Child Psychology

Comments from past students in this subject:
It has been a truly invaluable learning experience for me. I want you to know that I have learnt so much from all of your constructive input and guidance throughout each lesson of the course. (Jenelle Heidi )
(The course) has helped me understand my students better and helped me to see how I can structure their course in order to make learning fun and fruitful. Thank you, I have enjoyed these units greatly. (Debbie)

Child psychology is concerned with the development of a person over the course of their childhood. This involves the development of a child's mental processes (ie. cognitive development); emotional and social behaviour. It is important to state that development does not end at adulthood. Adults continue to experience changes in their mental, emotional and social behaviours. Some characteristics are however more easily developed and changed during childhood.

For convenience, a distinction is made between the cognitive, emotional and social aspects of behaviour. However, this distinction is purely theoretical. It is made simply to help us learn and understand. In reality, the different aspects of behaviour interact with each other. When problems develop in any area of development, they usually become rapidly evident in other areas as well. The study of child psychology is partly concerned with identifying such interrelationships.

Learn how children develop psychologically as they grow, and what factors (such as learning, parenting styles, einforcement, and genetic makeup) influence their behaviour and thinking. Students of counselling or pscyhology will be better prepared to understand childhood influences on later adult behaviour.
This course will be of value to anyone who works OR lives with children (e.g. parents, play leaders, teachers, etc).

There are 12 lessons as follows:

1. Introduction to Child Psychology

Levels of development, nature or nurture, isolating hereditary characteristics, Cause versus correlation, continuity versus discontinuity, cross sectional and Longitudinal studies, Reliability of verbal reports

2. The Newborn Infant

The Interactionist Approach, Range of Reaction, Niche Picking, Temperament Stimulus seeking, Emotional Disturbances During Pregnancy

3. States & Senses of the Infant

Sensory Discrimination, Infant States (sleep, Inactivity, Waking, Crying etc), Why are Psychologists so concerned with defining and describing these infant states?, Habituation, Crying, Soothing a Distressed Baby, Sound Discrimination, Smell and Taste Discrimination, Visual Discrimination, Depth Perception, Oral Sensitivity

4. Learning

Habituation, Vicarious Learning, Classical Conditioning, Operant Conditioning, Reinforcement, The Importance of Learning Control, etc

5. Emotions and Socialisation

Producing and Recognising Emotional Expression, Smiling, Biological Explanation, Perceptual Recognition Explanation, The Mother-Child Attachment, Fraudian Approach Bowlby's Approach, Social Learning Approach, Harlows Approach, The Role of Cognition in Attachment Formation, Maternal Attachment, Fear, Social Learning, Perceptual Recognition, Woman's Duel Role as Mothers and Workers, Is Day Care a Developmental Hazard to Children

6. Cognitive Development

Developing the ability to reason.

7. Language Development

Is language learned, or are we genetically programmed with it, The Social Learning Approach, The Hypothesis testing Approach, Under extending

8. Intelligence

Measuring Intelligence, Cultural Bias, IQ, Testing Intelligence as a tool.

9. Socialisation – Part A

Social Cognation -self awareness, -awareness of others as individuals in their own right, -the development of empathy, -taking turns, -having a point of view/perspective,-ability to see something from another persons perspective. Friendships, Social Scripts Scripts that Pretend Play

10. Morality

Moral development, Aggression & Altruism, Freuds Approach, Piagets Approach, Kohlbergs Approach

11.Sexuality

Freuds phases (oral phase, anal phase, phallic phase, latent phase, genital phase) The Acquisition of Gender & Role Identity, Concept of psycho-social development

12. Socialisation – Part B

The Family Influence, Discipline, Siblings, Family Structures, School Influence, Peer Influence, Acceptance & Rejection, Imitation & Reinforcement