These easy to use e-learning modules will teach you different strategies to use at home with your child. This course focuses on supporting you on how to use everyday play and home activities as opportunities for learning and development. Specifically, how to support your child to improve their communication, how to engage and interact with them, and how to encourage positive behaviour and teach them new skills for everyday life.
Photo credit: WHO / Blink Media - D. Valencia
Language: English
Health topic
Course information
This course is available in the following languages:
हिन्दी, हिंदी - मराठी - Èdè Yorùbá
This course is for caregivers of children ages 2 to 9 years with developmental delays or disabilities, especially in the domains of communication and social interaction. A diagnosis is not required. The course aims to enhance caregivers’ capacity to use everyday play and home routines as opportunities to build their children’s communication, engagement in activities, positive behavior and daily living skills, while improving caregivers’ overall wellbeing. This course is based on the WHO Caregiver Skills Training Programme for Families of Children with Developmental Delays or Disabilities.
How to use this course
It is best to start with the Introduction to learn more about the course, and then complete the modules in order. This is because the skills build on each other. For each module, you will be given specific skills and strategies to practice at home with your child. We suggest that you do one module every 4 or 5 days so you will have a chance to practice in between. This means that it will take around 2.5 months to complete the course. We recommend that you use a journal with the course for the written activities, and to plan and record what you learned from your home practice. The modules will guide you through this. There is a journal for the course that you can print or use electronically that is available in the “documents” section of this course. There are additional instructions in the Introduction to the course and in the journal.
Course duration: Approximately 8 hours.
Certificates: A Record of Achievement will be issued to participants who receive at least 80% on the post-test. Participants who receive a Record of Achievement can also download an Open Badge for this course. Click here to learn how.
What you'll learn
- Explain ways you can connect with your child by enjoying and sharing daily activities.
- Explain ways you can help your child to communicate and learn new things.
- Explain ways you can help your child show more positive behaviour and less challenging behaviour.
- Explain ways you can help your child learn skills for everyday living with your help.
- Describe ways to support your own health and well-being.
Course contents
Introduction:
Programme overviewModule 1: Getting children engaged:
In this module you will learn how to: explore your child’s strengths and challenges; discover what activities your child likes; and pay attention to your child’s behaviour during activities.Module 2: Continuing to get children engaged:
In this module you will learn how to: set up the environment to support engagement with your child; and move in front of your child and offer your child choices to promote engagement.Module 3: Keeping children engaged:
In this module you will learn: more about developmental delays and disabilities; about myths that some people believe; and the importance of sharing engagement for your child's learning.Module 4: Keeping children engaged in interaction:
In this module you will learn how to: practise fun and positive activities with your child; notice when your child is motivated and likes an activity; and notice good behaviour and praise your child during activities.Module 5: Helping children to share engagement in play and home routines:
In this module you will learn how to: create play and home routines that you can do every day with your child; connect with your child and share engagement in routines; and keep your child interested in the shared activity.Module 6: Helping children to participate in play routines:
In this module you will learn how to: create play routines that you can do with your child; keep your child interested in the activity and help your child spend more time sharing engagement; and work through difficulties when playing with your child.Module 7: Understanding communication:
In this module you will learn: ways that children communicate with and without using words; and how to look for, listen and respond to children's communication in everyday activities.Module 8: Promoting communication:
In this module you will learn: how to look and listen to understand when children are communicating to share and when children are communicating to request; how to create opportunities for communication in our everyday activities; and how to notice and respond to your child’s communication.Module 9: Teaching new skills in small steps and levels of help:
In this module you will learn: how to divide big tasks, such as dressing and handwashing, into small steps; how to select which small step to teach first; about the different levels of help that you can provide to help your child learn the steps; and how to give your child the lowest level of help necessary, both in play and home routines.Module 10: Understanding your child's behaviour:
In this module you will learn: how to understand the messages that children are trying to send us using challenging behaviour; and ways to try to prevent the challenging behaviour.Module 11: Preventing challenging behaviour - Helping children stay engaged and regulated:
In this module you will learn: how to help children stay regulated (calm, cool and ready to learn); and ways to understand and prevent challenging behaviour.Module 12: Understanding the Reasons for Challenging Behaviour:
In this module you will learn: how to use pictures to help your child know what’s happening next and prepare to change activities; and how to find out the reason for challenging behaviour so you will know how to respond so the behaviour happens less often.Module 13: Teaching alternatives to challenging behaviours:
In this module, you will learn more about how to understand the reasons for challenging behaviour and how to respond to challenging behaviour so that it happens less often.Module 14: Ongoing practise and goal setting:
In this module you will learn about the progress that you and your child have made; how to set new goals for your child’s communication; and how to expand your routines by adding new steps and linking routines together.Module 15: Problem solving and self-care:
In this module you will learn about stress and self-care and how to find solutions to problems that may come up.
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Certificate Requirements
- Gain a Record of Achievement by earning at least 80% of the maximum number of points from all graded assignments.
- Gain an Open Badge by completing the course.