THE INVESTIGATION OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT SPECIALISTS' PRACTICES IN THE HEALTH FIELD

Abstract

The bachelor’s degree of child development departments are affiliated to health sciences faculties, health sciences colleges
and health colleges in Turkey. The child development department gives the title of "Child Development specialist" to its
graduates at the end of four year bachelor’s degree education. The child development specialists are employed in health,
education, social services and other fields in Turkey. According to the report on health education and human power in
Turkey, it is stated that a total of 3032 child development graduates between 2003 and 2013. According to the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, every individual between the ages of 0 and 18 is considered as a child.
According to the statistics of the Turkish Statistical Institute, as of 2017 there are 22.891.140 children in Turkey. All these
data reveal the need for a healthcare license in the field of child development that will evaluate, support and follow the
development of children in Turkey. Children have developmental, biological and psychological needs. Child development
Specialists have tasks and responsibilities for children’s cognitive, language, motor, social, emotional developments. For
this reason, it is aimed to investigate the units, work areas and studies of the child development specialists in the health
field are affiliated with in the study. In this study, in which child development specialists' studies in the health field were
quantitatively examined, with 16 of 381 child development specialists’ working under the Ministry of Health have been
interviewed. Participants that have been interviewed work in Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir, Bursa, Aydın, Samsun and Manisa
cities. One of the participants was male and the other participants were female (14 participants). The average age of the
participants is 27,1 and nine of the participants are married, seven of the participants are single. Participants were
graduated from Hacettepe University Child Development Department and Ankara University Child Development
Department. In addition, three of the participants were graduated master’s degree and also continue their Ph.D. education,
five of them graduated their master's degree and two of them continue their master’s degree. According to the results
obtained from the interviews, child development specialists work in the health field can reach children aged 0-18. These
employees continue their work in the clinics, in-patient services and playrooms. The child development specialists follow
developmental evaluation, developmental support and developmental follow-up.