Syllabus

Module One Major Developmental Issues

Unit One: The First Year of Life

• Infant reflexes; Social development during the first year of life including the social smile and onset of fear of strangers.

Unit Two: The Formation of Attachments

• Imprinting; Attachment (Bowlby) including cross-cultural studies; Harlow and surrogate mothers; Relevance of animal studies in child development.

Unit Three: Consequences of Breakdowns in Attachments

• Maternal deprivation; Implications of theories of attachment and maternal deprivation when placing children with surrogates.

Unit Four: The Home, Family and School

• Group vs family care and studies of effects of maternal employment and father absent families; Importance of peers and siblings.

Unit Five: Basic Principles of Research Methods

• Nature and purpose of research, what is an experiment, supporting and refuting hypotheses, independent and dependent variables, control of variables, standardised instructions and procedures, methods of sampling, design of investigations.

Unit Six: The Development of Visual Perception

• Introduction to the nature/nurture debate on visual perception; Fantz - form perception; Gibson and Walk - depth perception; how the physiology of the human visual system helps us judge depth and distance; Bower - size constancy; animal experiments on early sensory deprivation.

Unit Seven: The Development of Language and Communication

• Development of non-verbal communication in humans, gestures etc; comparisons with non-human primates; outline of language development in humans; including naturalistic observational in humans; including naturalistic observational studies and criticisms of these; Innate and reinforcement theories.

Unit Eight: Intelligence and Intelligence Testing

• Definitions of intelligence; mental age and IQ; Tests of intelligence; Advantages and disadvantages of IQ testing.

Unit Nine: The Nature/Nurture Debate in the Study of Intelligence

• Twins studies; stability of IQ; Are early experiences decisive for later development?

Unit Ten: Data Collection and Interpretation

• Tables and histograms, correlation and scattergrams; Mean; Range; Drawing conclusions from data.

Module Two The Child as an Individual

Unit Eleven: How Children Think

• Piaget's theory of cognitive development; including studies of egocentrism and criticisms of his work.

Unit Twelve: Learning Theory - How Behaviour is Acquired

• Learning and conditioning - classical conditioning and operant conditioning; including explanations of extinction, discrimination and generalisation; positive and negative reinforcement; Social Learning Theory and criticisms.

Unit Thirteen: Freud's Psychodynamic Theory - An Alternative Approach

• Personality structure, 5 stage theory, criticisms.

Unit Fourteen: Moral Development

• Definition in psychological terms; investigation of moral behaviour, moral feelings and moral judgement.

Unit Fifteen: The Development of Gender Roles

• Sex-typing; Gender identity; Biological, social and cultural theories.

Unit Sixteen: Aggression in Children

• Biological basis of aggression; Psychological theory and aggression; Aggression as a learned response;
  Imitation of aggression; viewing violence; Punishment for aggression; sex differences in aggression.

Unit Seventeen: Methods Used in Child Development Research

• Observational, Survey, Correlational, Experimental - advantages and disadvantages.

Unit Eighteen: Play

• The importance of play to learning;
  Piaget's theory of play; forms of play;
  Relevance of psychological theories to pre-school education;Play and learning in nursery schools; Play therapy.

Unit Nineteen: Learning in School

• Programmed learning and its relationship to learning theory - advantages and disadvantages; Discovery learning and its effectiveness.

Unit Twenty: Behaviour Modification

• Explanation and examples; Relationship to learning theory; Points systems, Advantages and disadvantages.

For a more detailed syllabus on this course, click here

Sample Course Materials

Please click on the logo below to view a few sample pages of the course materials we provide. Whilst this is only a few sample pages, we do hope that it will give you some idea of the quality of the materials we provide. If you have anymore queries in relation to the course materials, please feel free to contact one of our friendly course advisors who will be more than happy to deal with any queries that you may have.

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Qualifications

On completion of your course, you will receive two qualifications:

Qualification 1: Child Psychology Diploma

Child Psychology Diploma issued by Stonebridge Associated Colleges, entitling you to use the letters SAC Dip after your name.

Qualification 2: Level 4 Child Psychology Award

At the end of this course successful learners will also receive a level 4 NCFE Award certificate of achievement. That means that it is independently accredited at a level of learning equivalent to level 4 on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) for England, Wales and Northern Ireland (in which case GCSE's are at levels 1 and 2 and A Levels are at level 3).

This award has been designed by Stonebridge Associated Colleges to meet specific learners' or employers' requirements. Accreditation by NCFE is a guarantee of quality. It means that this learning programme has been scrutinised and approved by an independent panel of experienced educational professionals and is quality audited biannually by NCFE.

What is NCFE

NCFE is the UK's longest established awarding body, recognised as a highly professional and responsive organisation, committed to maintaining excellent customer service and a friendly approach.

NCFE is recognised as an awarding body by the qualification regulators ('regulators') for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The regulators are the Office of the Qualifications and Examinations Regulator (Ofqual) in England, the Department for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills (DCELLS) in Wales and the Council for Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) in Northern Ireland.

Accreditation by NCFE is a guarantee of quality. It means that the college has been inspected and approved by an independent and experienced education professional and is quality audited biannually by NCFE. The centre delivering the programmes has been licensed by NCFE on the basis of its own quality systems. At the end of an accredited course, successful learners will also receive an NCFE Award certificate of achievement.

For more information on this award, click here

Requirements for Entry

There is no experience or previous qualifications required for enrolment on this course. It is available to all students, of all academic backgrounds.

Fees

Cash Price	Deposit	Installments	No of Payments
£285.00	£85.00	£25.00	8

The total amount payable over the term's period, is no more than the total cash price of the course. (APR = 0%). Written quotations are available on request.

At the end of the course you will receive an award issued by Stonebridge Associated College, and also gain full awarding body accreditation for the course.

Professional Membership

On completion of this course you will be eligible to join the following Professional Associations(s):

Tutor Support

With this course you will have unlimited access to your own personal tutor who specialises in their field of study. It is your personal tutor's role to ensure that you receive constructive feedback and to deal with any queries you may have. You are more than welcome to telephone, fax or email your personal tutor.

You will also have access to a dedicated and friendly team of administrators and course advisors who offer sound and professional guidance and advice when you need it. This ensures that you will never feel neglected and that you will always succeed!

Assessment Method

After each lesson there will be a question paper, which needs to be completed and submitted to your personal tutor for marking. This method of continual assessment ensures that your personal tutor can consistently monitor your progress and provide you with assistance throughout the duration of the course.

Student Community

We understand that studying from home may be a new experience for you. You could even be excused for feeling a little dauntedsince you will not be studying in a traditional "classroom environment". To help our students overcome these concernswe have developed the Student Zone. The Student Zone encourages a high level ofinteraction with your tutor and other like-minded students.

All of our students receive access to the Student Zone,within this area you can:

• Access the student forum which allows you to share ideas and chat with other students.
• View your tutor's feedback on your marked assignments.
• View optional reading lists for your course (where available).
• Access free online games, for when you need a break from studying.
• View the study guide with plenty of useful hints and tips on how to get the most out of your course.
• Access free courses such as: Improving Learning Skills, Job Interview Skills, The Effective Learner, Goal Setting and Time Management, Ten Tips to Complete a Good Test Paper.
• Find details on our generous Referral Programme.

Study Options

In order to offer our students the most convenient and flexible distance learning courses, Stonebridge Associated College offers you the option to study for your course via two methods:

• 1. Via the traditional paper-based method.
• 2. Through the online method via ElearnUK.

When you study through ElearnUK you can quickly access your course material online and submit all of your question papers to your tutor online, using your unique student account. You have access to all of your course material immediately, and when you submit question papers, your tutor sends you an email containing your results and feedback.

Elearn Prices

Please note that payment by installments is not available when studying via Elearn.

Cash Price	Deposit	Installments	No of Payments
£265.00	x	x	x

Study Hours

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: 200 hrs.

Benefits

What's Included

• All study materials
• Study Guide
• Full Tutor and Admin support
• The course fee includes the awarding body registration and certification fee (valued at up to £30.00).

Additional Benefits

Related Courses

Below you will find a list of courses that previous students have taken to complement their course. We hope that this list will give you some idea of the types of progression courses we offer, or alternative course options that may be of interest to you.

• Anger and Aggression Management - It is a known fact that the confusion of angry feelings with aggressive behaviour creates a tremendous barrier to the expression of the natural, healthy, universal and useful human emotion that we call anger. Individuals who ...
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• Basic Philosophy - We all philosophize whenever we attempt to handle abstract ideas and it matters considerably whether we do it well or badly. The object of this course is to introduce the student to the activity of philosophizing ...
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• Behavioural Therapy - Andrew Salter who founded modern behavioural therapy used conceptions of excitation and inhibition as the basis for treatment of the neurotic. When excitatory forces dominate, people are action-orientated and emotionally free. They meet life on their ...
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• Lifestyle Consultant - Business - The traditional focus on specific job-related skills has expanded to include the training needs of the whole person necessary for meeting the constant challenges of changes in corporate environment. This course provides the student with a ...
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• Child Care - Possibly the most important thing a parent will ever do in their life is to care for their child. Many parents adapt very easily to this function and others want to gain as much information as ...
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• Child Development - This course examines areas of communication, language, play and social learning, whilst exploring the physical, mental and emotional development of the child. Formulated to cater to the needs and requirements of those engaged, or contemplating careers ...
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Further Information

If you would like any further information regarding this course, please call an advisor today on 01288 356 300 (International: 00 44 1288 356 300) or email enquiries@stonebridge.uk.com