Undergraduate - UnitAZA2763 - Child and youth assessment: Risk and protective factors, signs & symptoms

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2013 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

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Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Organisational Unit	School of Social Science, South Africa
Offered	South Africa First semester 2013 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Rika Swanzen

Synopsis

In order to prevent the development of serious problems or possible problems in children, the child and youth care worker needs to be knowledgeable about the risk factors that can contribute to serious developmental delays or deviations. The early identification of symptoms of a disorder facilitates early treatment and accurate referral, increasing the chances of a successful outcome for the child. Since childcare workers spend a large quantity of hours with children they are in the ideal position to not only identify problems early through risk factors and symptoms, but also with highlighting the protective or resiliency factors that will assist the child in overcoming challenges successfully.

Outcomes

The objectives lie within five inter-related bands. These concern:

factual information
sources and resources
conceptual definitions
academic debates
analytic communication skills.

Upon successful completion of this unit, learners will be able to demonstrate knowledge of and familiarity with the following types of information, academic perspectives and skills:

Understanding assessment in the context of child and youth care.
Identification of the risk factors in the development of major childhood problems.
Detection of symptoms of the most common childhood problems.
Recognition of protective factors or resiliency in children and how to utilise this for the benefit of the child.
Utilising the person-in-environment classification system to categorise childhood problems.
Writing of assessment reports and giving feedback to caregivers.

Assessment

Tutorial contribution (450 words): 10%
Major essay (1800 words): 40%
Examination (2 hours): 50%

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Rika Swanzen

Contact hours

Total weekly workload @ 12 hours comprised as follows:
4 hours (Three 1-hour lectures and One 1-hour tutorial per week) face to face contact per week..
The remaining 8 hours will be spent in preparation for tutorials and seminars, researching and writing the essay assignment and in individual reading and study for the final examination.

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Child and youth development

Prohibitions

ATS2763