Study Applied Developmental Psychology to learn more about how children and teenagers think and develop.
Understand more about psychological theories and their application in the real world.
- Study applied developmental psychology to improve your job and career prospects
- The course consists of six 100 hour modules.
- There are five core modules of Child Psychology, Educational Psychology, Introduction to Psychology, Developmental Psychology and Careers Counselling
- You then choose one elective module from a list of courses including - Play Leadership, Adolescent Psychology, Family Counselling and Relationship and Communications Counselling
- You can start the course at any time.
- The course is studied by distance learning, so you study in your own home with support from our excellent tutors
Modules
Note that each module in the Qualification - Certificate in Applied Developmental Psychology is a short course in its own right, and may be studied separately.
Sample Course Notes - COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
There has been much research to show how important activity can be to later cognitive development. An infant’s actions upon the environment provide it with the bases for cognitive organisation.
The development of perception is also an integral part of understanding infant cognitive development, and some have argued that perception forms the basis of all infant cognition. Psychodynamic theorists argue that defence mechanisms develop in order to help the child overcome anxieties.
AUTOMONY
After the second year of life depending on the holding environment of the child, starts the phase of individuation/separation. The child is more self aware. This phase referred to as autonomy and occurs when the child starts to recognize that he is a separate individual and entity from the mother.
This is a very easy transition if the child’s holding environment was secure and safe. The holding environment is the support for the child’s basic trust. Basic trust is the level of an internal state of relaxation and security in life. If the child does not have basic trust it can go through life in with an attitude of mistrust and feeling of fear of the world.
In separation/individuation, the child goes out “into the world” – leaving mother’s side. He may only travel a few steps, but then looks back to see if mother is watching and present. He then can go farther or crawl back to mother. It is an on going process. It is at this time that he starts to learn that he can say no and have his own thoughts, feelings, and actions freely. He also learns that he has to struggle with shame, doubt, and the fear of not being loved if he acts in his own sense of self. The child in this stage needs to feel the support of the parents. He needs to feel that it is a safe to explore without the help of others.
Why children begin to separate and individuate
- Identification – want to be like mom and dad
- Operant Conditioning – reinforcement of good behaviour
- Observational learning – imitating mom/dad and caregivers
Physical development
Physical development in infancy is when the child starts to learn how to use his or her tools for exploring the world. Every newborn is prepared to begin interacting with their world. The newborn is endowed with a rich set of reflexes. These are unlearned responses that are triggered by a specific for of stimulation. Children are usually tested for these immediately at birth. The new born is assessed to make sure that there is normal functioning.
Newborn states are not very many. They mostly consist of alert inactivity, waking activity, crying, or sleeping. These four states have held many a researcher’s interest as well as the parents, grandparents or anyone else in love with the child. At this time or soon after babies start to reveal their temperament. Some children are just more quiet and some more active. It is here that the first differences can be seen in children.
As the children grow a bit, they start to learn their world with the tools that they have through perception. They use smell, taste, touch, pain, hearing, seeing, as well as their nervous system integrating sensory information.
Principles of Information Processing in the Young
Children start processing information from their senses and from the world. Depending on the age the child will process a different amount of information as well as the quality of information. The attention span of the child starts to become longer and longer as well as the learning capability expands and the child is able to contain and process more information and start to categorise the items held within this. The child’s memory also starts to grow and they can start to play games that include finding similar patterns under cards. They also start to understand symbols and such things as numbers.
This course is useful for -
- Anyone wanting to work with children
- People who already work with children and want to increase their
knowledge of psychology theory and practice in relation to children and
teenagers
- Parents
- Foster carers
- Teachers
- Youth and Community Workers
- Social Workers
- Care Workers
- Support Workers and many more....
Why Study This Course?
Improve your job and career prospects working with children by -
- adding another string to your bow by undertaking further studying
- demonstrate that you are keen to learn and undertake further training
- study in your own time and at your own pace with this self-paced course
Any Questions?
