The Need for Child Psychologists in Schools

It was a sad day for the entire school when one of my class mates committed suicide. The reason behind the tragedy was that he had failed in his math exam. He was a studious student and nobody could make it out how it happened. Later, the school authority took a stern decision and made it mandatory for the students to consult the psychologists before the commencement of the exams.

They had even appointed full time psychologists in school. There are many students who are introverts and find it difficult to share their problems with anybody, even their parents and siblings. And, many of the students are victims of depression, which is a mental disorder. Such students get depressed without any reason, and need to be asked often if they are facing any kind of problem in their lives.

School psychologists are the same psychologists that we find in clinics or to whom we go to consult anything regarding any sort of psychological issues. School psychologists deal basically with educational psychology in order to detect and treat the learning and behavioral problems of the children and the adolescents. These types of psychologists are trained in psychology, education, child and adolescent development, family and parenting practices, learning theories, & personality theories and child and adolescent psychopathology. They are educated to bring out psycho educational assessment and counseling, and consultation in the ethical and administrative codes of the profession.

School psychology came into existence in the late 17th and early 21st centuries during the beginning of the Italian psychology. The field of school psychology is related to both clinical and functional psychology. Though, the concept of school psychology emerged from functional psychology, School psychologists mainly concentrate on the behaviors of children, their learning process and their dysfunctional lives. Their treatment would involve finding out the causes of their behaviors on the learning process.

The main motto of both clinical and school psychologists was to improve the mental health of the children. School psychologists are not only veterans in psychology but also in education. They consult and deal with the social, emotional, educational and behavioral problems that many children, adolescents and even youths experience. The job prospects of school psychologists in India are less than that in the United States. But these days, Indian schools are also opting for school psychologists to prevent children from taking any drastic measures and resorting to any kind of crime.

In India the facility of consulting a psychologist is still not a very approachable act, but now most private and International schools are making it mandatory for their students identified with behavioral problems. It is compulsory for them to consult with the psychologists before the commencement of the exam session. Though it has been proved that the concept of appointing psychologists in the schools has helped the children and their parents a lot but it is also the responsibility of the parents and the teachers to keep a watch over the children and talk to them in a friendly manner.