This course focuses on infant and child development and will improve your understanding of both social and cognitive development. You'll also gain the academic skills which are necessary for developmental research.

The course deals with questions such as:

• How can we support social-communication impairments in Autism Spectrum Disorder?
• Does a self-awareness influence children’s memory?
• How does language acquisition differ in bilingual and school learning contexts?
• What does the latest research tell us about mental health and wellbeing in infants, children and adolescents?

You will have the opportunity to take part in ongoing research that the University is conducting in partnership with local education services. This will enable you to observe and participate in nursery settings, giving you the practical experience of conducting psychological research with young children.

The teaching draws on our research expertise in areas such as fetal and neonatal development, imitation, infant mental health, early self-awareness, attachment, pre-school prosociality, bilingual language acquisition, meta-cognition, executive functioning, developmental dyslexia, and autism spectrum disorder.

Teaching

Our teaching methods include:

• lectures and seminars
• group work
• workshops
• research seminars by invited speakers
• training and developmental opportunities (e.g. careers, CVs, presentation/interview skills)

You'll also take part in a research practicum based either in one of our developmental psychology labs or in a working educational setting, giving you the opportunity to work directly with both children and practitioners.