Tips For Child Psychology
While you should never attempt to take on the role of child psychologist on your own if you are not qualified to do so, there are some things you can employ in your own home. I have a friend who is a therapist that works with children who have been sexually molested, and she has told me that these are some of the hardest cases she has ever dealt with. These children are reluctant to open up to anyone, especially a child psychologist that they have never met. She has had to use some special tricks to get them to talk to her, and these are things you can use when you canít seem to get your own children to talk to you about what is going on with their lives.
Those in child psychology know that children who have secrets, even ones that we might think are totally harmless, donít want to talk for a variety of reasons. They often think that what has happened to them is something that they did and that they are at fault. This is rarely the truth, and if it is true, it is because they had nothing to go on, and they did what they did without realizing what the after effects would be. When that happens, they are not going to talk unless they feel that they can trust. Sometimes, this is a matter of distraction.
My therapist friend has had a lot of experience with this, and it does take some doing. For some of the children that come into her office, she has to get them doing something else to get them to talk to her about anything. She often will tell them that she thinks she needs to change her office, and then asks them if they would like to help her change it around. This is something about child psychology that she learned in college, and it is something that works. Get your children doing something like that, with their input, and see what happens.
You donít have to rearrange your office to use some child psychology tricks to get your children to open up. You can also use things like animals or even dolls to get them talking. They may feel more comfortable talking to the animal, or to you through the doll. That makes them feel as if they have a buffer. Another child psychology trick is to get them to draw out how they are feeling and what they want to say to you. You have to read through the symbolism when they draw, but that is often very easy to do if you really think about it.
