What is a Clinical Child Psychologist?
Clinical child psychology is a specialty in professional psychology that develops and applies scientific or ‘evidence-based’ knowledge to the delivery of psychological services to infants, toddlers, children, and adolescents.
Clinical child psychologists have specialist experience and knowledge in the areas of diagnosis, assessment, treatment, and prevention of a wide range of emotional, behavioural and relationship difficulties affecting families and children. This includes a host of issues children, adolescents, and families might face, including developmental delays, managing major life transitions such as parents separating, moving to a new school, or anxiety over exams, behaviour difficulties, and social issues, at home, preschool, or school.
At Developmental Paediatrics, our clinical child and family psychologists prioritise the importance of taking the time to get to know your family and your child. We use assessments, therapies and interventions that are based on solid scientific research and ensure we keep up to date with the latest research and evidence. We are committed to supporting families in a way that promotes optimal family functioning, and ensures that children and adolescents can enjoy and engage with everyday activities and be their personal best.
What is Psychological Assessment?
Psychological assessment occurs before intervention or treatment. The nature of the assessment may vary depending on the needs of the family and child. Assessments can be diagnostic (e.g. an autism-specific assessment), academic (e.g. a learning or IQ assessment), and/or solutions focused (e.g. the information gathered helps to decide on the most appropriate treatment). The ultimate aim of psychological assessment is getting to know you, your child, and understand how we can best help your family.
At our service we see parents on their own for the initial consultation as speaking to parents alone ensures they can speak comfortably about their concerns for their child/adolescent. This is followed by further assessment or treatment recommendations depending on your family’s needs. We understand that parents are experts on their children, and we make it a priority to work with you collaboratively during the assessment process and when formulating treatment plans to establish shared goals for intervention.
What is Psychological Intervention?
Psychological intervention from a Clinical Child Psychologist refers to the range of treatments that might be provided to your child and family based on the difficulties or challenges you are experiencing. These interventions focus on promoting overall wellbeing, and increasing resilience for children and their families.
At Developmental Paediatrics we provide evidence-based interventions based on best practice which means that the treatments have been subject to thorough evaluations of evidence from published research studies. The interventions provided seek to maximize child and family benefits, and minimize and remediate the difficulties presenting.
Our Clinical Child Psychologists help families and their children and adolescents who are experiencing emotional and behavioural challenges in their everyday lives. Our psychological intervention or therapeutic treatments are focused on equipping parents and children with the necessary practical and emotional skills to understand and manage the issues they are being presented with. In this way we individualise interventions to the specific needs of your family, working alongside you collaboratively in order to build on your family’s unique strengths to encourage positive treatment outcomes.
Types of Psychological Issues we treat
We treat a range of common issues experienced by children, adolescents, and families. These include, but are not limited to the following:
- Anger and emotion regulation skills
- Anxiety, or excessive worry
- Attention and concentration challenges
- Assessment of learning difficulties and giftedness
- Behaviour issues, such as aggression, meltdowns, tantrums, and trouble listening
- Coping strategies for separation and divorce
- Developmental delays or difficulties
- Food fussiness
- Grief and loss, including trauma
- Managing challenging, oppositional and conduct disordered behaviour
- Parent-infant/child attachment difficulties
- Relationship issues, including parent-child and sibling relationships
- School refusal
- Self-esteem development and resilience building
- Sleep difficulties
- Social difficulties and social skill building
- Stress, including exam anxiety, and managing the social and academic demands of school
- Support for children with ADHD, Autism, Anxiety, and/or Depression
- Teasing, bullying, and assertiveness skills training
Clinical Child Psychology Services we offer:
- Individualised child therapy (play based therapy)
- Family therapy
- Parent consultations and parent support
- Parent-child interaction therapy
- Sibling group therapy
- Social skills support
- Preschool and school observations, consultations and meetings
How do I book my child or myself in to see a Clinical Child Psychologist?
- Parents can self-refer themselves and/or their child to see us
- Our Clinical Psychologists are registered for Medicare and a range of Private Health Insurance rebates
- If eligible for Medicare rebates or funding, children and parents may be referred by their GP or Paediatrician