What is PSYCHOPEDAGOGY: Definition and Functions

The origin of psychopedagogy is closely related to the learning process and the difficulties that people who show alterations in their development, thus hindering their learning to continue schooling in the same way as people who do not present any type of difficulty or disturbance.

Psychopedagogy as a profession was born (or emerged) in the fifties, which appeared together with the creation of the first psychopedagogical clinics destined to attend to children with difficulties in their development during the school stage that required psycho-pedagogical adaptations and specialized aids, in order to improve their learning kids.

If you want to learn more about psychopedagogy, do not hesitate to continue reading this article from Psychology-Online: what is psychopedagogy: definition and functions.

Index

1. Definition of psychopedagogy
2. What is psychopedagogy as a profession
3. Functions of psychopedagogy

What is psychopedagogy? Psychopedagogy is a discipline characterized by its presence in the field of education. This discipline is a branch of psychology that is responsible for applying both psychological and pedagogical knowledge to problems of the educational field, in order to arrive at a more appropriate formulation of the didactic methods and pedagogical.

What does psychopedagogy study? As we have mentioned, psychopedagogy studies and works aspects related to learning and difficulties that can be presented related to it. Taking into account that learning is a process of change and modification of the behavior of the person, in a specific time and space, gradually and due to the interaction of the apprentice with his environment. Therefore, the object of study and intervention of psychopedagogy is learning and difficulties and learning disorders.

What is psychopedagogy dedicated to as a profession? It is a discipline that is responsible for working those learning difficulties shown by people with a deficit or alteration in its development, therefore, situations can be detected that can be treated both from school and from home. What type of cases does psychopedagogy treat?

On the one hand, from school, it is the teachers who can detect a situation in which suspect that a certain student might need the help or support of a professional from the psychopedagogy. For example, if a teacher instructs his students to write an essay, in this case he could detect the difficulties that their students present in terms of writing depending on her age. Once the situation is detected, teachers should contact the student's parents to be able to explain the situation and, jointly, find a solution, either by going to the school psychopedagogue or a professional external. It is important to speak with the parents or legal guardians since in this case we are dealing with minors and the school does not have the power to decide on these people.

On the other hand, from home, it is the parents, legal guardians or relatives who can detect that the person shows learning difficulties. For example, a father tells his daughter to read him a story, when he realizes that his daughter has some reading difficulties. Once the situation is detected, parents must decide what to do to find a solution that will help their daughter to improve.

Psychopedagogy is a branch of psychology, just as it could be the clinical psychology. Psychopedagogy is a discipline that has part of psychology and part of education, therefore, it encompasses functions of both. So far we have talked about the role of psychopedagogy in people's learning. For this reason, it is important to emphasize that we not only learn when we are children and we are schooled in an educational center, but we learn from the moment we are born until the moment we that we die. We never stop learning, and that is why the functions of psychopedagogy attend all stages of development, that is, all ages. Next, we show a list of the functions of psychopedagogy, that is, the tasks carried out by these professionals:

• Provide care for students with special educational needs that prevent them from learning at the same rate as their peers who do not present difficulties. This function is carried out by teaching in small groups or individually, adapting the materials and activities to the capacity and rhythm of each student maintaining the quantity and content but modifying the quality with which the concepts are explained, between others.
• Work, with those students who need it, aspects related to psychology and pedagogy, such as knowledge of the person, interaction and insertion in the social environment, transition to the world of work, development of cognitive skills, among others.
• Another function of psychopedagogy is coordinate activities of the educational center that provide specific attention of students with special educational needs, either carried out by the psychopedagogy professional himself or by teachers.
• Coordinate with other media and organs and work, jointly, in the organization of measures of attention to the diversity of the students who require it, always taking into account everything previously established by the center educational.
• Collaborate, together with the other professionals of the educational center, in the evaluation and review, both of the results of the students and of the curricular projects at the state level. Curricular projects refer to the study plan that sets the objectives of education in a certain population (for For example, in Catalonia it is the Department of Education of the Generalitat which is in charge of configuring the curricular project of its zone).
• Provide psychopedagogical orientation in learning processes and in the adaptation to the different evolutionary stages, such as, for example, job orientation or orientation towards what to study, among others.
• Another function of psychopedagogy is to detect individual characteristics (at the level personal and social) that hinder the teaching-learning process of students, in order to from promote their adaptation within the school environment, as far as possible.
• Evaluation and assessment of difficulties and the situation of students with special educational needs, in order to be able to write a technical report of the situation for the resolution of their schooling and being able to decide if it is necessary to make an adaptation proposal curricular.
• Another function of psychopedagogy is track of all those students with special educational needs and, thus, to be able to detect if there are improvements in the difficulties that the student presented.
• Advise families of students with learning difficulties and training parents is another of the functions of psychopedagogy.
• Advice to educational centers, to the teaching teams and management teams, in relation to the activities and functions related to the support that students with special educational needs should receive.
• Finally, another of the functions of psychopedagogy is the job orientation for adults and vocational orientation.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to What is psychopedagogy: definition and functions, we recommend that you enter our category of Learning disorders.

• Bravo, L. (2009). Educational psychology, psychopedagogy and special education. IIPSI Magazine, 12 (2), 217-225.
• Miret, L., Fuster, A., Peris, E., García, D., and Saldaña, P. (2002). The profile of the psychopedagogue.
• Roca, E. (2001). Function and professional profile of psychopedagogues. A perspective from Catalonia. Educational theory. Revista Interuniversitaria, 12, 159-178.