POST GRADUATE DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY

DEPARTMENTS

COUNSELLING SKILLS AND LEARNING DISABILITIES(SPECIAL EDUCATION)

Counselling is a helping approach that highlights the emotional and intellectual experience of a client, how a client is feeling and what they think about the problem they have sought help for. There are a number of skills that are required by counsellors. Basic skills in conducting a counselling session are defined as a capacity required in performing some counselling skills and becomes crucial skills owned by a counsellor.

Besides, there are some skills required to conduct a counselling session namely: exploration skills (Attending, initiating a question, emotional reflection), knowledge (challenges, interpretation, self-reveal), and action skills (information and immediate action). A counsellor must have the ability to help clients to solve their problems. Besides, a counsellor should be able to help his clients to find out and develop their potentials and make changes in their lives.

A learning disability is a neurological condition that affects the brain’s ability to send, receive, and process information. A child with a learning disability may have difficulties in reading, writing, speaking, listening, understanding mathematical concepts, and general comprehension. Learning disabilities include a group of disorders such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia and dysgraphia. Each type of disorder may coexist with another.

In normal physiological development, the child is expected to acquire a certain set of basic cognition and motor skills. Any significant delay or gap in this development could be a sign of a learning disability. A series of well-researched and proven tests and assessments have to be conducted before diagnosing the condition.

The department of Psychology has provided their students with add-on courses to supplement their learning in various areas and specializations, add-on courses were introduced in the department from the academic year 2018-19. The students of each class were provided 3 hours/ week as add-on hours. Each program was designed to develop the skills of the students in personal, professional and social areas. The add-on course for each class was provided by the department in association with various agencies, which provided the students certificates at the end of the programme.

The add-on courses were provided for II BSc Psychology and III BSc Psychology students during the academic year 2018-19. For the II BSc Psychology students, the Add-on course was Counselling Skills and Learning Disabilities(Special Education) provided by Santhwana Institute of Counselling and Psychotherapy, Kacheripady. The resource person was Ms. Siji Shanty. 40 hours was completed in total at the end of the academic year.

Counselling skills and Learning Disability is the department add on course provided to the second year BSc Psychology students by the department of psychology in association with Institute of Counselling and Transactional Analysis (ICTA), Kochi. Counselling is a helping approach that highlights the emotional and intellectual experience of a client, how a client is feeling and what they think about the problem they have sought help for. There are a number of skills that are required by counsellors. Thus the main objective of this programme was to help students to identifying and developing their basic skills for counselling. It is a 30 hour programme distributed as 3 hours/ week (first three hours of every Thursday). Fr. Wilson Mulakal SJ from the ICTA, Kochi was faculty in charge for the programme. And the same agency will be providing the certificate for the 38 students after conducting the examinations at the end of the class. The class was started on 12 December 2019. The course completed on 5 March 2020. And the same agency distributed the certificate for the 38 students. It was provided for the students after evaluation of the Assignment work at the end of the class.

The feedback was taken from students. Satisfactory report was mentioned by the students and reported that class was very helpful for them to understand counselling processes and counselling skills.

Counselling Skills and Learning Disability   is the department add on course provided to the third year BSc Psychology students by the department of psychology in association with Santhwana Institute of Counselling and Psychotherapy, Kacheripady, Ernakulam . . Mrs. Siji M M, from the same institution was the faculty in charge for the programme Counselling is a helping approach that highlights the emotional and intellectual experience of a client, how a client is feeling and what they think about the problem they have sought help for. There are a number of skills that are required by counsellors. Thus the main objective of this programme was to help students to identifying and developing their basic skills for counselling.  It was a  36 hour programme, distributed as 3 hours/ week (Last three hours of every Wednesday). The class was started on 19th August 2020 and course was completed on 13th January 2021. The certificate provided for 38 students after evaluating their assignment works.

Counselling skills and Learning Disability is the department add-on course provided to the third year BSc Psychology students by the department of psychology in association with Santhwana Institute of Counselling and Psychotherapy. The main objective of this programme is to help students in identifying and developing their basic skills for counselling.

It is a 36-hour programme distributed as 3 hours/ week. And the same agency will be providing the certificate for the students after conducting the examinations at the end of the year.