Developmental, Learning and Behavioural Disorders in Children and Adolescents

Syllabus

Unit One: Child and Young Person’s Development

By the end of this unit you will understand child and young person development. This learning outcome will be divided into a set of activities to guide your studies. In this unit you will explore the expected pattern of children and young people’s development from birth to 19 years and how the different areas of development can affect one another.

Unit Two: Key Theories Relating to Behaviour

The Learning Outcomes for this unit are:

• To explain why children behave in a particular way by looking at key theories.
• To understand the causes of challenging behaviour.
• To look at the structure of the brain.
• To look at the way the brain and its development has an impact on behaviour.

Unit Three: Outline of Learning Disabilities

The Learning Outcomes for this unit are:

• To understand the myths of learning disabilities
• To explain how learning disabilities can affect social and emotional development of children and young people.
• To outline and understand the different learning disabilities

Unit Four: Autistic Spectrum Disorders Overview

At the end of this unit, learners should be able to:

• Explain what ‘autism spectrum’ means
• Describe the main symptoms and manifestations of autism relating to the core ‘triad’ of difficulties in social communication, social interaction, and social imagination
• Outline the main diagnostic sub-groups (Asperger’s, Autism, PDD-NOS) within the autism spectrum family of conditions
• Outline the ways symptoms vary in their expression and severity between individuals and sub-groups on the spectrum, and between specific age groups (children, teens, adults)

Unit Five: Working With Children and Young People With Speech, Language, and Communication Needs

By the end of this unit you will understand how to support positive practice with children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. This unit will be divided into a set of activities to guide your studies. In this unit you will research how practitioners can and should work with children and young people at the centre of their practice, basing their work on the strengths of the children and young people rather than focussing on their difficulties. You will explore the way in which behaviour, social and emotional difficulties are linked with speech, language and communication development and research effective ways to support the speech, language and communication development of children and young people with behaviour, emotional and social difficulties.

This is only an approximate figure and is dependant upon how much time you can dedicate to your studies and how well you grasp the learning concepts in the course material. Furthermore, at the end of each lesson there is a question paper that needs to be completed and returned to your tutor. You should allow at least 1 - 2 hours of study to complete each question paper.

The approximate amount of time required to complete the course is: 120 hrs.