I would like to work with children, would being a PA or psychologist allow me to work with kids?

The educational path to becoming a PA is shorter than that for a psychologist. Yes, working with children is possible- in a pediatrician’s office or a hospital that specializes in children’s diseases.

Becoming a licensed psychologist will generally take 9 years of education, plus a year or two of supervision in order to become licensed as as child, clinical psychologist.

While both of these would in fact allow you to work with children, I would suggest figuring out which side of the spectrum you wanted to work on. While both of these work with children, one is more on a behavioral science level while the other is more of a medical science level. Would you rather work with children who have been through trauma and have behavioral issues or would you rather be the one giving the medicines to make them betteer. Once you decide on the realm of that you want to go with, then you will be better equipped to know what schooling you would need and the length of education needed for each.

Shannon,

Working worth children is certainly possible with either career choice, through specialty training (child psychology, for example) as a psychologist or by working in pediatrics or child/youth psychiatry as a PA. The two careers are quite different in the day-to-day roles, so it might be helpful for you to think about which you would enjoy more.

Good luck!

Hwal