The Extent to Which Developmental Psychology Has Been Able to Contribute to Improving Children’s Lives Essay Example for Free

The Extent to Which festeringal Psychology Has Been fit to Contribute to Improving Childrens Lives EssayThis essay will explore how developmental psychology has alter the lives of kidren diagnosed with specific learning difficulties (SpLD). It will explore how these improvements have been made from diagnosis to judgings, consequences to treatment. Dyslexia refers to a specific obstruction in learning to read and write. However this is not the only difficulty that children with dyslexia beget and there be variations of their symptoms. These problems appear to stem from fundamental difficulties in the rapid processing and sequencing of phonological information in lilliputian term memory. These children also have difficulties with associations with letters and their sounds. Learning their left from right also is difficult. In the 1970s-80s it was musical theme Dyslexia was a label given to rich pargonnts underachieving children as an excuse for their poor motion. Contemp ory definitions of dyslexia combine a dissimilarity approach with definition indicators. The discrepancy approach is key in how educational psychologists identify dyslexia. Dyspraxia is utilize to reap the symptoms of people who experience problems in oorganising their movements and whitethorn have problems with thought, perception and language.Dyspraxia is also known as developmental co-ordination dis indian lodge (DCD). Dyspraxia shadow make written work for children in school very difficult as it has a huge impact on the visual field with writing. Alongside this the mental affects a child may experience in school from being bullied for their condition may then effect their performance in the classroom. Due to late start in researching of DCD, intervention is not ofttimes attempted until a child reaches school age. Cormorbidity, where two disorders or illnesses occur in the aforementioned(prenominal) peron simultaneously or sequenti tout ensembley, often happens with dyslexi a or dyspraxia.Kaplan (2001) found that children with reading difficulties were 51. 6% more likely to have another(prenominal) developmental difficulty. If all these conditions have a common cause then cormorbidity would not be defend. Kaplin (2001) states that a combintation of learning difficulties may be a result of atypical brain development (ABD). It is possible that two people with the same atypical brain development may present with differing symptoms as a result of the influence of environmental factors.As a result it is difficult to identify a single biological cause for SpLD. Developmental psychologists have been able to identify a guide of factors that appear to contribute to the causes of SpLDs. Heritability may be another factor which influences the presentation of SpLDs. Dyslexia and dyspraxia both appear to have a familial form where parents and siblings also present with these conditions. The extent of heritability has been highlighted through the use of twin studi es both monozygotic and dizygotic.Stevenson (1999) found that heritability was between 46 and 74 per cent chance, which highlights there is some influence from environment as well as genetic factors. promote research has highlighted how some genes on the chromosome are associated with phonological processing and other genes on other chromosomes are associated with reading. Assessments are a key way developmental psychologists are able to further understand children with SpLD, and stern then identify and conclude the severity of the SpLD.It is through assessment that developmental psychologists can start to do the most help with improving childrens lives. By assessing them for their SpLD the psychologist can start to make way for the child to reach extra subscribe to in school and at home. Assessments for dyslexia such as those which use the discrepancy mystify assume that it is valid, which is not necessarily the case as there is evidence that children with very different IQ sc ores can achieve similar reading scores. The assessment is only a snap thrust of how the child performed at that time on that particular day.Developmental psychologists have put forward a new method of assessment which would highlight the childs severe and persistent problems when learning to read and write. Such an assessment would assist the child in finding coping stratergies and different ways of learning in order for them to excel as well as a child without such a form of SpLD, it can also speed up intervention, which could allow the child to be assisted earlier on in their school career. When assessing dyspraxia psychologists it can be difficult to identify as the signs of dyspraxia overlap with other SpLDs.Dyspraxia is often assessed and hardened by medical personnel rather than psychologists as with dyslexia, despite signs and causes impacting similarly on the child education and learning abilities. It is usually due to the affectionate impact which dyspraxia has on the c hild which dyslexia does not which requires medical attention. A large number of professionals are involved in aiding children with dyspraxia including educational psychologists who assess the motor and perceptual development skills such as sequencing and organisation. A DVMI or movement ABC test will be used in order to identify pecific motor skills.The consequences of living with a SpLD for a child can range from social exclusion to self esteem issues. Riddick (1996) found that children with SpLDs often experienced social exclusion they matt-up excluded from activities because of their difficulties with reading and writing. Riddick also found that children who were had dyslexia were more likely to befriend other dyslexics which can aid social inclusion. Qualitative and quantitative studies have suggested that people with SpLDs experience emotional and educational consequences.Many children with a SpLD experience soxial exclusion, the self exteem of children with SpLDs is low espec ially with respect to academic self concept. Children with SpLDs are over represented in statistics on children with depression although the degree of prevelance is not clear. Many children with SpLDs experience reduced academic motivation. Developmental psychologists externalise and evaluate interventions which can aim to improve the behavioural symptoms of SpLDs. Although intervention often occurs after identification, early intervention in the case of children at risk of SpLD is the best approach.School based interventions that aim to improve literacy attainment suggests that intervention needs to be highly personalised and structured if it is to be affective. In order to maximize the long term impact of intervention it is suggested that programmes also need to be intensive and preventative. Given the embody of implications of personalised tuition in the classroom psychologists are evaluating the potential of computers to act as teaching assistants to support children with lea rning difficulties.