Unit rationale, description and aim
Educational and developmental psychologists work with individuals displaying a range of abilities and disabilities across the lifespan. This unit introduces you to groups within the population whose development is exceptional or atypical. The emphasis will be on diagnosis, assessment, and intervention for individuals with one of the major developmental disabilities/disorders such as intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, and language disorders. The unit will also enable you to examine the special needs of gifted children. Research from a range of psychological, clinical, neuropsychological as well as medical fields will inform this unit. The unit aims to prepare you to work with individuals across the lifespan within family, educational, and community settings.
Campus offering
No unit offerings are currently available for this unit.Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
Discuss contemporary theories of developmental psy...
Learning Outcome 01
Discuss the nature of exceptionalities and the the...
Learning Outcome 02
Select appropriate and evidence-based intervention...
Learning Outcome 03
Demonstrate skills in a range of interventions/tre...
Learning Outcome 04
Evaluate intervention outcomes
Learning Outcome 05
Demonstrate skills in assessment practices
Learning Outcome 06
Determine extrinsic factors affecting the developm...
Learning Outcome 07
Communicate knowledge orally and in written form t...
Learning Outcome 08
Content
Topics will include:
- The nature of exceptionality
- Evidence-based and controversial practices
- Assessment and intervention in autism spectrum disorder
- Assessment and intervention in ADHD
- Assessment and intervention in language disorders
- Assessment and intervention with gifted children
- Working in family, school, and community settings
Assessment strategy and rationale
In order to best enable students to demonstrate unit learning outcomes and develop graduate attributes, standards-based assessment is utilised, consistent with University assessment requirements. Written assignments provide the opportunity for students to demonstrate the capacity to assess, formulate, diagnose and plan an intervention, in the context of an individual displaying atypical development, and to review the literature relevant to understanding typical and atypical development. Class presentation allows you the opportunity to communicate effectively your knowledge of a topic of your choice to an audience of peers, using audio visual technology and hard copy materials.
Overview of assessments
Written assignment (2500 word) Enables demonstra...
Written assignment (2500 word)
Enables demonstration of the capacity to assess, formulate, diagnose, and plan an intervention, in the context of an individual displaying atypical development
50
Written assignment (1500 words) Provides the opp...
Written assignment (1500 words)
Provides the opportunity to demonstrate the ability to review the literature relevant to understanding typical and atypical development.
35
Oral presentation (20 mins) Provides the opportu...
Oral presentation (20 mins)
Provides the opportunity to communicate knowledge of a topic of your choice to an audience of peers, using audio visual technology and hard copy materials.
15
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
The unit is delivered in face-to-face mode with 2.5 contact hours per week. Classes will be conducted in lecture/workshop and will include student presentations. Essential backgound information will be presented as lecture material. Workshop components are designed to enhance application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation of that information. Learning and teaching strategies include active learning, case-based learning, individual and group activities, over the course of the 12 weeks. This range of strategies will provide you with appropriate access to required knowledge and understanding of unit content and to allow you to meet the aim, learning outcomes and graduate attributes of the unit. Learning and teaching strategies will reflect respect for you as an independent learner. You will be expected to take responsibility for your learning and to participate actively within group activities.