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Certification in Child Psychology and Child Development

Name: Certification in Child Psychology and Child Development
Rating: 4.5 (47 reviews)

Created byAcademy of Genius Graduates

Last updated 6/2026

English

English [Auto],

What you'll learn

Key theories of child psychology and how children develop emotionally, socially, and morally.
Identify the stages of child development from infancy through adolescence
Respond to developmental conditions such as autism, ADHD, intellectual disabilities, and emotional or behavioral disorders.
The impact of grief, separation, and family dynamics on child development.
In-depth knowledge of safeguarding principles and the responsibilities involved in protecting children from harm.
Identify various forms of child abuse, including physical, emotional, sexual abuse, and neglect, and understand their warning signs.
Learn how to respond appropriately to disclosures of abuse
Follow the legal and organizational reporting procedures for child abuse
Conduct risk assessments to create safer environments for children in educational and care settings.
Develop skills in record keeping, maintaining confidentiality, and documenting the safeguarding process.
Understand the importance of online safety and how to protect children from digital threats

Course content

24 sections • 121 lectures • 3h 19m total length

Definitions of Psychology1:37
Explore child psychology by examining how mind and behavior arise from biological, social, and environmental factors, and review areas like cognitive, developmental, and forensic psychology.
Child Psychology1:11
Explore child psychology and the development of infants through adolescence. Observe how children interact with parents and the world to identify early behavioral issues and support mental health and learning.
Meaning of Growth and Development0:37
Explore the meaning of growth and development in psychology, distinguishing growth as physical change and development as the lifelong expansion of psychomotor capabilities, with genetics, nutrition, and environment shaping both.
Difference Between Growth and Development2:17
Explore the difference between growth, a quantitative, age-bounded physical change, and development, a continuous, multifaceted process including physical, mental, emotional, social, and moral changes from conception onward.
Stages of Growth and Development3:01
Explore the stages of growth from infancy to adulthood, detailing physical changes, mental shifts, and evolving social skills. Track milestones across infancy, early childhood, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.
Different Areas of Child Development1:42
Explore the five areas of child development—physical, intellectual, social, emotional, and moral. Learn how growth and development unfold from infancy through adolescence.
Knowledge Check for Section 1

Definition of Attachment1:20
Define attachment and explore Bowlby's theory. Learn about the bond with a primary caregiver, proximity seeking in distress, and how early attachment shapes emotion regulation, development, and adulthood relationships.
The Components of Attachment1:16
Explore the four components of attachment: safe haven, secure base, proximity maintenance, and separation distress, and how they shape a child’s comfort, exploration, and bonds with caregivers.
Theories of Attachment1:17
Explore how attachment theory informs adoptive and foster care, highlighting emotional attachments, early caregiver relationships, and survival-driven behaviors that emerge when separated or reunited.
Stages of Attachment1:30
Explore the stages of attachment, including indiscriminate, discriminate, and multiple attachments, and how caregiver signals, trust, and grandparents influence infant-caregiver relationships.
Overview of Bowlby's Attachment Theory2:07
Bowlby's attachment theory links early experiences to mental health and behavior, showing children biologically seek a primary caregiver within a sensitive period up to five years, shaping internal working model.
Knowledge Check for Section 2

Deprivation1:24
Explore privation and deprivation, their impact on child attachment and autism, and the maternal deprivation theory by John Bowlby, highlighting how prolonged emotional care loss damages bonds.
Effects of Deprivation1:56
Deprivation disrupts attachment to the primary caregiver and can cause lasting cognitive, social, and emotional difficulties, including delinquency, reduced intelligence, aggression, depression, and affectionless psychopathy.
Autism and Its Causes1:15
Explore autism spectrum disorder as a neurodevelopmental condition marked by communication and social interaction challenges, restricted interests and behaviors, universal prevalence, and genetic, prenatal, and environmental risk factors.
Alternative Explanations1:10
Explore how to assess alternative explanations with credibility and evidence, rule out causes through investigation, and conduct outcome evaluations, including maternal deprivation and autism spectrum disorders.
Knowledge Check for Section 3
Supporting a Child with Deprivation History

Bereavement1:04
Explore how bereavement and separation affect children. Understand how children respond to grieving and how different types of separation impact development.
Children’s Responses to Death0:56
Children's responses to death show that babies cannot grasp death and remain present-focused, with loss triggering irritability, crying, and disrupted eating and sleeping.
Signs of Children Grieving3:17
Identify signs of grieving in children across ages, including clinginess, sleep problems, academic difficulties, anxiety, guilt, and changes in play.
Separation and Its Types1:42
Explore separation and its types—trial, permanent, and legal separation—and learn how relationships end while the parents' relationship with their children continues, with property implications and the inability to remarry.
Impacts of Separation on Children1:09
Explore how parental separation reduces daily contact with a parent, weakens the child’s bond with the father, and affects the custodial parent, and brings moving, changing schools, and financial hardship.
Separation and Child’s Development1:25
Explore how separation affects child development, including attachment, self-esteem, mood and social skills, and the cognitive and language implications of traumatic separations.
Knowledge Check for Section 4

Child Development1:05
Explore social and emotional development, self-concept, and personal identity in child development from birth to adulthood, including independence, genetics, prenatal factors, and environmental influences on mental health.
Areas of Development2:48
Explore the areas of development from newborns to school age children, highlighting milestones, cognitive changes, and potential developmental disabilities. Learn about screening for autism between 18 and 24 months.
Social and Emotional Development0:56
Explore social and emotional development, including how children experience and regulate emotions, prosocial and classroom behaviors, and how self-regulation predicts academic success. Examine three self-regulation areas: acting, feeling, and thinking.
Self-Concept and Personal Identity2:32
Explore how self-concept shapes identity through ideal self, self-image, and self-esteem, and show how personal identity blends traits, abilities, physical attributes, interests, hobbies, social roles, and beliefs.
Knowledge Check for Section 5
Assignment 1: Foundations of Child Psychology and Development

Stages and Moral Growth of Children3:46
Explore the gradual moral development of children from infancy to adolescence, outlining five major stages per Kohlberg’s theory and touching on Freud’s psychosexual development.
Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development4:06
Explore Kohlberg's stages of moral development, from obedience and punishment to universal ethical principles, detailing age ranges, reasoning, and the shift from self-interest to social contracts and justice.
Freud's Theory of Psychosexual Development1:02
Explore Freud's psychosexual development theory, detailing how the id, ego, and superego balance self-preservation, moral judgment, and societal expectations as a child matures.
Knowledge Check for Section 6

Influences of Problem Development1:32
Explore influences on problem development, including stress, parental factors, and personal predisposing factors. Learn how problem solving shapes relationships, creativity, reasoning, and long-term success through observing adults modeling solutions.
Personal Predisposing Factors1:03
Identify personal predisposing factors that raise a child's risk of problems, including poor coping skills, low self-worth, financial strain, unstable work history, chemical dependence, chronic mental disorders, and impulsivity.
Parental Problems1:40
Explore common parental problems, strategies for guiding children through mistakes, and balancing childcare, schooling, discipline, finances, and family life to keep kids safe, happy, and harmonious.
Stresses in Early Life1:52
Examine how early life stress, adversity, and trauma affect a child's development and safety, and how negative changes and school stress like grades shape growth.
Child Psychology Factors for Development1:55
Explore psychological factors shaping child development, motivation, learning, perception, beliefs, family environment, experiences, and relationships, and their impact on preschool problem solving. Early adversity and trauma influence development.
Knowledge Check for Section 7

Sleep Problems2:27
Explore sleep problems in children, including obstructive sleep apnea, parasomnias, insomnia, and delayed sleep phase syndrome, and learn how early detection prevents daytime sleepiness, irritability, and learning difficulties.
Toileting Problem1:26
Identify how toileting problems arise across ages, driven by emotional factors, embarrassment, and biology, with causes such as constipation, bedwetting, infrequent voiding, and life changes.
Learning and Communication Difficulties2:21
The certification in child psychology and child development explores learning and communication difficulties, including language disorders and learning disabilities, affecting about 15% of youths and their academics and social functioning.
Intellectual Disabilities (Mental Retardation)1:27
Explore intellectual disabilities and mental retardation, characterized by below-average intellectual and adaptive abilities that affect daily living skills and learning speed.
Specific Language Impairment0:55
Specific language impairment causes difficulty learning language skills regardless of hearing status, affecting speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Signs include not babbling by 15 months and not speaking by 2.
Specific Learning Disabilities1:26
Explore how specific learning disabilities affect reading, writing, and math, including dyslexia and dysgraphia, and identify common signs and challenges in listening, thinking, and spelling.
Knowledge Check for Section 8

Introduction to Childhood Problems1:27
Explore childhood problems such as attention, hyperactivity, fear, and anxiety, and review theories of ADHD causes and treatment; examine how physical, intellectual, language, emotional, and social development interrelate.
Attention and Hyperactivity Problems1:03
Explore attention and hyperactivity problems, including ADHD with symptoms of inattentiveness, impulsivity, and overactivity, and learn strategies to manage symptoms that may persist into adulthood.
Various Theories About the Causes of ADHD and Its Treatment1:42
Explore theories on ADHD causes, including genetics, brain chemistry, prenatal factors, toxins, and brain injuries. Discover how combined treatments—medication, nutrition, exercise, behavioral therapy, and mindfulness—can reduce symptoms under professional guidance.
Fear and Anxiety Problems1:15
Understand how fear and anxiety affect children, from typical worries to disorders that disrupt school, home, or play, and identify triggers and physical symptoms like fatigue and sleep problems.
Development of Fears and Anxieties1:06
Explore how age and cause shape the treatment of fears and anxieties in children, including counselling, cognitive behavioural therapy, and when medicines or a child mental health specialist are needed.
Knowledge Check for Section 9
Supporting a Child with Suspected ADHD

Drug Abuse1:54
Explore adolescence drug abuse, substance use disorder, and treatment, with biological and family systems theories, and learn how alcohol, marijuana, hallucinogens, and opioids affect the body.
Biological Theories1:28
Explore biological theories of adolescence, including puberty’s role in mood fluctuations and hormonal changes. Examine brain development milestones and the shift from concrete to abstract thinking during adolescence.
Family Systems Theories1:34
Explore family systems theory, mapping interactive, bidirectional adolescent relationships and viewing the family as a self-organizing unit with subsystems to guide goals and change.
Treatment2:43
Explore how adolescents navigate turbulent times by aligning values, setting goals, planning ahead, developing themselves, and making informed, assertive decisions to foster confidence and positive outcomes.
Knowledge Check for Section 10
Assignment 2: Child Development, Attachment, and Early Learning

Requirements

There are no requirements or prerequisites necessary to take the course.

Description

Are you passionate about working with children? Do you want to make a meaningful impact on child development and ensure their safety and well-being?

This exclusive course is designed for individuals who wish to deepen their understanding of child psychology and safeguarding practices, prepare them with the knowledge and confidence to support children through every stage of growth, and protect them from harm.

Why Does This Course Matter?

Children are among the most vulnerable members of society, and ensuring child development and protection is crucial. This course provides the essential knowledge and practical skills needed to understand how children grow, think, and feel, and to safeguard children from abuse.

Whether you're a part of early childhood education, a caregiver, a social worker, or simply someone who works closely with children, understanding child psychology helps you respond appropriately to their emotional, social, and developmental needs. At the same time, safeguarding training ensures you can recognise signs of abuse, respond properly, and follow legal procedures to protect children at risk.

What's Special About This Course?

The course explores the whole journey of child development. You will start by exploring essential principles of child psychology, including theories of attachment, emotional development, moral growth, and the challenges children face during infancy through adolescence.

You’ll gain insights into conditions such as autism, ADHD, and intellectual disabilities, and learn how environmental factors like grief, separation, and family dynamics influence a child's development.

The course then moves into the area covering topics safeguarding children, offering training on how to identify, respond to, and prevent various forms of abuse, including emotional, physical, and sexual abuse.

You will get all information on safeguarding laws, child protection frameworks, risk assessments, online safety, and the importance of record-keeping. Special attention is also given to the needs of disabled children and children with SEND.

The topics of child psychology and safeguarding children combine to provide child development and child protection. This course enables you to make informed decisions, take responsible actions, and support the well-being of every child.

It's time to start your journey working with children in a safe, sensitive, and professional manner.

So, Enroll Now!

This course comes with the following Sections:

Introduction to Child Psychology: Throughout this section, you’ll learn about psychology and child psychology. You’ll also learn about the different areas and stages of a child's growth and development.
Overview of Attachment Theory in Childhood: Our course on child psychology, safeguarding, and early childhood development will cover attachment theories, phases, and elements here. The importance of early emotional ties between infants and their primary caregivers in influencing development will be covered in Bowlby's Attachment Theory.
Understanding Privation, Deprivation, and Autism: Privation and deprivation have very negative effects on child development. This section will give you an in-depth look at autism, as well as the causes and symptoms of the condition.
The Impacts of Grief and Separation on Child: This section of the course explores how grief and separation affect children emotionally, psychologically, and overall development. Learners will gain insight into the process of bereavement and how children of different ages respond to loss.
Social and Emotional Development of a Child: This section will discuss child development and the areas of social and emotional development.
Moral Development: The purpose of this section is to provide information on the moral development of children and theories on the development of morality.
Factors Influencing the Development Process: Here, we will teach you about parenting issues, stress, and the significance of problem development.
Problems During the Infancy Period: This section presents some common issues during the infant period, such as sleep and toileting problems, as well as intellectual disabilities, specific language delays, and specific learning disabilities.
Understand the Childhood Problem. This part discusses childhood problems like attention, hyperactivity, fear, and anxiety, what triggers these problems, and available treatments. You’ll also learn various theories about the causes of ADHD and its treatment.
Problems of Adolescence: The focus of this part of our Child Psychology, Safeguarding and Early Child Development course is drug abuse and treatment. You’ll also learn about biological theories and lots more.
Introduction to Safeguarding Children: Throughout this section, you will learn what safeguarding is, who is most vulnerable, and all the essential principles behind it.
Laws and Guidance: This part of the course breaks down the key legal frameworks that underpin child protection and safeguarding practices.
Child Abuse: Any inappropriate or abusive behavior toward a child by an adult is considered child abuse. The various types of child abuse are covered in this part, along with their signs and consequences for learners.
Sexual Abuse: We will go over how to identify a child who is at risk of sexual abuse in this section of the course. Additionally, the discussion will inform learners on the consequences and impacts of sexual abuse.
Risks And Risk Assessment: The risk factors for domestic violence and how to identify the harm to children will be covered in this course. In addition, we will talk about ways to make it safe for kids to learn in schools.
Responding to Disclosure and Reporting: This session focuses on teaching you how to react when a child admits that they have experienced abuse in a variety of ways. This session also covers how to report child abuse when you notice it.
Protective Factors for Child Maltreatment: This section will go over the six protective factors of child maltreatment and provide an overview of each one.
Record Keeping: You will learn about safeguarding, making strategic record-keeping decisions, and much more in this part of our Child Psychology, Safeguarding, and Early Childhood Development course.
Online Safety: You will learn about internet safety and dangerous online challenges in this part of our course. Additionally, you will learn about online safety considerations for managers and education for the connected world.
Development and Problems for Children: From this section, you will learn about child development stages and areas. You will also learn about sleep, parenting, and intellectual disabilities.
Safeguarding Disabled Children: Aside from learning how to involve and listen to disabled children, this lesson will also provide you with guidance on the purpose and practice of working with disabled children.
Laws and Regulations for Keeping Children Safe in Education: Everyone who works in a school or college must be trained in safeguarding children from abuse. Here we will teach you about the child-centered approach to safeguarding, keeping children safe in education (KCSE), and other related topics.

Who this course is for:

Those who interested to learn about child psychology
Early Years Practitioners and Childcare Workers who want to understand child development
Primary and Secondary School Teachers
Social Workers and Youth Support Workers
Parents and Guardians
Healthcare Professionals
Paediatric nurse
Children Youth Worker
Safeguarding Officer
Teacher/Teaching Assistant
Childminder/Nanny

Certification in Child Psychology and Child Development

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Introduction to Child Psychology6 lectures • 10min

Overview of Attachment Theory in Childhood5 lectures • 8min

Understanding Privation, Deprivation, and Autism5 lectures • 6min

The Impacts of Grief and Separation on Child6 lectures • 10min

Social and Emotional Development of a Child4 lectures • 7min

Moral Development3 lectures • 9min

Factors Influencing the Development Process5 lectures • 8min

Problems During the Infancy Period6 lectures • 10min

Understand the Childhood Problem6 lectures • 7min

Problems of Adolescence4 lectures • 8min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: