Learn about mental health difficulties in teenagers and children with this online course.

• Learn about mental health and normal childhood development.
• Study developmental disorders.
• Learn about stages of learning, different theories, and motivations.

Recognising the signs and symptoms of mental health issues in a child and adolescent is important. The earlier the symptoms are caught, the easier it is to help and support the child. This course provides you with an in-depth insight into child and adolescent mental health.

Course Structure
Students are to select six of the following Modules to study. Please follow the links in the module titles to access the specific web pages on each.

Child and Adolescent Mental Health
This 10-lesson module aims to provide students with the knowledge to identify mental health conditions in children and adolescents.  Students are guided through a wide range of conditions and disorders, including depression, anxiety, motor disorders, elimination disorders, reactive attachment disorder, the impact of environmental problems, eating disorders, and substance abuse.  As well as understanding types of treatment and support available, the module also considers alternative approaches to treatment, such as homeopathy, aromatherapy, behavioural optometry, and diet.  The module is completed with a special project in an area of interest to the student and which they will complete under the expert guidance of their tutor.

Child Psychology
This 12-lesson module is concerned with the developmental stages of children from newborn and infants through school age years.  The module considers all the significant areas such as senses, emotions, socialism, cognitive development, learning, and language.  Notable psychological research and theories are explored within the module providing students with a balanced approach to ideas and concepts.  The module also includes sections which look at influences both within the family structure and externally, such as influences from school and peers.

Counselling Children
To counsel children effectively a therapist needs to understand the types of problems that can affect children and how they might have evolved. This 9-lesson module looks at the types and causes of problems experienced by children. Students will learn about how to assess different problems and the approaches to adopt in counselling. The module includes a Problem Based Learning Project to enable the student to apply their knowledge in a particular situation where they can explore routes to determining problems and engage appropriate counselling techniques to help resolve these.

Developmental Learning and Behavioural Conditions in Children
Through 9 lessons, learn about the signs, symptoms, and treatment of learning and behavioural conditions exhibited by children and adolescents.  The module looks at genetic, physical, and environmental causes of disorders, with lessons including developmental disorders, specific conditions such as Autism and Asperger’s Disorder, ADHD, learning disorders, and motor skills disorders.  A special project concludes the module, where the student selects a particular area of interest and researches and explains the signs, symptoms, treatment and support for a particular condition or disorder.

Developmental Psychology
This 10-lesson module looks at the psychological development of individuals throughout their lives.  Different stages in an individual’s life bring about different influences and different challenges.  This module seeks to help the student to better understand how people develop, through all ages of life with lessons on each of the key life stages: Early childhood, Middle childhood, Adolescence, Adulthood, Late Adulthood.  Students will look at cognitive, social, and moral development as relevant through each of these stages before then considering the potential challenges faced through each stage of a person’s life.  Having a heightened awareness of developmental psychology is a big advantage when dealing with people in any capacity. It helps you understand work colleagues, clients, friends and family members and is a very valuable tool for teachers, managers, counsellors and welfare workers amongst many other professions.

Abnormal Psychology
This is an 11-lesson module.  Students will study the signs and symptoms of different psychological conditions.  Disorders may be caused by environmental, physical, or genetic influences.  The module starts by looking at disorders that are usually diagnosed during infancy, which is then followed by a series of lessons which focus on the causes, symptoms, and diagnosis of different types of disorder.  The disorders covered in the module include cognitive disorders, substance-related disorders, psychotic disorders, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, dissociative disorders, sexual/gender disorders, eating and sleep disorders, control disorders, and personality disorders.  Students will be expected to describe and distinguish between different types of disorders and their work will include the diagnosis and development of treatment for specified disorders.

Educational Psychology
By understanding how people learn, you can become more effective in your approach to helping them to learn.  This 7-lesson module looks at the theories of development and learning.  Students will consider how people learn, how information is processed and how it is retained.  As student’s progress through the module, they will look at how to determine the needs of individuals, which coupled with their studies on how people learn will provide them with the necessary tools to be able to effectively tailor their methods for the benefit of the individual.  The right approach of course is important, and the module is concluded with a lesson on motivation which looks at different motivational theories and factors which may affect an individual’s motivation.

DEPRESSION IN TEENAGERS

The adolescent years are difficult because they involve such a lot of change, both in the physiology of the body and in the psychology of the individual. Everyone has stories to tell about teenage problems, and often they are accepted as being “normal”, “expected” and then discarded and largely ignored.

The level of change that happens in adolescence does need to be managed delicately though, as the individual transitions from being largely dependent upon their parents to becoming largely responsible for themselves. When parents don’t allow the child to evolve, they may rebel, and when they are cut loose from parental influence too fast, they can become disoriented.

Teenager depression is always a risk. Adolescent depression is not just about bad moods and feeling low though. Depression can also have a serious impact on a teenager’s life. Because teens tend to have more freedom than younger children, there can also be the risk of additional drug use, alcohol use, self-harm, pregnancy, violence and even suicide.

The problem with teenager depression is that there is a stereotype that teenagers can be moody and angry and tired all the time. They may act out and have bad moods, but depression is something again. It can cause them a great deal of despair and anger.

Depression is found in teenagers more often than people usually think. This could be because more teenagers have depression, or we are becoming more aware of the symptoms of depression and teenagers are seeking help.  It is thought that only one in five teenagers with depression will seek help, so often they have to rely on their parents or teachers or carers to recognise that they are depressed and need help.

Teenagers have the additional problem of puberty and their increase in independence. As well as their psychological changes, they will also be experiencing physical changes as they grow and develop. A quickly growing teenager may feel tired and worn out, which is obviously also a symptom of depression. The rapid changes that occur in the teenage years also make it harder to diagnose depression in teenagers.

A good rule of thumb as to whether a teenager is “being a teenager” or is depressed is to consider how severe they are.  We may look for issues such as –

• Angry or irritable mood.
• Extreme sensitivity to criticism.
• Unexplained aches and pains.
• Withdrawing from some people.

Because of how the teenager with depression feels, it can affect them in a variety of ways that differ from younger children. This is because younger children do not always have the same independence and freedom to act in some of these ways.  A depressed teen may experience

• Difficulties at school.
• Thoughts of running away or running away.
• Low self-esteem.
• Reckless behaviour, such as unsafe sex, reckless driving, alcohol abuse, drug abuse.
• Violence – some teenagers who are depressed can become violent. This has been seen in high profile school massacres such as Newtown and Columbine.
• Another issue is internet addiction. A child may go online and play games or become involved in social media to escape their problems, but this may only increase their isolation and increase their depression.

Depression in teenagers is also often associated with other mental health conditions such as self-harm, suicidal thoughts, and eating disorders.

Learn about mental health difficulties in teenagers and children with this online course.

• Learn about mental health and normal childhood development.
• Study developmental disorders.
• Learn about stages of learning, different theories and motivations.

Recognising the signs and symptoms of mental health issues in a child and adolescent is important. The earlier the symptoms are caught, the easier it is to help and support the child. This course provides you with an in depth insight into child and adolescent mental health.