Severe to Profound Intellectual Disability: Circles of Care and Education

About the course

This course is about caring for and educating children (and youth) with severe to profound intellectual disability. We use the idea of 'circles' to position the child at the center of the many levels of support needed. Around the child are circles of care and education - such as the parents, family, friends, caregivers, educators, health care workers, and others such as neighbors, business owners, and community members. Each one has an important role to play in the life of a person with an intellectual disability and can be seen as a caregiver and educator. Although this course is aimed particularly at caregivers who work at a special centre or in a private home, each person in the circle of care and education plays a valuable role and will find the course useful.

The course covers topics such as intellectual disability, levels of severity of intellectual disability, and the history of intellectual disability. These inform how you can support children and youth with severe to profound intellectual disability so that they can reach their full potential and become participating members of society. We look at lifelong learning by exploring brain development, the learning process, and how to maximise the opportunities for learning.

We ask experts about how best learning can be facilitated. This includes looking at children’s learning support needs, how to go about planning activities for the learning programme, as well as how to empower multiple people who work in a team to care and educate children with severe to profound intellectual disability.

In the last week, we focus on rights, advocacy and relationships of care. Empowering and caring for caregivers themselves is a key focus of the course.

The course is free to enroll and take. You will be offered the option of purchasing a certificate of completion, which you become eligible for if you successfully complete the course requirements.

Course content

• Module 1: Who is the child with severe to profound intellectual disability?
• Module 2: Lifelong learning
• Module 3: Facilitating learning
• Module 4: Rights, advocacy and relationships of care

Registration

This course is offered by Coursera. Enrol and pay directly with the course provider.

More information

About: UCT MOOCs
Email: moocs@uct.ac.za

Severe to Profound Intellectual Disability: Circles of Care and Education