Special Needs Adoption:

An Interdisciplinary Child Development Course

PSYC 40950-080 (Monday Evening, 6:30–9:20pm)

Course Objectives

The course has the following objectives:

1. Inform TCU undergraduate students from a range of disciplines about child development, parenting, and intervention, especially as pertains to special needs adoptions (i.e., children with backgrounds of institutionalization, abuse, and/or neglect).
2. Train TCU undergraduate students to work as camp counselors with the Hope Connection, a therapeutic summer and weekend camp for special needs adopted children and their families.
3. Serve as a forum for interdisciplinary communication, cooperation, and collaboration on the TCU campus for those students, academics and professionals interested in child development and related issues.

Prerequisites and Course Format

Prerequisites for the course are (a) General Psychology (PSYC 10213) or Principles of Behavior (PSYC 10514 and/or 10524), (b) Junior standing at the beginning of the semester which the course is offered, and (c) permission of the instructor. Course enrollment will be limited to 24 students.

The course will meet one night per week, with half of the meeting devoted to presentations by academics and professionals (see Schedule of Presentations, below), and half to devoted to laboratory activities. There will be four types of laboratory activities, listed here in roughly the order covered in class:

1. First, there will be a series of in-class lab activities where students score videotapes during class-time. The goal of these activities is to improve observational skills as well as knowledge of crucial domains of child development (e.g., attachment, language).
2. Second, there will be series of out-of-class lab activities where students visit TCU’s Starpoint School and Miller Clinic to observe professional interventions with special needs children. The goal of these activities are to familiarize students with professional behaviors and specific intervention strategies.
3. Third, students will participate in weekend family camps as part of the Hope Connection (see Course Objectives, above). At first, students in this course will be observers, but later in the course students will have the opportunity to participate as camp counselors.
4. Fourth, students will participate in a series of in-class role-playing activities, where they have the opportunity to learn and practice behavioral intervention strategies and scripts used with the Hope Connection.

Schedule of Presentations

The schedule of presentations is shown in the following table. Students are expected to attend all of the presentations, and will be tested over the material covered.

Grades and Readings

There will be four textbooks for the course:

1. Federici, R. S. (1998). Hope for the Hopeless Child: A Guide for Families. Alexandria, VA: Ronald S. Federici and Associates (ISBN 0-9667101-0-X)
2. Keck, G. C., & Kupecky, R. M. (1995). Adopting the hurt child: Hope for families with special-needs kids: A guide for parents and professionals. Colorado Springs, CO: Pinon Press.
3. Jernberg, A. M., & Booth, P. B. (1999). Theraplay: Helping parents and children build better relationships through attachment-based play (2^nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
4. Cutler, B. C. You, your child and "Special education" : A guide to making the system work. Brookes Publishing (ISBN 1-55766-115-4).

In addition to selected readings from these textbooks, there will be a course pack based on readings assigned by the speakers (usually one per presentation), and readings required for the lab activities. There will be a midterm and final exam, each worth 30% of the final grade. Lab assignments, including participation, will be worth the remaining 40% of the final grade.

Course Coordinator

The coordinator for the course will David Cross, of the Psychology Department. Any questions about the course should be directed to him.

Office: 256 WSH
Phone: 6416 or 7410 (office) or 292-4027 (home)
email: d.cross@tcu.edu (text only) or drc51@worldnet.att.net (text or html)