Working with children is a career many people aspire to, but adolescents can be one group of young people that are overlooked. ACS Distance Education offers a course specifically looking at how to work with adolescents, and how they change and develop during that difficult period.
This course has ten lessons:
1. Introduction – Theories of human development – what is adolescence? Piaget’s theory of Cognitive Development, The stages of Piaget’s theories, moral development, Erikson’s psychosocial development theory.
2. Life Crises – Puberty, attachment theory, internalised and externalized problems, types of problems experienced by adolescents.
3. Physical Development – Puberty in females, puberty in males, hormones, physical activity, obesity.
4. Intellectual Development – Piaget’s formal operations stage, school problems.
5. Emotional Development – Freud’s theories, emotional problems, teenagers and grief, eating problems, depression, emotional problems, typical childhood responses to grief, supporting a grieving child.
6. Sexuality – Acquisition of gender identity and social role identity, vicarious learning and sexual identity, gender identity disorders, curiosity, sexual behaviour, sexuality, answering questions.
7. Social Development - Family influence, types of parenting, denigration of parents.
8. Moral Development – Piaget’s theory of moral development, Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning.
9. Delinquency and Crime – Juvenile delinquency, pathways to delinquency, gangs, crimes more likely in adolescence, behaviour problems, drugs, solvents and alcohol, child abuse, triggers of abuse, stranger abuse, how to deal with deviance.
10. Adolescents and the Transition to Adulthood – Erikson’s later stages – the transition to adulthood.
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