UCL - Psychology of disabled persons

[PSY1324]

[30h] 4 credits

This course is taught in the 1st semester.

Teacher(s): Nathalie Grosbois

Language: French

Level: First

Aims
Main themes
Content and teaching methods

Aims

Aims :
- to raise students' awareness of the specificities of the global functioning of persons with various disabilities (intellectual disabilities, autistic disorders, sensorial disorders, multiple disabilities).
- to introduce the students to the principles of specialised education, aiming at the optimal development and the well-being of the persons with disabilities, at different stages of their life.

Competencies :
- to understand the adaptation problems of the persons with different disabilities and problematics met by their surrounding
- to identify the role of a psychologist in these various contexts
- to know and to get acquainted with the networks of intervention towards persons with disabilities at various stages of their life.

Main themes

The course will emphasise educational problems of the persons with disability and related to the features of this disability. These features will be rather considered as an hindrance to a development "according to the norms" and to a quality of daily life, whose each psychologist concerned has to take into account. The course aims at a better knowledge of the frames wherein the specialised intervention takes place (frames which are likely to correspond to a future place for professional insertion) and will introduce to these various disability situations.

Content and teaching methods

At the successive stages of the life of the handicapped person, the needs and concerns will evolve, as the kinds of interventions proposed.
- prenatal period : genetic counselling, primary prevention, announcement of the handicap and of its implications.
- Perinatal period : early intervention, secondary prevention, theoretical models of early intervention towards the child, theoretical models of intervention towards the parents, modalities of intervention.
- Education period : specialised teaching (historical landmarks, orientation process, organisation) or integration ?
- Post-schooling period : training or work in protected or common environment, leisures.
Introduction to the various disability situations : mental, sensory, motor, behavioural, socio-cultural (etiology, determinants, needs); and to the various interventions.
Methods: video analysis ; brainstorming; lectures