Making a Difference in Children’s Lives
You should develop your talents so that you can provide children with the greatest counselling possible. Discover fresh strategies to support kids through challenging periods in their lives.
Assisting children
Children experience difficulties and mental health issues that call for the assistance of therapists like psychologists and counsellors. Helping children with these issues, meanwhile, typically necessitates a different strategy than assisting adults. Legal considerations, moral considerations, their degree of emotional and cognitive development, and what will be significant to them in the context of their life must all be taken into account.
A therapist needs to be aware of the different issues that might impact kids and how they can have developed in order to successfully counsel kids.
Disorders in kids can, and frequently do, have multiple causes, just like disorders in adults. These factors could also have genetic or environmental roots, much like in adults. But, as childhood is a period when children are constantly developing cognitively, socially, emotionally, and, of course, physically, we must also take developmental causes into consideration with children.
Learn more about the factors that affect children’s mental health in this course. You’ll also learn about the difficulties that arise when interviewing and evaluating kids, as well as some helpful intervention techniques.
become more adept of relating well with children during counselling and more attuned to their needs.
Lesson Structure
There are 9 lessons in this course:
- Introduction to Types & Causes of Childhood Problems
- Introduction
- Types Of Childhood Problems
- Causes Of Childhood Problems
- Genetic Risks
- Temperament
- Environmental Influences
- Divorce
- Death Of a Parent
- Maternal Deprivation
- Schooling
- Location
- Brain Disorder
- Resilience & Vulnerability
- Assessment of Childhood Problems
- Introduction
- A Developmental Approach
- Understanding Normal Development
- Infancy
- Years 2 To 5
- Years 6 To 11
- Adolescence
- Assessing Children
- Difficulties Assessing Children
- Interviewing Children
- Interviewing Parents
- Family Interviews
- Making Observations
- Rating Scales & Psychometric Testing
- Significance Of Prevalence
- Ethical And Legal Considerations
- Legal Issues
- Insurance
- Parental Involvement in Diagnosis
- Psychological Assessments and Tests
- Counselling for Internalising Problems & Disorders I: Anxiety
- Introduction
- Types Of Anxiety
- Other Types of Anxiety
- Social Anxiety
- School-Based Anxiety
- Symptoms Of Anxiety in Adults and Children
- Anxiety In Children
- Why Do Some Children Experience Anxiety More Than Others?
- Genes And Personality
- Stressful Environment
- Getting Help
- Types Of Treatment for Anxiety in Children
- Counselling
- CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy)
- Medication
- Parental Help
- Counselling for Internalising Problems & Disorders II: Depression
- Introduction
- Depressive Disorders in Children
- Signs Of Depression in Children
- Bipolar Depression in Children – Signs and Symptoms
- Causes Of Depression
- Getting Help
- Parental Help
- Medical Services
- Medication
- Hospital
- Counselling Treatments for Depression
- Interpersonal Therapy
- CBT And Depression in Children
- Counselling for Externalising Problems & Disorders III: Eating Disorders
- What Are Eating Disorders?
- Causes Of Eating Disorders
- Anorexia Nervosa
- Bulimia Nervosa
- Binge Eating Disorder
- Signs And Symptoms
- Diagnosis
- Getting Help
- Parental Support
- Professional Help
- Case Study
- Counselling for Externalising Problems & Disorders IV: Conduct Disorders
- Introduction
- Subtypes Of Conduct Disorder
- Symptoms Of Conduct Disorder
- Causes Of Conduct Disorder
- Diagnosis
- Treatment Of Conduct Disorder
- Case Study
- Parental Involvement
- More On Medication
- Counselling for Other Problems & Disorders
- Introduction
- Bedwetting
- Counselling For Bedwetting
- Cultural Differences
- Cross Cultural Counselling
- Bullying And Cyberbullying
- Counselling
- Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
- Treatment For ASD
- Counselling For ASD
- ADHD
- Medication
- Counselling
- Other Counselling Approaches
- Introduction
- Medication
- Virtual Reality
- MST
- Art Therapy
- Lego Therapy
- Play Therapy
- Special Project – Problem-based learning
Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school’s tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.
Aims
- Describe the main categories of paediatric psychiatric illnesses and any potential root causes of issues.
- Recognize the importance of development and how children differ from adults when evaluating their mental health.
- Recognize the causes of childhood anxiety and potential counselling strategies for therapy.
- Recognize the causes of childhood depression and potential counselling strategies for therapy.
- Learn about food and eating issues in children and potential counselling strategies for therapy.
- Recognize the causes of childhood anxiety and potential counselling strategies for therapy.
- Describe a variety of other issues and ailments impacting kids, and contrast potential solutions.
- Describe a variety of counselling techniques and potential results that are suitable for use when working with kids.
- Analyze a young person who need counselling and create a therapy strategy for them.
Before you can start providing counselling, you must have a complete understanding of the child’s issues. Examining data from many sources is part of the assessment process for childhood diseases and issues. You will have a greater sense of what is wrong with the child and how you might help them the more information you have.
Developmental Thinking
It is crucial to consider the child’s developmental stage in order to create a thoughtful assessment. In other words, you must be conscious of a child’s behaviour in relation to his or her age. In contrast to a 3-year-old with the same condition, a 16-year-old who wets the bed is likely to have a distinct clinical profile and require a different approach to treatment. Also, children of different ages respond differently to certain life situations, for example, a parent’s divorce may have a more upsetting effect on a 5-year-old than a 15-year-old. Also, many illnesses manifest differently as people age. For instance, childhood anxiety disorders frequently become better as a child gets older.
Diversity on the basis of race and culture can also influence development. It’s possible that while in some cultures children are not expected to accomplish specific developmental milestones by a certain age, they do in others. Similar to this, in some cultures, it may be normal for kids to mature quickly and exhibit behaviours more typically seen in older kids or parents. While in some circumstances they might accept this and gain a sense of independence, other kids might feel overwhelmed and start acting out.
Why You Should Take This Course
This course aims to assist counsellors and other therapists in developing new counselling techniques and abilities. When working with children, especially younger ones, traditional counselling microskills are not always helpful. Counseling methods frequently need to be adjusted to take into account childhood differences.
Take this course to deepen your understanding of child mental health and to learn more about child counselling techniques.
The following fields are targeted by the course for those who are employed in or seeking employment in:
work with youth
Counseling for children and adolescents
educational counselling
Pediatric psychology
caring positions
role in health care
