The Illinois School of Professional Psychology

at Argosy University, Chicago

COURSE SYLLABUS

PP7020

Child & Adolescent Development

Fall 2012

Faculty Information

Faculty Name: Myra M. Lawrence, Psy.D.

Campus: Chicago

Contact Information:

Office Phone number: 312-777-7689; 630-571-1110 (alt)

Email: ;

Office Hours: by appointment; Monday: 8:15 - 9-15.a.m.; 19:30 – 12:30 p.m.; Tuesday: 8:15: 9:15 a.m.; 12:00 - 1:30 p.m. Wednesday: 8:15 – 9:15; 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. Additional times available on request.

Teaching Assistant: Mariya Shlovskaya:

Short Faculty Bio: Dr. Myra M. Lawrence is a Professor of Clinical Psychology and Coordinator of the Child Adolescent Concentration. Particular interests are in the areas of attachment theory, research and practice and social aggression. Dr. Lawrence practices from developmental, psychodynamic, attachment perspectives with an emphasis on play therapy with children and insight-oriented psychotherapy with adults. She is CEO of Shared Vision Psychological Services, an out-patient clinic that treats children, adolescents, parents, adults and seniors, provides psycho-diagnostic and neuropsychological assessments and intervention for children and adolescents with special needs. She has been in working with children and adolescents for the past 39 years.

Course Catalogue Description:

This course focuses on normative development of the individual personality, from childhood though adolescence. Theories and empirical literature relevant to the biological, cognitive/intellectual, emotional, social, cultural, and transcultural development of the individual personality are explored. The normative course of the individuation is the subject of the course, with some consideration, by implication and class presentations, given to the genesis and epigenesis of psychopathology.

Course Pre-requisites: None

Required Textbooks:

Fraiburg, S. (1996) The Magic Years. New York: Simon & Schuster Inc. ISBN: 0684825503

Greenspan, S. (2003) The Clinical Interview of the Child. 2nd Ed. American Psychiatric Publishing Inc. ISBN: 1585621374

Wolf, E.S. (2002) Treating the Self. 1st Ed. New York: The Guilford Press. ISBN: 1572308427

Howe, D. (2011). Attachment across the lifecourse: A brief introduction. UK: Palgrave

Macmillan. ISBN: 978-0-230-29359-5

Siegel, D.J., (1999). The developing mind. The Guilford Press. ISBN#-10:1572307407

Kindlon & Thompson. (2004) Raising Cain. 1st Ed. New York: Ballantine Books.

ISBN: 0345434854

Technology: Pentium III CPU/ Windows 98; 128MB RAM printer; Microsoft Office: Acrobat (full version); Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 (PC), 5.0 (MAC), or Netscape Navigator 4.08; Norton Antivirus.

Course length: 14.0 Weeks

Contact Hours: 42 Hours

Credit Value: 3.0

Course Objectives:

Course Objectives / Program Goals / Method of Assessment
Become familiar with the central issues and primary theoretical perspectives of child development / Goal 4: Scientific
Foundations / Articles; Weekly concept definitions; Small group presentations to class
Consider how cognitive, social-cultural and emotional aspects of development influence psychological functioning / Goal 3: Diversity;
Goal 4: Scientific
Foundations; Goal 5: Scholarship / Weekly concept definitions; class discussion/participation;
mid-terms; final written
clinical assessment.
Begin to develop a frame of reference for observing & evaluating healthy adaptive and maladaptive functioning,. / Goal 4: Body of knowledge;
Goal 5: Scholarship / Small group presentations to class; participation in class discussion of case vignettes; mid-terms; final written clinical assessment.
Establish an organizational framework within which to conceptualize clinical material integrated with developmental research and theory. / Goal 4: Scientific
Foundations; Goal
5: Scholarship / Small group class presentations; mid- terms/final clinical assessments.
Interpret the clinical meaning
significance of data gathered through observation and/or interview to develop a clinical report using relevant data derived from developmental theoretical perspectives and evidence- based research. / Goal 5: Scholarship / Mid-terms; final clinical assessment.
Develop an understanding of the relationship between physical maturation, emotional development
and healthy adaptation or psychopathology as manifested in both childhood and adulthood. / Goal 4: Scientific
Foundations / Class discussion of readings; small group discussion of case vignettes; clinical observations & interpretations presented in mid-terms final.
Develop case analyses that fully attend to all aspects of diversity, e.g., sexual identity
orientation, culture, race,
ethnicity, as these impact development and adjustment and impact assessment of the meaning significance of behaviors. / Goal 2: Intervention; Goal 3: Diversity;
Goal 4: Scientific
Foundations
Goal 5: Scholarship / Readings; discussion of case vignettes; mid-terms & final clinical paper.

Instructional Contact Hours/Credit

Students can expect 15 hours of instructional engagement for every 1 semester credit hour of a course. Instructional engagement activities include lectures, presentations, discussions, group-work, and other activities that would normally occur during class time. Instructional engagement activities may occur in a face-to-face meeting, or in the eclassroom.

In addition to instructional engagement, students can expect to complete 30 hours of outside work for every 1 semester credit hour of a course. Outside work includes preparing for and completing readings and assignments. Such outside work includes, but is not limited to, all research associated with completing assignments, work with others to complete a group project, participation in tutorials, labs, simulations and other electronic activities that are not a part of the instructional engagement, as well as any activities related to preparation for instructional engagement.

At least an equivalent amount of work as required in paragraph above shall be applied for other academic activities as established by the institution, including laboratory work, internships, practica, studio work, and other academic work leading to the award of credit hours.

When you complete this course you will be able to conduct a thorough child observation (with some possible experience interviewing a child, parent and/or teacher). In addition, you will be able to conceptualize and integrate a broad range of theoretical and developmental considerations to produce an informed psychological assessment of a child with respect to his or her overall adjustment, developmental strengths, limitations and adaptations.

Course Requirements and Expectations

1.  Attendance/Class Participation: Attendance at each class is required. If you must miss a class due to extraordinary circumstances, please inform the instructor in advance. Students who miss more than two [2] classes will not receive credit for the course. In order to be respectful of all class participants, timely arrival is requested.

2.  Class Participation: You are responsible to be familiar with and knowledgeable about the readings assigned each week – be prepared to discuss, make observations and ask questions about the assigned articles with respect to their content as well as their application to vignettes of child observations.

3.  Assignments: Papers will be due by 9:30 a.m. on the class date specified. It is important that papers be submitted in a timely manner, and therefore no late papers will be accepted unless due to exceptional circumstances. (To avoid computer failures and the loss of an entire paper, please be sure to print out each page of a paper as you write it since “computer failure” does not automatically receive an extension on the due date of a paper).

Please Note: It is Required that you use all computer functions to check spelling, grammar and proofreading. You are also required to proofread a hard copy of each paper and definition of concepts before submitting them for feedback and grading. Failure to do so will result in a reduction of 1 point from each major paper and 1 point overall from your set of concept definitions.

Assignment #1 Due Week #6 - October 14th, 2009 - (25% of total grade): The first paper includes two parts:

  1. An observation and behavioral description of a child 2½ to 5½ years of age.
  2. (You will need to observe the child in a non-clinical setting such as at school or home.) The advantage to observing children in school is that you are able to consider their interactions with peers and their participation (or lack thereof!) in group activities. It is important that you observe a child who is not known to you, both because of ethical considerations and the impact prior impressions may have on your ability to formulate clinical analyses and formulations. Also, be sure you do not observe a child who is being considered for a diagnostic referral since you will not be providing feedback to parents or teachers about your impressions of the behavioral observation. In this section, you are to include a description of the child based incorporating all of Greenspan’s categories in The Clinical Interview of a Child. Rather than using Greenspan’s categories as a list of characteristics and behaviors to review, it is more useful to use his suggested areas of interest as a guide to the focus of your observation and analysis.
  3. A clinical discussion/interpretation of the child’s development which integrates all developmental theories presented in lectures and readings from weeks 1 through 7. Your discussion must include an analysis of relevant cultural factors (i.e., race, ethnicity, Socio-economic class, gender) as these play a role in the overall development of the child you observe.
  4. The paper is expected to be 6 typewritten pages, double spaced (and is not to exceed this length). It is suggested that the behavioral description be limited to approximately 2 to 2½ pages in length, leaving 3½ to 4 pages to evaluate the meaning of the behaviors observed in terms of all the theories presented.

Evaluation Criteria: Your paper will be evaluated on two major points: 1) your ability to adequately track and observe a child’s behavior and 2) your ability to apply different theoretical perspectives in a rich and informative manner so that an understanding of this child’s development emerges. In order to achieve this end, you must demonstrate a capacity to integrate and synthesize material at different levels, interpreting the child’s behavior from a variety of perspectives and meanings. Your interpretations must also be data driven – in other words, avoid all speculations that you cannot support with data. Further, your analysis should be sophisticated in that your interpretations have depth to them – it is not sufficient merely to describe a behavior and superficially apply theory. Elaborate on the meaning. Finally, your ability to write clearly and in an organized fashion is critical to the success of your paper. All papers must be checked, using spell check and grammar check before submitting them. Please submit one copy electronically and one hard copy which you will bring to class. Thank you.

Please be sure to look at the SAMPLE papers placed on Reserve in the school library as these will help you with the format and development of your own child observations and clinical assessments.

Assignment #2 Due Week #9 - November 4th, 2009 - (10% of total grade):

The second assignment requires a revision of the first behavioral observation and clinical interpretation based on feedback provided on the first paper.

Evaluation Criteria: Same criteria as above. The additional important piece that will be considered is whether you make effective use of the feedback provided on the first paper and integrate it in a meaningful way. It is not sufficient to merely take specific feedback comments and incorporate them without your own development and elaboration.

Assignment #3 Due Week #11 - November 18th, 2009 - (30% of total grade):

You will be provided either a videotape or a written description of a child between the ages of 7 and 11. In all other respects this assignment will follow the same format as the first assessment. This paper will involve integration of all theories of child development presented from weeks 1 through 10. As in the first assignment, you are expected to include an analysis of any cultural/gender factors relevant to the child’s development.

This paper is expected to be 9 typewritten pages, double spaced (and must not exceed this length). It is recommended that you devote the first 4 pages to a description of the behavioral observation and provide the developmental assessment in the remaining 5 pages.

Assignment #4 Due Week # 13 - December 2nd, 2009 - (25% of total grade):

For this assignment you are expected to interview an adolescent between 13 and l6 years of age (i.e., a young adolescent). Topics that might be included in the interview include identifying interests, activities in which they are involved, friends and groups with which they are affiliated (or not), their description of their families, their sense of moral judgment, the guidelines by which they direct their behavior, school performance, concerns, ambitions, etc. Prepare a paper no longer than 9 pages in which you present this background information and behavioral observations (4 l/2 – 5 pages) and discuss (4 l/2 – 5 pages) this information using theories discussed in class and from readings to describe its meaning and significance in terms of adolescent development.

Sample papers are available in the library for all assignments.

Learning Groups / Definition of concepts - 10%

Throughout the trimester, you will work with an assigned group of students as part of the structure for class discussions. Groups will rotate weekly and be responsible to lead class discussion about the developmental concepts as they apply to a clinical vignette. Your creativity is encouraged, so consider various ways in which your group can initiate and support class debates, discussions, and other presentations that invite interactional learning. Although the learning group will work jointly to explain and explore the concepts for which they are responsible, each group member will be expected to write their own concept definitions of each concept under consideration the week they are presenting. After these are reviewed and graded, our TA will select those sets of definitions that are most comprehensive, remove your names from the documents, and e-mail copies to each class member.

On the week that it is your group's turn to submit written concept definitions for all of the readings, you are also required to submit a 1/2 - 1 page clinical interpretation of the vignette assigned for that week, using the relevant concepts to explore the meaning of the behaviors and observations reported. This will be evaluated along with your concept definitions [and will not be circulated to other class members].

Each class participant will receive a copy of the vignettes designated to be used between weeks 2 - 14. Everyone is required to read and be familiar with the vignette to be discussed each week and to be ready to discuss the material with respect to the concepts highlighted from the readings each week.

Please be sure that you

• limit your presentation to 30 – 40 minutes at the most;