Course

Professional Child and Youth Care: Theory and Practice

Faculty
Applied Community Studies
Department
Child and Youth Care
Course code
CYCC 3520
Credits
3.00
Semester length
15 weeks
Max class size
35
Method(s) of instruction
Lecture
Typically offered
To be determined

Overview

Course description
This course integrates theory and practice of child and youth care (CYC) by focusing on theoretical perspectives of change and their associated goals, strategies and techniques. Issues and techniques in assessment, case planning, and intervention will be examined. Practical models for case consultation, presentation and evaluation will be presented. Students will demonstrate competence in these real or simulated professional practice areas, and analyze the relationship between professional knowledge, skills, values and styles.
Course content

The following global ideas guide the design and delivery of this course:

  1. Knowledge of theories of change guides practice:
    • development of a therapeutic relationship
    • psychoanalytic perspective
    • Adlerian perspective
    • Behavioural and cognitive behavioural perspective
    • Rational emotive perspective
    • Humanistic and existential perspectives
    • Solution-focused perspective
  2. Knowledge of self has an impact on professional action and clinical practice:
    • personal beliefs, values, ethics affect professional actions
    • Personality and presentation of self affect clinical practice
  3. Apply change theories to CYC case management practice (4-7 below)
  4. Assessment
    • systemic, ecological perspective
    • identifying needs
  5. Case planning
    • goals and goal statements
    • strategies
  6. Intervention
    • service actions
    • therapies
    • techniques
  7. Case consultation, presentation and evaluation
    • Collaborative consultation
    • Trans-disciplinary teams
  8. The origins of difficult and problem behaviour are better understood by “entering the world of the child”:
    • Building  rapport
    • Person-centred  therapeutic perspective
  9. The development of a personal theory of child and youth care praxis through an integration of:
    • knowledge of theories of change theory  
    • knowledge of self
    • current child and youth care counselling practice.
Learning activities

Lecture

Means of assessment

Typical means of evaluation may include a combination of written research assignments, case evaluation, testing, and group presentations.  This is a Graded Course.

Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

  1. Critically analyze change theories
  2. Articulate the perspective of each change theory on the helping relationship
  3. Identify limitations of each change theory
  4. Determine appropriate applications of various change theories in integrated case management
  5. Examine their personal theory of child and youth care practice
  6. Articulate how they intentionally link theoretical perspectives for use in different contexts of CYC case management.
Textbook materials

Textbooks and Materials to be Purchased by Students

Thompson, C.L., Rudolph, L.B. and Henderson, D. (6th ed.) (2004). Counselling Children.  Pacific Grove: Brooks/Cole.

Allen-Meares, P. and Fraser, M. (2004). Interventions with Children and Adolescents: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Boston: Pearson.

                                                          (or similar texts)

Requisites

Prerequisites

Enrolment in Year 3 of CYC

Corequisites

No corequisite courses.

Equivalencies

No equivalent courses.

Course Guidelines

Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.

(Current)

Course Transfers to Other Institutions

Below are current transfer agreements from Douglas College to other institutions for the current course guidelines only. For a full list of transfer details and archived courses, please see the BC Transfer Guide.

Institution Transfer details for CYCC 3520
Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) No credit
Simon Fraser University (SFU) No credit
Trinity Western University (TWU) No credit
University of British Columbia - Vancouver (UBCV) No credit
University of Northern BC (UNBC) No credit
University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) UFV CYC 320 (3)
University of Victoria (UVIC) UVIC CYC 2XX (1.5)

Course Offerings

Fall 2025

CRN Days Instructor Status
Maximum seats
35
Currently enrolled
29
Remaining seats:
6
On waitlist
0
Building
Coquitlam - Bldg. B
Room
B2320
Times:
Start Time
9:30
-
End Time
12:20
Section notes

CYCC 3520 001 is restricted to full-time CYCC Degree students.