This course is aimed at people working with people of any age in a counselling, supporting, or teaching capacity, who will benefit from understanding how physiological and psychological changes over the lifespan affect human behaviour. Parents and carers will gain greater insight into issues that present particular challenges at different stages of the life span, especially from adolescence to old age.  This course also sets the theoretical framework complementing the Child Psychology course.

There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. Introduction
2. Early childhood
3. Middle childhood
4. Challenges of middle childhood
5. Adolescence
6. Challenges of adolescence
7. Adulthood
8. Challenges of adulthood
9. Late adulthood
10. Challenges of late adulthood

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

• Learn key theories and concepts in the study of developmental psychology;
• List major ethical concerns when studying development, and one step a researcher can take to reduce each;
• Identify cognitive and social aspects of a small child's development and some key inherent and external influences;
• Describe the phases of language acquisition in infants, and what can adversely affect it;
• Describe major cognitive, moral and social developments in middle childhood and how they influence behaviour
• Compare short term memory with long term memory in middle childhood, and discuss how this affects the child's ability to learn;
• Identify common psychological challenges faced by children from ages 6 to puberty;
• Reflect on your own success and failure experiences, and your own sense of competence in middle childhood. Consider how they affected your perceptions of yourself as you matured;
• Identify areas of change that will affect adolescent behaviour and thinking;
• Explain post formal thought, and consider how it can contribute to an adolescent's ability or willingness to make moral choices;
• Identify challenges common to adolescence, and ways to deal with them;
• Explain individuation. Discuss its importance, and how it can both challenge and complement group identity;