Understanding developmental, learning and behavioural disorders in children and adolescents is important professional development for many professions. Whether you work directly with children, in a teaching, medical or caring role, or in-directly through work, this course is ideal for you.
It’s also an excellent course for parents and carers who want to understand their child/children who may experience developmental, learning and behaviour disorders.
The most common behavioural disorders in children include attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD). However, there are many disorders that can go undiagnosed without the knowledge to identify when behaviour falls outside the ‘norm’ for a child’s level of development.
Our Certificate of Developmental, Learning and Behaviour Disorders (Children and Adolescents) is an online program that will give you insights into the signs, symptoms, treatments and support options for a variety of developmental and behavioural disorders.
You’ll explore disorders including learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other pervasive developmental disorders, including Rett’s Disorder.
You will also learn about attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders, conduct disorders like anti-social personality disorder, learning disorders like developmental dyslexia, communication disorders like phonological disorder and motor skills disorders.
When you study behavioural disorders in children, you will gain insights into a range of disorders that affect children and teenagers. As a result, you’ll feel capable to support and assist them to gain the help they need to thrive.
Outcomes achieved if you study behavioural disorders in children include:
And more!
If you work with children and adolescents, this course will help you to recognise behavioural disorders as well as developmental and learning disorders.
It is important that behaviour that is considered extreme or outside the ‘norm’ for a child’s level of development be investigated. If a diagnosis is made early, children can receive the help they need to thrive in their education as well as in their social and emotional lives.
This online course, which explores behavioural disorders in children, is important for anyone who works closely with children and adolescents, including:
There are many behavioural disorders in children but the most common include oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. While all children can be disobedient, defiant, and impulsive, which is considered normal, a disorder is diagnosed when this behaviour is extreme or outside the parameters of what is considered the norm for their developmental age.
Around one in 10 children under 12 years are thought to have oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). Boys are twice as likely to have ODD and demonstrate behaviours such as:
A conduct disorder often has children labelled as ‘naughty’ because of their refusal to accept and follow rules. The disorder affects about five per cent of 10-year-olds with boys outnumbering girls by four to one. The condition is often accompanied with a diagnosis of ADHD. Behaviours that are typical of children and adolescents with conduct disorder include:
The prevalence of ADHD is about two to five per cent in children with boys being three times more likely to be diagnosed. The characteristics of ADHD can include:
Inattention – difficulty concentrating, forgetting instructions, leaving tasks unfinished.
Impulsivity – talking over the top of others, having a short fuse and being accident-prone
Overactivity – restlessness and fidgeting
The cause of behavioural disorders in children are not known, but risk factors include:
Gender – boys are more likely than girls to be diagnosed with a behavioural disorder, but it’s undetermined if the link is genetic or related to socialisation.
Gestation and birth – difficulties during pregnancy, premature birth and low birth weight may contribute to behavioural disorders in children and adolescents
Temperament – children who are temperamental or aggressive early in life are more likely to develop a behaviour disorder.
Dysfunctional home life – children in homes where there is domestic violence, poverty and substance abuse are more at risk of behavioural disorders
Learning and intellectual disabilities – those with difficulties learning or intellectual disabilities are also at risk of developing a behavioural disorder.
Brain development – children with ADHD have a less active area of the brain that controls attention.
Gain knowledge to understand and help children with developmental, learning, and behavioural disorders with a course that explores behavioural disorders in children, like our Certificate of Developmental, Learning and Behavioural Disorders – Children & Adolescents.
Domestic and family violence (DFV) is a significant health and welfare issue and is prevalent across culture, gender and sexuality. It affects family members and intimate partner relationships across communities, but women and children are most at risk.
In Australia, one in six women and one in 16 men having been subjected to physical or sexual violence since the age of 15 – usually in the family home. And while women and children are most at risk, men are affected but are far more likely to experience violence from strangers in a public place.
There are different types of domestic and family violence. A person doesn’t need to experience all types of abuse for it to be a crime.
Family violence refers to abuse that occurs between family members, intimate partners and ex-partners. Domestic violence is a subgroup of family violence and describes the abuse between current or former intimate partners. It is a form of abuse that typically involves one partner exerting control or power over the other using intimidation, which invokes fear.
While sexual abuse can occur outside of relationships, a significant proportion of victims know their perpetrator. Sexual violence and abuse in a relationship include any sexual activity without consent. It can also include inflicting pain during sex, coercive intercourse without protection and degrading insults.
Emotional abuse is damaging to self-esteem and self-worth. It occurs when one partner manipulates, bullies or uses coercive control to intimidate the other.
Economic abuse is when an intimate partner has control over the other’s financial resources. This type of abuse reduces the victim’s ability to support themselves and forces them to depend on their perpetrator.
Social abuse occurs when perpetrators cut victims off from support people like family, friends and their community. It can also involve efforts to harm the victim’s relationships or reputation.
Spiritual abuse, also known as religious abuse, involves the misuse of religion to hurt, scare or control a victim. It can involve making a person participate in spiritual or religious practices when they don’t want to.
Elder abuse is also a form of domestic violence when an older person is abused by a person, commonly a family member, when there is an expectation of trust.
Child abuse is any physical or emotional harm caused by a person in a position of power that endangers a child’s health, survival, development or self-worth.
Coercive control is domestic and family violence where there are patterns of abuse behaviour designed to dominate and control an intimate partner. It can include physical, emotional, economic, social and spiritual abuse.
The statistics are scary – but education is vital to more positive outcomes for those experiencing domestic and family violence. It’s not just victims and perpetrators that need education but also support people and professionals, from family and friends to health care and service providers.
Our domestic violence courses are designed to educate those experiencing domestic abuse and their family, friends, carers and health care providers to offer support.
One of the best defences against domestic and family violence is knowledge. This knowledge is powerful for those who offer services to meet the needs of adults and children affected by domestic and family violence.
In this domestic violence course, you will learn how to apply lived experience to counsel and facilitate programs for victims of domestic and family violence. This will enable you to thoroughly explore client issues and identify possible options by providing a safe and supportive environment for clients to actively seek solutions.
If you have lived experience of domestic and family violence, our domestic violence course, the Certificate of Domestic and Family Violence (Lived Experience), will help you support others.
Our online domestic violence course will provide you with the knowledge to use your experience to empower others in domestic and family violence situations.
You will also gain the knowledge and skills required to recognise and respond appropriately to domestic and family violence and advocate to promote awareness in the community.
Topics covered in our online domestic violence courses include:
Our lived experience domestic violence course includes extra topics for those who have personally experienced domestic violence. It helps those people support others in similar circumstances.
And more …
If you want to undertake a short domestic violence course to understand how to support those affected, whether through your workplace or in your personal life, our Understanding Domestic Violence course is ideal. In this short online domestic violence course, you’ll learn the practical skills and knowledge required to recognise and respond appropriately to domestic and family violence.
Gain the knowledge and power to confront domestic violence and improve outcomes for those affected with one of our domestic violence courses, including the Certificate of Domestic and Family Violence, Certificate of Domestic and Family Violence (Lived Experience) or Understanding Domestic Violence.
Studying a counselling course online like our Certificate of Counselling Psychology will be of particular interest to people working in or planning to work in counselling, psychology, psychotherapy, social work, nursing or in caring or health professional roles.
Relationship issues, discrimination, work and family demands, physical and mental health problems … there is a range of issues that can cause stress. In fact, according to the World Health Organisation, 25% of people will develop a mental or behavioural disorder during their lifespan.
And while some people can adequately manage stress, others can develop adverse feelings and anxieties that can persist and intensify. This can lead to issues including depression, substance abuse, behavioural problems and disorders that are particular to children and adolescents.
Counselling psychologists can assist people with physical, mental and emotional health issues to resolve crises, alleviate feelings of distress and improve their sense of well‐being.
Learning Outcomes
Outcomes achieved by undertaking a counselling course online include:
Although many psychologists over the years have contributed to various schools of thought, individual practitioners have bought a unique perspective to the understanding of human behaviour. Be inspired to undertake our counselling course online with our pick of history’s best-known thinkers!
Born in New York in 1842, James is considered a leading thinker of the late nineteenth century, and often referred to as the ‘Father of American psychology’. His teachings and writings, including his book, The Principles of Psychology, helped establish psychology as a science, particularly in the areas of structuralism and functionalism.
Pavlov was born in 1849 in Russia and from childhood demonstrated an intellectual curiosity he referred to as ‘the instinct for research’. Best known for his work in classical conditioning, he helped move psychology away from subjective assessments to objective measurements of behaviour.
Born in Czechia in 1856, Freud was a neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis. His work supported a belief that not all mental illnesses have physiological causes and that cultural differences also have an impact on behaviour. His work also contributed to today’s understanding of clinical psychology and abnormal psychology.
Swiss-born Piaget was known for his work on child development, in particular his theory of cognitive development, and he placed great importance on children’s educational reform. As a testament to his work, Albert Einstein once described Piaget’s observations as a discovery “so simple that only a genius could have thought of it.”
A Russian psychologist, Vygotsky, was born in 1896, and his work has become enormously influential in recent decades. However, much of it was largely inaccessible to the Western world before the 1960’s when it was finally translated. Before his premature death at age 38, he was most known for his studies in the areas of child development and educational psychology.
Rogers was born in the US in 1902 and was among the founders of the humanistic approach to psychology. As an educator, writer and therapist, he was one of the major ‘humanist thinkers’ of his time and a key influence in the field with his theories on person-centred therapy.
Born in Germany in 1902, Erikson is most known for his staged theory of psychosocial development, which focused on human development throughout a lifespan. He coined the phrase ‘identity crisis’ and expanded the notion of psychoanalytic theory by exploring development throughout childhood, adulthood and old age.
Burrhus Frederic Skinner was an American psychologist, inventor, author and social philosopher who was born in the US in 1904. He was Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974, and is remembered for his concepts of operant conditioning and schedules of reinforcement.
American Festinger was born in 1919 and as a social psychologist, was best known for his theories on cognitive dissonance and social comparison. The first theory relates to the discomfort people feel when they hold two conflicting beliefs, and the second to people evaluating their ideas by comparing them to what other people believe.
Born in 1925 in Canada (and at 94, he is still alive and well today!), Bandura was considered part of the cognitive revolution in psychology that began in the late 1960s. A Professor of Social Science in Psychology at Stanford University, his theories stress the importance of modelling, imitation and social learning.
Robbery, sexual assault, murder and even cannibalism – their actions were brutal and often hard to comprehend. Undertake our counselling course online, and you may just understand a little more about the psyches and motivations of some of history’s most notorious killers.
Born in 1404 in France, Gilles de Rais was a wealthy knight, a leader in the French army, and a companion-in-arms to Joan of Arc. Sound noble? Well yes … that is until he was convicted of murdering at least 40 young boys between 1432 and 1433. He died by hanging in October 1440.
While it’s a name most people would be familiar with, nobody has ever been sure of this monster’s true identity. Terrorising the Whitechapel neighbourhood of London in 1888, he or she killed at least five prostitutes. The study and analysis of the murders – often referred to as ‘ripperology‘ – has been the inspiration for a variety of books and films.
Fish was born in the US in 1870 and was found guilty of raping, killing, and cannibalising three children in the early 1900s. His various nicknames include the Moon Maniac, The Boogey Man, the Brooklyn Vampire and the Werewolf of Wysteria. He died by electrocution in January 1936.
German serial killer Kroll murdered at least 14 people in and around the Ruhr metropolitan region between 1955 and 1976. After strangling his victims with his bare hands, Kroll would indulge in cannibalism. After a 151-day trial, he received a life sentence and died in prison in 1991.
Born in the Ukraine in 1936, Chikatilo sexually assaulted, murdered, and mutilated more than 50 young women and children between 1978 and 1990. Nicknamed the Red Ripper and the Butcher of Rostov, he was convicted and executed by firing squad in 1994.
Gacy was born in 1942 and regularly performed at charitable events and birthday parties as Pogo the Clown. The ‘Killer Clown’ was eventually convicted of raping, torturing, and murdering 33 teenage boys over six years, and was executed in May 1994.
One of the most recognised serial killers of all time, Bundy kidnapped, raped and murdered numerous young women and girls during the 1970s. After more than a decade of denials, he confessed to 30 homicides across seven US states and was executed in 1989.
Colombian López was sentenced for killing 110 girls but claims to have raped and killed more than 300 women across Peru, Colombia and Ecuador. He was declared insane and jailed, however, was released in 1998 for ‘good behaviour’. His location is currently unknown.
Known as the Milwaukee Cannibal, Dahmer murdered and dismembered 17 men and boys from 1978 to 1991. Although Dahmer would have been eventually executed for his deranged crimes, he was beaten to death in prison in 1994.
Born in 1960, Ramirez terrorised neighbourhoods throughout Los Angeles and San Francisco from June 1984 until August 1985. His weapons of choice included knives, handguns, a machete and even a hammer. He was sentenced to death in 1989 but died in prison before he could be executed.
The stresses of today’s world can be overwhelming for some people. Counselling courses online like our Certificate of Counselling Psychology will help you learn to help others be the best version of themselves.
Study family therapy and discover how you can assist families in need – whether it’s strengthening family dynamics, helping to heal emotional wounds, or leveraging interventions that will ultimately lead to positive change. What a rewarding way to spend your working week!
When a family is healthy and happy, everything seems right in the world. Most families have a built-in resilience to the challenges that life throws at them, but even the strongest of families sometimes need help beyond their resources. A range of factors can also contribute to family breakdowns – from family crises and mental health challenges to financial hardship and even just the stresses of modern-day life, which is why family counsellors are so critical to today’s society.
Family therapy is an area of counselling that is important for families because individual therapies often can’t heal broader family issues. This is particularly the case if all family members are affected by the behaviour of one individual, or the family itself has become fragmented and non-functional. A family therapy course can help you understand the different approaches you might take and give you a range of techniques that can be used in family situations.
If you want to study family therapy, you’re choosing an in-demand occupation. The current average salary for a family therapist in Australia is around $65K, and the growth of jobs in this sector is also predicted to be very strong.
This course is ideal for anyone working with or interested in helping families in distress. This includes those working or hoping to work in:
Every family is unique, which is why a career in family therapy offers not only variety but unique and exciting challenges … practically every day! However, there are a few basic tasks that family therapists perform consistently. They include:
Keen to help struggling families understand their issues and work towards resolving them? Embrace your compassionate nature with our Certificate of Family Therapy.
Biopsychology. Psychobiology. Physiological Psychology. Biological Psychology. All lovely words to describe a combination of biology and psychology – a science that offers insights into the workings of the human brain. Fascinating, right?
But it’s not just an interesting science combo – biopsychology plays an integral part in understanding ‘normal’ brain functioning. It offers insights into how brain diseases and injury can influence our feelings, behaviours and thoughts.
It also allows researchers and those who have done biopsychology courses to come up with new ways of treating potential health problems, including diseases like Parkinson’s, which currently affects around 40,000 Australians. It’s an exciting science, and we’re excited too – because we are now launching our Certificate of Biopsychology!
The average annual psychologist salary in Australia is currently around $77,000, and the future growth of jobs in this area is considered to be very strong.
This specialty psychology course may be studied by itself or as part of a certificate or higher-level course, either as a career move or for professional development purposes. It suits:
While it might seem like a relatively recent development, the roots of biopsychology date back thousands of years to the time of the early philosophers. However, it’s worth noting that it’s only in recent history that we have come to understand the location of the mind!
Philosopher Aristotle, for example, believed our thoughts and feelings arose from the heart. Greek thinkers like Hippocrates and later Plato suggested the brain was where the mind resides and that it served as the source of all thought and action. Later on, thinkers like René Descartes and Leonardo da Vinci introduced theories about how the nervous system operated. While all of these early theories were essentially proven wrong, they did establish an important idea – that external stimulation could lead to muscle responses.
The concept that certain parts of the brain were responsible for certain functions also played an important role in the development of future brain research – like the famous case of Phineas Gage. Gage was a railroad worker who suffered a devastating brain injury – a large iron rod was driven completely through his head, destroying much of his brain’s left frontal lobe. Astoundingly, he lived to tell the tale and survived for another 12 years!
Cases like this had an important influence on our understanding of how damage to certain parts of the brain can impact behaviour and functioning. Since those early influences, researchers have made important discoveries about how the brain works. Research on neurons, neurotransmitters, evolution and the localisation of brain function, have all advanced our understanding of how biological processes impact thoughts, emotions and behaviours.
Keen to delve into the fascinating science of Biopsychology? Start with our Certificate of Biopsychology, further your qualifications with our Advanced Course … and get psyched!
