Course

© Chris Steer/iStockphoto.com

Supporting children’s development is an introductory course for anyone who is interested in children’s development, especially support staff in schools, such as teaching assistants. It builds on your knowledge and skills to develop a deeper understanding of children from the early years to school leavers. You will be introduced to some core ideas surrounding development and learning, behaviour, special needs and disabilities.

This course is free and you are welcome to study it without enrolling. However, the course gives you the opportunity to earn digital badges as a recognition of your learning. To collect these badges, you’ll need to enrol. If you already have an Open University account, you need to sign in before you enrol. Otherwise, it’s easy to create an account. [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab.] Once you’ve signed in, return to this page and click on the ‘Enrol’ button above.

To see the other courses in this series please visit the Social Partnerships Network (SPN) courses home page.

We ask you optional questions when you enrol on this course for research purposes. See About the research for more details.

This course was developed with funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). Although most of the content will be relevant to learners throughout the United Kingdom, some elements will be based on the English policy and legislative context.