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All professionals working with children and adolescents need to have a comprehensive knowledge and clear understanding of child abuse and child protection issues, problems and current models of practice in order to be able to: 1. Recognise symptoms of various forms of child abuse (psychological/emotional, physical, sexual abuse and neglect); 2. Contribute to intervention procedures (mandatory reporting and cooperation with the intervening team of specialist agencies/authorities); 3. Apply protection measures and prevention programmes (actively promote, participate and/or apply recommended protective and preventative programmes suitable to educational settings). This course is designed to assist professionals in becoming more confident in their understanding of child abuse. In addition, it will provide them with practical skills in dealing with highly sensitive and complex issues of child and youth victimisation.

The overall aim of this course is to introduce education and helping professionals to the field of child (and youth) abuse and associated protection issues. This course adopts a psychosocial developmental approach and provides an advanced study of child abuse phenomenon. The course examines various settings of child abuse - such as family, peer group, institution and a wider social context. Within these ecological environments students study the causes, symptoms and consequences of five main forms of child abuse: emotional, physical, sexual, neglect and exposure to witnessing domestic and family violence. The course also offers a brief practical component whereby students explore various ways of dealing with this social problem - prevention, intervention and therapy, with the emphasis on applications within the educational or school context.

The course objectives define the student learning outcomes for a course. The assessment item(s) that may be used to assess student achievement of an objective are shown in parenthesis. On successful completion of this course students should be able to:

1. demonstrate an understanding of the spectrum of child abuse and neglect (Assignment 1);
2. critically analyse the effects of abuse and neglect on child development (Assignment 1);
3. demonstrate how knowledge and understanding of child abuse and neglect (local, national and global perspectives) can inform the counselling process (Assignment 1);
4. review and evaluate the efficacy and limitations of child protection in relation to Indigenous Australian children and children from ethnic minorities (Assignment 2);
5. identify, describe and evaluate various intervention methods and systems for the treatment, protection and prevention of child abuse and neglect (Assignment 2);
6. demonstrate competence in reflective practice, written language and scholarly writing including correct spelling, grammar, and bibliographic referencing (Assignments 1,2 and 3).