This is a fundamental course in psychology that may become the basis for further development of the student in applied courses and may assist the student to perform the function of a consultant. This course is designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of disorders of childhood and their behavioral manifestations. Various concepts of normality and abnormality are used to demonstrate the approaches available for assessing behavioral disorders. Attention is given to understanding and identifying a variety of emotional, learning, and social problems in children. The student becomes acquainted with the implications of such disorders for the school and for methods of remediation and treatment.
Emphasis is on etiology, diagnosis and approaches to treatment or intervention in the schools.
Field experiences in settings dealing with exceptional children are required. Current issues and recent evidence in the areas of educational psychology including growth, personality, heredity and environment, intelligence, learning, transfer of learning, emotion, motivation, and teaching methods. A treatment of selected, well-known theories, related to the learning process, derived from rational and empirical sources, with the object of showing the relationships to teaching and clarifying the developmental processes in conceptual and perceptual areas. How people grow and develop from infancy to old age. Maturation, learning, and their interrelationships are studied.