Course Description

Understanding and Helping the Special Needs Child course is for parents, educators, child-care givers and anyone who is working with, connected to a child with special needs or has an interest in Special Education. Students will gain knowledge in the various areas of special needs and learn some strategies to help students with challenges. This course will be of interest to anyone working with children including parents, teachers, care-givers, early childhood educators. The instructor, Marilyn is an Educational Consultant and Family Counselor. She has been lecturing at undergraduate and postgraduate university level for the past nine years. She teaches courses in human development, special education, human relations, and educational research, conflict resolution and mediation. As an educator, consultant and parent she has traveled around the globe doing workshops and so has become an expert in human development. This is a 5 week, self-paced, online course. If you need additional help understanding the material presented, you can communicate with the instructor and fellow classmates. The instructor will monitor and track your progress throughout the class. LVS Online offers many wonderful learning tools to help you get the most out of your online course, including an online portfolio service that manages all your course registrations, certificate of completion option, a class discussion board to interact with your instructor and fellow classmates, free hosting account, and a student upload area. LVS is a Corel Training Partner. LVS students may purchase Corel products at a significant savings. Follow this link for details. LVS students are eligible to receive software and hardware at a discount. Follow this link for details. Students are also eligible take advantage of special offers made available specifically for LVS by famous software developers such as Andromeda, AV Bros, Extensis, Harry Heim, namesuppressed, Nik Multimedia, and Ulead. Details are provided in the classinfo link found in the confirmation of registration. Show off your LVS Online spirit with an item from the LVS Store If you would like to receive more information regarding this course, click on the "Contact Us" link in the Information section and we'll try to answer any of your questions within the day.

Course Requirements

An interest in child development and child care and a motivation to learn. Plan to devote approximately 3-5 hours each week to complete their course work. Homework must be reviewed by the instructor in order to earn a certificate. Students should have working knowledge of their operating system and understand directories and paths: free Windows course and Directory Structure Tutorials are available. Zip files may be necessary to complete the exercises provided each week. WinZip, PKZip, Windows Compression or similar program is required to unzip these files. Free Winzip and Windows Compression Tutorials are available. All lessons are available in PDF format. Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view/print the lessons.

Course Prerequisites

Students may want to take Understanding Child Development first but it is not essential.

Course Syllabus

Lesson 1 - Introduction This lesson introduces the topic of development in children and some of the causes of exceptionality. Lesson 2 - Cognitive Disorders This lesson discusses some of the disorders and difficulties associated with cognitive development such as mental retardation, learning disorders and communication disorders. Lesson 3 - Emotional and Behavioral Disorders Part 1 This lesson begins the discussion of emotional and behavioral disorders by first examining what are considered emotional development milestones and emotional skills. Mood disorders are discussed in this lesson. Lesson 4 - Emotional and Behavioral Disorders Part 2 Here we continue the exploration of these disorders by looking at the specific Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDDs), anxiety disorders and conduct disorders. Lesson 5 - Other Special Needs This lesson discusses other specific needs such as the Gifted Child, Scotopic Sensitivity. Lesson 6 - Identification, Assessment and Treatment With the foundation knowledge of special needs, this lesson provides information on how to recognize and assess a special need. It also includes some general suggestions for addressing these needs.

Course Excerpt

LESSON 1 Defining Special Education is not an easy task. Generally it is understood to mean providing educational services for children with a disability, whether it is a mental, emotional, intellectual or physical disability. Children with special needs are now referred to as exceptional children. An exceptional child is one who differs from the average or normal child in 1) mental characteristics, 2) sensory abilities, 3) communication abilities, 4) behavior and emotional development, or 5) physical characteristics. However, these differences must occur to such an extent that the child requires a modification of school practice or special educational services to develop her or his unique capabilities. This raises the questions: what is average or normal? how extensive the differences must be for the child to require special education? what is special education? what roles does the child s environment play in the definition? Children are exceptional in all kinds of ways but only some ways are important educationally speaking. Continued... Please note: Lessons provide step-by-step instructions with detailed screen captures.

Course Goals

At the end of 6 weeks, the students will: Understand what is considered a special needs child. Have knowledge of causes, characteristics and consequences of special needs. Be familiar with some strategies for helping the special needs child.

Course Reviews

New class November 2009 More...