Psychology of typical and atypical development

Developmental assessment techniques General aims. The course aims at providing the students with theoretical and practical knowledge about the various phases of the developmental psychological assessment with children and the main diagnostic tools used. The expected learning outcomes would be: competence about planning and conducting a developmental assessment, knowledge of principal characteristics of tools used, capacity to write a report for resume the results of the assessment. The traditional lessons would allow students to analyze and to talk about the issues regarding the client and the referral of child, the interface with different type of informants involved in the assessment (parents, teachers, physicians, etc.), the choice of tools to use, the characteristics of feedback to the interested subjects. Laboratory lessons would provide students to manage assessment procedures and to examine in depth the characteristics of some of the principal psychodiagnostic tools (especially methods of administration, coding and interpretation), also using role-play, videotapes and clinical case reports. Laboratory activities thus ensures acquiring practical and technical ability related to the assessment of typical and atypical development. Attendance to the laboratory lessons must be considered mandatory. Specific aims. Knowledge and understanding: passing the exam would imply being capable of knowing the phases of a developmental assessment and the most widely used tools. Applying knowledge and understanding: passing the exam would imply to be able: a) to planning a developmental assessment considering different people involved and the characteristics of the examined child; b) to use some of the main tools employed. Making judgment: passing the exam would imply mastering the ability to planning appropriately the various phases of assessment and to make informed judgments about assessment tools, knowing their areas of application, strengths and weaknesses. These abilities would be attained in the traditional lessons as well as during the laboratory sessions, through clinical role-play, analysis of videotapes and clinical protocols, writing of psychodiagnostic assessment reports. Communication skills: passing the exam would attest that students master the communicative-relational tools implemented in all phases of psychodiagnostic assessment, from reception to parents and child, to the administration of psychological assessment tools, up to the drafting of reports (addressed to parents and/or to the various professional figures they are in charge of the child) and conducting interviews to communicate the results obtained. Learning skills: passing the exam implies the acquisition of transversal learning skills that will allow the student to deepen in the course of his/her academic and professional career the main tools used in psychological assessment in preschool and school age, which are subject to continuous reviews and updates