Course Outline
COU201 Counselling Children and Youth
Course Coordinator:Katrina Andrews (kandrews1@usc.edu.au) School:School of Law and Society
2026Trimester 1
UniSC Sunshine CoastUniSC Moreton Bay |
Blended learning | Most of your course is on campus but you may be able to do some components of this course online. |
Please go to unisc.edu.au for up to date information on the
teaching sessions and campuses where this course is usually offered.
What is this course about?
Description
This developing course is designed to provide students with knowledge and skills relevant to working with children and youth in a counselling setting. The course delves into contemporary theories and models that form the basis for ethical and evidence-based practices when dealing with this specific population. It builds upon the person-centred counselling framework and skills that were introduced in the first year of the counselling program.
How will this course be delivered?
| Activity | Hours | Beginning Week | Frequency |
| Blended learning | |||
| Learning materials – Online learning activities including recorded lectures, youtube clips, and interactive activities to deliver learning objectives. | 1hr | Week 1 | 10 times |
| Tutorial/Workshop 1 – Weekly 2 hour tutorial to consolidate learning and practice skills | 2hrs | Week 1 | 10 times |
| Information session – Online Learning Activity, facilitated by tutor | 1hr | Refer to Format | 3 times |
Course Topics
- Historical and contextual trends in counselling children and youth
- Legal and Ethical Issues when working with children and youth
- Common issues for children and youth
- Person Centred Counselling with children and youth (establishing that relationship)
- Strength-based interventions with children and youth
- Cognitive-Behavioural Approaches with children and youth
Mature Content
What level is this course?
200 Level (Developing)
What is the unit value of this course?
12 units
How does this course contribute to my learning?
| Course Learning Outcomes On successful completion of this course, you should be able to... | Graduate Qualities Completing these tasks successfully will contribute to you becoming... | |
| 1 | Understand the historical trends that inform contemporary counselling practice with children and youth | Knowledgeable |
| 2 | Demonstrate ability to generalise person centred counselling skills to children and youth populations | Creative and critical thinker |
| 3 | Critique current accepted strength-based and positivist models and frameworks when counselling children and youth | Creative and critical thinker |
| 4 | Demonstrate ability to integrate evidence-based practice models when working with children and youth with developed person-centred counselling skills, with goal to improve mental health and wellbeing | Empowered |
| 5 | Critically apply evidence-based frameworks for counselling children and youth to diverse children and youth populations |
Creative and critical thinker Ethical |
| 6 | Apply accepted written academic skills and APA 7th ed. referencing/formatting conventions to written assignments | Ethical |
Am I eligible to enrol in this course?
Refer to the UniSC Glossary of terms for definitions of “pre-requisites, co-requisites and anti-requisites”.
Pre-requisites
COU180 and COU176
Co-requisites
Not applicable
Anti-requisites
Not applicable
Specific assumed prior knowledge and skills (where applicable)
Not applicable
Microcredential Information
Not applicable
How am I going to be assessed?
Grading Scale
Standard Grading (GRD)
| High Distinction (HD), Distinction (DN), Credit (CR), Pass (PS), Fail (FL). |
Details of early feedback on progress
Tutors will provide formative feedback on the early weekly reflections, that will be used to populate Task 2, due in Week 7
Assessment tasks
| Delivery mode | Task No. | Assessment Product | Individual or Group | Weighting % | What is the duration / length? | When should I submit? | Where should I submit it? |
| All | 1 | Activity Participation | Individual | 10% | Course duration |
Throughout teaching period (refer to Format) | In Class |
| All | 2 | Essay | Individual | 25% | 1000 words |
Week 7 | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check |
| All | 3 | Case Study | Individual | 35% | 1500 words |
Week 10 | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check |
| All | 4 | Practical / Laboratory Skills, and Written Piece | Individual | 30% | 20mins plus 200-300 words |
Week 12 | Online Submission |
| All - Assessment Task 1:Participation | |||||||
| Goal: | Students will actively participate for a minimum of 80% of their on-campus tutorials. Failure to meet the minimum participation requirement will result in a failed grade for this task. |
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| Product: | Activity Participation | ||||||
| Authorship Statement: | |||||||
| Format: | Class Participation noted by tutor |
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| Criteria: |
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| Generic Skills: | |||||||
| All - Assessment Task 2:Critical Reflective Essay | ||||||||||||||||
| Goal: | Students are to critically reflect on weekly learning objectives and reflect on their own childhood/adolescent years, reframing events during this time based on their learning in this course. |
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| Product: | Essay | |||||||||||||||
| Authorship Statement: | ||||||||||||||||
| Format: | Each week, students are to write atleast 100-150 words related to weekly content. At week 7, these reflections are written into a 1000 word critical reflective essay, prepared inside cadmus, conforming to UniSC essay structure guidelines. Submission is online, with turnitin checkers. |
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| Criteria: |
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| Generic Skills: | Communication, Information literacy |
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| All - Assessment Task 3:Treatment Plan | ||||||||||||||||
| Goal: | Students will be given a video case study and tasked to create an evidence-based case conceptualisation and treatment plan for the child or adolescent case study. |
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| Product: | Case Study | |||||||||||||||
| Authorship Statement: | ||||||||||||||||
| Format: | Students will be randomly given one of a choice of up to 5 vignettes, depicting a hypothetical child or adolescent client. Student is to summarise a 5P case conceptualisation of the client, and design a treatment plan for the client, including all consents needed, number of sessions, goals of each session, recommended evidence-based interventions, and measures of outcome. Essay is prepared within the Cadmus platform. |
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| Criteria: |
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| Generic Skills: | Communication, Problem solving |
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| All - Assessment Task 4:Role Play and short critique | |||||||||||||||||||
| Goal: | Demonstrate evidence-based counselling skills when counselling children and/or youth populations. Reflect on own role play for growth. |
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| Product: | Practical / Laboratory Skills, and Written Piece | ||||||||||||||||||
| Authorship Statement: | |||||||||||||||||||
| Format: | Students to demonstrate a 20 min role play with a child or adolescent, who is seeking counselling for a common complaint for this population. Role Play will be recorded. Submission will be online. If role play client is under the age of 16, parental consent to be involved in this role play will also be needed. Students will not be allowed to use own children in role play. Students choose one skill that needs development and write a paragraph about this skill, using accepted experiential learning model guideliines. |
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| Criteria: |
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| Generic Skills: | Collaboration, Problem solving |
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Directed study hours
A 12-unit course will have total of 150 learning hours which will include directed study hours (including online if required), self-directed learning and completion of assessable tasks. Student workload is calculated at 12.5 learning hours per one unit.
What resources do I need to undertake this course?
Please note: Course information, including specific information of recommended readings, learning activities, resources, weekly readings, etc. are available on the course Canvas site– Please log in as soon as possible.
Prescribed text(s) or course reader
Specific requirements
Not applicable
How are risks managed in this course?
What administrative information is relevant to this course?
Assessment: Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is the ethical standard of university participation. It ensures that students graduate as a result of proving they are competent in their discipline. This is integral in maintaining the value of academic qualifications. Each industry has expectations and standards of the skills and knowledge within that discipline and these are reflected in assessment.
Academic integrity means that you do not engage in any activity that is considered to be academic fraud; including plagiarism, collusion or outsourcing any part of any assessment item to any other person. You are expected to be honest and ethical by completing all work yourself and indicating in your work which ideas and information were developed by you and which were taken from others. You cannot provide your assessment work to others. You are also expected to provide evidence of wide and critical reading, usually by using appropriate academic references.
In order to minimise incidents of academic fraud, this course may require that some of its assessment tasks, when submitted to Canvas, are electronically checked through Turnitin. This software allows for text comparisons to be made between your submitted assessment item and all other work to which Turnitin has access.
Assessment: Additional Requirements
Eligibility for Supplementary Assessment
Your eligibility for supplementary assessment in a course is dependent of the following conditions applying:
(a) The final mark is in the percentage range 47% to 49.4%; and
(b) The course is graded using the Standard Grading scale
Assessment: Submission penalties
Late submissions may be penalised up to and including the following maximum percentage of the assessment task’s identified value, with weekdays and weekends included in the calculation of days late:
(a) One day: deduct 5%;
(b) Two days: deduct 10%;
(c) Three days: deduct 20%;
(d) Four days: deduct 40%;
(e) Five days: deduct 60%;
(f) Six days: deduct 80%;
(g) Seven days: A result of zero is awarded for the assessment task.
The following penalties will apply for a late submission for an online examination:
Less than 15 minutes: No penalty
From 15 minutes to 30 minutes: 20% penalty
More than 30 minutes: 100% penalty
Links to relevant University policy and procedures
For more information on Academic Learning & Teaching categories including:
- Assessment: Courses and Coursework Programs
- Review of Assessment and Final Grades
- Supplementary Assessment
- Central Examinations
- Deferred Examinations
- Student Conduct
- Students with a Disability
For more information, visit https://www.usc.edu.au/explore/policies-and-procedures#academic-learning-and-teaching
Student Charter
UniSC is committed to excellence in teaching, research and engagement in an environment that is inclusive, inspiring, safe and respectful. The Student Charter sets out what students can expect from the University, and what in turn is expected of students, to achieve these outcomes.
General Enquiries
For course-specific questions, contact your teaching staff or Course Coordinator.
For other enquiries or to access support, please contact Student Central: