Anyone done a Child Psychology course with OU (or similar). Your experiences please

[cruisemum1]

A few years ago I completed a course in Supporting Children with Special Needs. I found it incredibly tedious and the reading matter was chronically boring! Esp since I was working with a Spec needs child at the time which gave me far more insight. Just wondered if anyone hgad done this course (or similar) and if they found it a slog?

anyone?

Hmmm, I did Child Development as part of my Behavioural Sciences Degree many moons ago and absolutely loved it - but that was pre-children so I guess I had a lot to learn - not sure if that's any help?

Can you look at the reading list for the course - that might give you an insight into the type of thing they will cover. Would you study Piaget, Margaret Donaldson, etc ... (can't think of any more names off the top of my head )

I just finished ED209 Child Development (exam was in October). I found it was a lot of hard work, I had to really set aside a lot of time to work on it and this was shared by the majority of people posting on the first class discussion group. However, I did find it extremely interesting in parts and that made up for the more tedious stuff (of which there was a lot!).
I can dig out some of the information and give you some idea of what the course covers if you are interested. Like Miaou says, Margaret Donaldson's 'Children's Minds' is one of the recommended texts (but not required reading) and the course is heavy on Piaget and Vygotsky as well!

Have you read this cruisemum? Looks quite interesting to me though only based on four books

OOh I loved "Children's Minds" - and I really enjoyed studying Piaget too [nostalgia emoticon]

There's bound to be some tedious stuff in there because it's designed to be one of the modules that get you into the BPS (Boring Pricks Society) - can you tell I didn't bother getting accreditation

LOL at the Boring Pricks Society, our OU mailouts were made heavier by their scores of pamphlets, which, I am afraid to say when straight into the bin. I preferred Vygotsky to Piaget but its Skinner et al who provided the most entertainment- I saved a special snigger for poor little Arthur, given a fur phobia by the behaviourists! I went all out to make sure I mentioned him in the exam!

The OU really needs to work on their software though, one of their discs (neural networks I think) was so badly designed and difficult to navigate that I had to psych myself up to even put it in the machine .

crikey! you are a learned lot . I will look up the references you ahve all made. This is so helpful . I don't mind setting aside the time as I have had experience of that with the last course but I do recall finding it kind of patronising. Mind you, that may ahve been because I was already working alongside children with special needs and found it very pc and idealistic. Not quite the case when you are working in a mainstream school as part of the support staff with limited budget/resources.

DingALongCow: "The OU really needs to work on their software though, one of their discs (neural networks I think)"

T396?

Ubergeekian: No (although it looks interesting), it was part of the ED209 course. The simulations were used to study and demonstrate certain behaviours instead of an empirical experiment. Then we got to damage them and see how the network reacted and learnt afterwards e.g showed dyslexic behaviours.

The Focus 2 software was the worst though, really badly made and utterly infuriating.