Child Psychology at QLS Level 3

1. 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.

2. The Formation of Attachments

Imprinting; Attachment (Bowlby) including cross-cultural studies; Harlow and surrogate mothers;

Relevance of animal studies in child development.

3. Consequences of Breakdowns in Attachments

Maternal deprivation; Implications of theories of attachment and maternal deprivation when

placing children with surrogates.

4.  The Home, Family and School

Group vs family care and the studies of effects of maternal employment and father absent families;

importance of peers and siblings.

5. Basic Principles of Research Methods

Nature and purpose of research, the features of experiment, supporting and refuting hypotheses,

independent and dependent variables, control of variables, standardised instructions and procedures,

methods of sampling, design of investigations.

6. 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.

7. 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;

innate and reinforcement theories.

8. Intelligence and Intelligence Testing

Definitions of intelligence; mental age and IQ; tests of intelligence; advantages and disadvantages of

IQ testing.

9. The Nature/Nurture Debate in the Study of Intelligence

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

10. Data Collection and Interpretation

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

11. How Children Think

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development including studies of egocentrism and criticisms of his work.

12. Learning Theory & How Behaviour is Acquired

Learning and conditioning classical conditioning and operant conditioning; positive and negative reinforcement; Social Learning

13. Freud’s Psychodynamic Theory  an Alternative Approach

Personality structure, 5 stage theory, criticisms.

14. Moral Development

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

judgement.

15. The Development of Gender Roles

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

16. 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.

17. Methods Used in Child Development Research

Observational, Survey, Correlational, Experimental advantages and disadvantages.

18. 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.

19.  Learning in School

Programmed learning and its relationship to learning theory advantages and disadvantages.

Discovery learning and its effectiveness.

20. Behaviour Modification

Explanation and examples; relationship to learning theory; Points systems, advantages and disadvantages.

At the end of this course successful learners will be given the option to receive a Certificate of Achievement from the Quality Licence Scheme and a Learner Unit Summary (which lists the components the learner has completed as part of the course).

The course has been endorsed under the Quality Licence Scheme.  This means that Kendal Publishing Ltd has undergone an external quality check to ensure that the organisation and the courses it offers, meet defined quality criteria. The completion of this course alone does not lead to a regulated qualification* but may be used as evidence of knowledge and skills gained. The Learner Unit Summary may be used as evidence towards Recognition of Prior Learning if you wish to progress your studies in this subject. To this end the learning outcomes of the course have been benchmarked at Level 3 against level descriptors published by Ofqual, to indicate the depth of study and level of demand/complexity involved in successful completion by the learner.

The course itself has been designed by Kendal Publishing Ltd to meet specific learners’ and/or employers’ requirements which cannot be satisfied through current regulated qualifications.   The Quality Licence Scheme endorsement involves robust and rigorous quality audits by external auditors to ensure quality is continually met.  A review of courses is carried out as part of the endorsement process.

The Quality Licence Scheme is part of the Skills and Education Group, a charitable organisation that unites education and skills-orientated organisations that share similar values and objectives. With more than 100 years of collective experience, the Skills and Education Group’s strategic partnerships create opportunities to inform, influence and represent the wider education and skills sector.

The Skills and Education Group also includes two nationally recognised awarding organisations; Skills and Education Group Awards and Skills and Education Group Access. Through our awarding organisations we have developed a reputation for providing high-quality qualifications and assessments for the education and skills sector. We are committed to helping employers, organisations and learners cultivate the relevant skills for learning, skills for employment, and skills for life.

Our knowledge and experience of working within the awarding sector enables us to work with training providers, through the Quality Licence Scheme, to help them develop high-quality courses and/or training programmes for the non-regulated market.

*Regulated qualification refers to those qualifications that are regulated by Ofqual / CCEA / Qualification Wales

Paper Based Version

The course comes to you as a paper-based pack delivered by courier.

You will be given guidance through the Study Guide on the nuts and bolts of studying and submitting assignments.

Postal assignments cannot be accepted without prior permission from the tutor.

Online Version

Our online courses are fully digitised versions of the paper-courses, so you can study on any PC or smart device when connected to the internet.

As with the paper course, your online learning programme is completely flexible, so you can study at a pace that suits you.

All of our online course content is broken down into bite size chunks to make your learning more manageable and effective.

The course contains a number of assignments which your tutor will mark and give you valuable feedback on. We call these Tutor Marked Assignments (TMAs). You need only send the TMAs to your tutor for comment, not the self-assessment exercises which are also part of the course to help you gauge your progress.

This course can be taken over a 12 month period but you can complete it as fast or as slowly as you wish.

You will have access to a tutor via email who will mark your work and guide you through the course and will assist you with any problems you may have. In addition you will be supplied with a comprehensive Study Guide which will help you through the study and assessment process.