Certificate in Child and Youth Counselling

Modules

Note that each module in the Certificate in Child and Youth Counselling is a short course in its own right, and may be studied separately.

Summary of Core Modules –

Lesson Structure

There are 12 lessons in this course:

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, Freudian Approach Bowlby's Approach, Social Learning Approach, Harlow's Approach, The Role of Cognition in Attachment Formation, Maternal Attachment, Fear, Social Learning, Perceptual Recognition, Woman's Duel Role as Mothers and Workers, Day Care.
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 Cognition -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 Pretend Play
10. Morality        Moral development, Aggression & Altruism, Freud's Approach, Piaget's Approach, Kohlberg's Approach
11. Sexuality        Freud's 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.

• Identify key concepts and issues in child psychology
• Understand theories on the psychology of the newborn infant
• Explain the different types of sense discrimination that babies develop
• Identify how children learn and influences on learning
• Discuss theories of emotion and their basis in child behaviour
• Explain how children develop cognitively
• Explain how children develop language
• Explain influences on the development of intelligence in a child
• Explain personal aspects of socialisation
• Explain factors affecting the development of morality in children
• Explain the development of sexuality within children
• Explain the impact of schooling and family structures on personality development

1. Learning Specific Skills: Methods of learning; learning micro-skills
2. Listening and Bonding: Meeting and greeting; helping the client relax; listening with intent
3. Reflection: Paraphrasing; reflection of feeling; client responses to reflection of feelings; reflection of content and feeling
4. Questioning: Open and closed questions; other types of questions; goals of questioning
5. Interview Techniques: Summarising; confrontation; reframing
6. Changing Beliefs and Normalising: Changing self-destructive beliefs; irrational beliefs; normalising
7. Finding Solutions: Making choices; facilitating actions; gestalt awareness circle; psychological blocks
8. Ending the Counselling: Terminating the session; closure; further meetings; dependency, confronting dependency

• Acquire the ability to explain the processes involved in the training of counsellors in micro skills.
• Demonstrate the skills involved in commencing the counselling process and evaluation of non-verbal responses and minimal responses.
• Demonstrate reflection of content, feeling, both content and feeling, and its appropriateness to the counselling process.
• Develop different questioning techniques and to understand risks involved with some types of questioning.
• Show how to use various micro-skills including summarising, confrontation, and reframing.
• To demonstrate self-destructive beliefs and show methods of challenging them, including normalising.
• Explain how counselling a client can improve their psychological well-being through making choices, overcoming psychological blocks and facilitating actions.
• Demonstrate effective ways of terminating a counselling session and to explain ways of addressing dependency.

• Report on an observed counselling session, simulated or real.
• Identify the learning methods available to the trainee counsellor.
• Demonstrate difficulties that might arise when first learning and applying micro skills.
• Identify why trainee counsellors might be unwilling to disclose personal problems during training.
• Identify risks that can arise for trainee counsellors not willing to disclose personal problems.
• Discuss different approaches to modelling, as a form of counselling
• Evaluate verbal and non-verbal communication in an observed interview.
• Identify the counsellor’s primary role (in a generic sense).
• Show how to use minimal responses as an important means of listening with intent.
• Explain the importance of different types of non-verbal response in the counselling procedure.
• Report on the discussion of a minor problem with an anonymous person which that problem relates to.
• Identify an example of paraphrasing as a minimal response to reflect feelings.
• Discuss the use of paraphrasing in counselling.
• Differentiate catharsis from confused thoughts and feelings.
• Identify an example of reflecting back both content (thought) and feeling in the same phrase.
• Report on the discussion of a minor problem with an anonymous person which that problem relates to.
• Identify an example of paraphrasing as a minimal response to reflect feelings.
• Discuss the use of paraphrasing in counselling.
• Differentiate catharsis from confused thoughts and feelings.
• Identify an example of reflecting back both content (thought) and feeling in the same phrase.
• Demonstrate/observe varying responses to a variety of closed questions in a simulated counselling situation
• Demonstrate/observe varying responses to a variety of open questions in a simulated counselling situation.
• Compare your use of open and closed questions in a counselling situation.
• Identify the main risks involved in asking too many questions.
• Explain the importance of avoiding questions beginning with ‘why’ in counselling.
• Identify in observed communication (written or oral), the application of different micro-skills which would be useful in counselling.
• Demonstrate examples of when it would be appropriate for the counsellor to use confrontation.
• List the chief elements of good confrontation.
• Discuss appropriate use of confrontation, in case studies.
• Show how reframing can be used to change a client’s perspective on things.
• Develop a method for identifying the existence of self-destructive beliefs (SDB’s).
• Identify self-destructive beliefs (SDB’s) amongst individuals within a group.
• Explain the existence of self destructive beliefs in an individual.
• List methods that can be used to challenge SDB’s?
• Explain what is meant by normalising, in a case study.
• Demonstrate precautions that should be observed when using normalizing.
• Determine optional responses to different dilemmas.
• Evaluate optional responses to different dilemmas.
• Explain how the ‘circle of awareness’ can be applied to assist a client, in a case study.
• Explain why psychological blockages may arise.
• Demonstrate how a counsellor might help a client to overcome psychological blockages.
• Describe the steps a counsellor would take a client through to reach a desired goal, in a case study.
• Identify inter-dependency in observed relationships.
• Explain why good time management is an important part of the counselling process.
• Compare terminating a session with terminating the counselling process.
• Demonstrate dangers posed by client - counsellor inter-dependency.
• Explain how dependency can be addressed and potentially overcome.
• Explain any negative aspects of dependency in a case study.

Communicating with Children and Adolescents

Counselling children or young people relies totally on being able to communicate with them. If you cannot communicate clearly and effectively; any attempt at counselling will fail.
 
Communication can be verbal or non-verbal. Verbal communication is what most people automatically think of and associate with the word 'communication'. It simply involves the use of words, spoken or written. Non-verbal communication involves other signals or messages   pictures, music, body language (the way the body moves or is held, gestures, facial expression, eye contact, etc.). So, even a person who is not using open modes of communication and who believes they are not communicating can be inadvertently sending out messages.

In some instances, non-verbal communication may play a greater role in the transmission of information than verbal communication. For instance, from his research Albert Mehrabian suggested a model showing breakdown of communication when two people communicate their feelings or attitudes. He proposed that the communication could be formulated as 7% verbal (what is said), 25% vocal (how it is said), and 68% facial (conveyed through facial expression). Although these findings have often been simplified and applied to everyday conversations by some authors, this formula only applies to expression of feelings or attitudes. 

Nevertheless, non-verbal communication plays a significant role in relationships and in everyday communication. Argyle (1975) posited that there are four functions of non-verbal communication:

• Assisting speech - e.g. some words may be accentuated, talking fast or slowly, loudly or softly, the tone and quality, inflections in our voice.
• Replacing speech - some gestures replace whole phrases e.g. looking up and sighing to mean "I despair".
• Signalling attitudes - e.g. tapping your fingers and looking away to convey disinterest. 
• Signalling emotions - e.g. smiling to show pleasure when bumping into someone you know. 
  
  
  

Types of Non-Verbal Communication 

Non-verbal elements of communication can include behaviour e.g. the distance you stand or sit from someone, whether and how you touch the other person, your actions before, during and after the communication. All these can be interpreted by the other person. For instance, if your words do not seem to match your actions or body language, the message will be confusing, contradictory or simply inauthentic. 

Non-verbal communication, or body language as it is often called, is conveyed through how we speak, our appearance, our gestures, how we stand or tilt our head, our facial expression and actions. Let's take a closer look at some of the main non-verbal cues and what the can reveal:

Eye Contact
One of the first things we notice is how someone is looking at us. The duration of eye contact means different things in different contexts and what is acceptable varies across cultures. A long stare form a loved one may indicate affection, but a long stare from a stranger could indicate hostility. In North American Indian culture a long stare from a young person may be regarded as disrespectful. Australian Aboriginal people tend to avoid eye contact particularly when talking about sensitive or serious topics.
 
Use of eye contact can be used to encourage people to talk about something further or to discourage it. Dilated pupils can also reveal attraction towards someone else, or interest in what they have to say. Contracted pupils can indicate disinterest, or perhaps the listener finds the topic uncomfortable to discuss.    

In a typical social exchange whoever is speaking usually looks away until they are about to finish what they are saying. The person who is listening usually looks at the other person whilst they are speaking. However, Dovidio & Ellison (1982) were able to show that people in positions of power tend to maintain eye contact when talking to someone and look away when the other person speaks. 

Facial Expression
We have a wide range of facial expressions which we use when communicating. Some of these are peculiar to the individual but many are easily recognisable within cultures and even across cultures. In fact some would appear to be innate. For instance, in humans and animals fear is expressed as a grin in which the teeth are bared and the mouth is stretched. 

In one study, Osgood (1966) identified seven different facial expressions of emotion which were observed in all cultures, namely: happiness, fear, anger, sadness, interest, disgust and contempt.   

Gestures
These are particular actions made by the arms and hands. They are often used to accompany speech or highlight parts of speech. Most Westerner's would be familiar with a raised middle finger as a means of telling someone to back off. In other cultures this could have quite a different meaning.  Gestures also vary across cultures in how frequently they are used, and for how long. 

Posture
Unlike gestures which are specific, posture provides clues about our general attitude. It tells someone whether we are feeling angry, sad or happy for instance. Someone who stands with their arms loose at their sides with their palms opened outwards is likely to be seen as being relaxed and open. Conversely, someone who folds their arms and leans back would be perceived as tense and closed. Open and closed postures can also influence whether a person is perceived as likeable or not.   
Proxemics
This relates to personal space. Personal space is the distance we keep from other people. What is socially acceptable varies across cultures but can also vary according to the type of social interaction and the type of relationship. A dating couple will often sit together more closely than an employer and employee for example. If we encounter an angry person on the street, the further away that person is from us, the less threatening we will perceive them to be. If the angry person gets too close, the anger will seem more threatening and we may take flight to regain our personal space. 

Touch
This is sometimes referred to as haptics. Touching can occur in different circumstances during a conversation. In some cultures touching is quite common. For instance, in South American and Middle Eastern cultures it is quite usual to stand closely and touch the person you are talking to. In other cultures, it may make people feel uncomfortable. Touching can be hostile such as hitting or kicking. It can also demonstrate a degree of intimacy such as politeness, warmness, love or sexuality. 

In a counselling situation, or other therapist-client relationship, it is important for the counsellor to maintain a physical distance to avoid any misunderstandings in relation to physical contact. 

What This Course Could Do For You

An understanding of children and adolescents is useful in a range of careers. It is also something which many parents can benefit from. This course provides students with a thorough grounding in normal child and adolescent development as well as insight into what can go wrong. Counselling can be of value to children as much as it is to adults, and may be of particular value to children who have mental health problems or those who face difficulties in their lives. All children deserve an opportunity to thrive in life.

This course will be of particular interest to people working in, or hoping to work in: 

• Youth work
• Child and adolescent counselling
• School counselling
• Teaching
• Child psychology
• Caring roles
• Youth coaching

This course may also be of value to parents, foster parents and caregivers.