Kent’s Centre for Child Protection (CCP) is aiming to help those who work with or care for children by teaching child-centred communication strategies via its new MOOC (Massive Open Online Course).
The free course titled ‘Communicating Effectively with Vulnerable Children and Young People’ goes live on Monday 27 September 2021 and will offer practitioners and carers practical advice to support communication with children from pre-verbal infants to adolescents.
On the four-week MOOC individuals can expect to learn:
- Reasons why a child or young person may become vulnerable
- Age-appropriate activities and techniques from the pre-verbal to adolescent stages
- Innovative ways of facilitating communication
- Challenges and barriers to effective communication with vulnerable children and young people
- Levels of vulnerability experienced by a child or young person, including areas of safeguarding
Emma Soutar, co-facilitator of the MOOC and Training Officer at CCP, said: ‘Communicating effectively with children and young people is not always easy. Practitioners and carers understand the positive impact effective communication can have, yet research shows that practice can be difficult to achieve. This MOOC offers the opportunity to reflect on your communication with the children you work with or care for and learn techniques which place the child at the heart of the interaction. We encourage those interested to register and find out more.’
Individuals can sign up for ‘Communicating Effectively with Vulnerable Children and Young People’ via FutureLearn: www.futurelearn.com/courses/communicating-with-vulnerable-children