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PSY-20058 - Module Specification
School of Psychology
Faculty of Natural Sciences

For academic year: 2025/26 Last Updated: 04 December 2025

PSY-20058 - Child Psychology in Practice
Coordinator: Avin Mirawdeli
Lecture Time: See Timetable...
Level: Level 5
Credits: 15
Study Hours: 150
School Office: 01782 733736

Programme/Approved Electives for 2025/26

None

Available as a Free Standing Elective

No

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites

None

Barred Combinations

None

Description for 2025/26

Psychological theory and research are utilised in many fields and professions which seek to improve the lives of children. One of the most common ways that psychology is leveraged is in interventions, which are designed to remediate or prevent developmental, social, or educational issues.
This module is designed in two sections, the first will introduce you to the foundational principles of conducting research in this area, for example, how is research conceived, how are grant applications pitched and how is "patient and participant involvement" planned within the research proposal. The second section will provide a clinical angle, by looking at case formulations of childhood disorder. For example, how are these disorders identified and diagnosed using the DSM and ICD, how are they formulated within multidisciplinary community teams, and the perils and positives of doing so.
The assessments are configured around designing and evaluating interventions with children utilising skills that those working in the field need – presenting and designing a project pitch, formulating a clinical case study, designing an intervention, and communicating with different audiences (from funders to other clinical practitioners).

Aims
The aim of the module is to consolidate students previous learning about child/developmental psychology and extend this to include new topics in the domains of research methods (e.g., how to collect data with young children), theory (e.g., broader social contexts of development), and application (e.g., formulating a case and intervention). A major focus of the module will be the development of students’ abilities to apply psychological theories, paradigms and clinical viewpoints to actual case studies which are provided to them.

Talis Aspire Reading List
Any reading lists will be provided by the start of the course.
http://lists.lib.keele.ac.uk/modules/psy-20058/lists

Intended Learning Outcomes

Select appropriate research methods for use with children: 1
Formulate a case and propose an intervention appropriate for children drawing on a relevant theory and methods.: 2
Critically discuss the broader context of child development and how that influences how children develop: 2

Study hours

Classroom learning hours – 12 x 2-hour classroom sessions = 24 hours total
Total asynchronous guided learning = 26 hours (Varies from week to week)
Total independent reading and study = 50 hours (varies from week to week)
Assessment 1 preparation = 20 hours
Assessment 2 preparation = 30 hours
Total Assessment preparation = 50 hours

School Rules

None

Description of Module Assessment

1: Assignment weighted 40%
Funder Pitch Narrated Presentation
For this assessment, Students will be required to prepare a short presentation, or pitch, for funders (approximately 10 minutes +10% leeway). They will be presenting an area of child psychology that they wish to conduct research in, and they will be presenting this as if though they are in front of the funder. The presentation will need to detail the factors of interest in a particular scenario (e.g. speech disorders in the classroom) and how they would conduct research in that setting (i.e. the school). They will also need to identify a funder beforehand and make sure the pitch is well aligned with Funder's goals, while also considering patient and participant involvement (PPI).

2: Report weighted 60%
Case Formulation
For this assessment, students will be required to propose an intervention, using a case formulation (CF), for an example case study, which will be provided. To propose this intervention, students will act as a child/developmental psychologist and apply theory to the case, evaluate/formulate the case (using the 5Ps model, e.g. presenting problem, precipitating factors, perpetuating factors, predisposing factors and positives), and propose an intervention at the end. The intervention report will hypothetically be seen by other service providers (for example, other directly involved people within the NHS or school, e.g. educational psychologist, this is a new way of providing services and is usually called multidisciplinary teams (MDTs), or even community based multidisciplinary teams). Students will, therefore, need to write using professional vocabulary while making sure that others (the non-psychologist professionals) will also be able to understand the entirety of the repot.

The University undertakes a continuous review of its teaching and research provision to ensure programmes are of a high quality and changes may be made to modules where it is necessary and reasonable to do so. Please be aware that minor changes to modules, such as a change to an individual assessment, can occur up until enrolment, although we endeavour to give you as much notice as possible of any changes. Details about the circumstance in which changes are made to programmes can be found in the Student Agreement, available at: https://www.keele.ac.uk/legalgovernancecompliance/governance/actcharterstatutesordinancesandregulations/studenttermsconditions/

Last Updated: 04 December 2025