demand of child psychologists has boomed and in next few years, it expected to increase further.

Working as a child psychologist

Working as a child psychologist, you will focus on youngsters from their babyhood to adolescence. You will be trained to deal with emotional and behavioural aspects of the negative experiences the child has undergone through. Besides counseling kids and their parents, this career also provides you the opportunity to work in research and development field where you may help for the betterment and development of children. You may even work as crisis counselors, group counselors, youth counselors and facilitators. Definitely, the choices are endless.

Apart from this, there are various specializations, you as a child psychologist may opt for:

• Adolescent Child Psychologist - As a adolescent child psychologist, you will work with children in the age group of 12 to 18 years and specialize in treating serious psychological problems like depression, anxiety disorder and eating disorders.

• Abnormal Child Psychologist - The responsibility of an abnormal child psychologist is different from adolescent child psychologist. In this profession, you will work a child psychologist who has to work with children afflicted with personality disorders or psychopathology.

• Developmental Child Psychologist - This is mainly a research-based career in which the you will be require to study the changes in human behaviour such as aggression, use of language and emotional development.

Today, certainly the scope of child psychologists has increased and in future this field would have a lot more respect as well as money. If you are one of those who are interested in this profession then you can easily apply in any of the universities but it must offer accredited degrees. A career in child psychology is lucrative and surely holds as much respect as a degree.