Specific areas of practice
Parents may seek help for:
- Concerns with a child’s development and/or parent-child relationship issues.
- Managing a child’s difficult temperament or behaviour.
- Assisting a child with disabilities.
- Sibling rivalry in the family.
Parents, teachers or children themselves may seek assistance to deal with:
- Problems with transition.
- School avoidance.
- Learning difficulties.
- Poor peer relationships.
- Low self esteem.
- Problems with behaviour.
- Family relationships.
- Physical or sexual abuse.
Adolescents, their parents or others concerned with their welfare may seek help to deal with:
- Conflict between adolescent and parents.
- Peer pressure.
- Career guidance.
- School to work transition.
- Sexuality issues.
- Drug and alcohol problems.
- Identity issues.
Individuals, their partners or employers may seek assistance with:
- Relationship problems.
- Parenting issues.
- Mid-life concerns.
- Career restructuring.
- Work stress.
- Education and training in the workplace.
Elderly people or their adult children may seek information or assistance with:
- Healthy ageing.
- Coping with decline in functioning.
Skills of educational and developmental psychologists
Educational and developmental psychologists have knowledge and skills in the following areas:
- Identifying and clarifying problems
- Diagnosing disabilities and disorders such as Autism Spectrum Disorders
- Assessing developmental, learning and behavioural difficulties
- Designing effective treatment programs
- Consulting with individuals or groups
- Designing training programs
- Evaluating programs and interventions
- Designing professional development programs.