Universitat Internacional de Catalunya

Behavior and Personality Disorders

Behavior and Personality Disorders
6
10110
4
First semester
op
Main language of instruction: Spanish

Other languages of instruction: Catalan,

Teaching staff


Mrs. VIDAL TORRA, Maria Dolors - dvidal@uic.es

Introduction

The course is structured according to a pedagogical progression: understanding development, understanding behaviour, identifying and intervening, and finally, building schools as protective environments. This approach integrates the core course content with aspects that are particularly relevant to today’s educational context, such as executive functions, emotional self-regulation, inclusive education, family-school collaboration, and the impact of screen use on child development.

Objectives

The aim is not to train specialists in clinical diagnosis, but rather future teachers who are able to understand children’s behaviour, identify warning signs, provide appropriate educational support within their professional role, and collaborate with families and specialist teams.

The course takes a preventive, humanistic, and evidence-based approach. Its guiding principle will be: “Understand before intervening.” Teachers do not diagnose, but they do observe, understand, document, provide educational support, and refer to specialists when appropriate.

 

Specific Learning Objectives

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

  1. Understand child development and identify the main personal, family, school, and social factors that may influence children’s behaviour and well-being.
  2. Understand children’s behaviour from a holistic perspective, considering the interaction between individual characteristics, development, context, and life experiences.
  3. Understand the role of neurodevelopment, executive functions, and emotional regulation in learning, adaptation, and behaviour.
  4. Differentiate typical developmental variations from potential warning signs, avoiding premature interpretations, labels, or diagnostic assumptions that fall outside the teacher’s professional role.
  5. Observe, describe, and document behaviour systematically and objectively, distinguishing observable facts from interpretations about the child.
  6. Analyse behaviour by considering its function and the context in which it occurs, formulating educational hypotheses to guide intervention.
  7. Understand the main behavioural and personality difficulties and disorders relevant to educational settings, identifying their manifestations and potential impact on learning, relationships, and participation at school.
  8. Design and implement preventive and educational intervention strategies that promote self-regulation, participation, inclusion, and student well-being.
  9. Identify risk and protective factors across different developmental contexts and understand the potential role of the school as a protective factor.
  10. Collaborate effectively with families, teaching staff, and specialised professionals, communicating observations, sharing relevant information, and making referrals when necessary.
  11. Promote safe, inclusive, and emotionally supportive learning environments that respect the dignity, individuality, and needs of every child.
  12. Develop a reflective, evidence-based professional perspective, capable of questioning labels, biases, and oversimplified interpretations of children’s behaviour

Learning outcomes of the subject

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

  1. Explain the main processes of child development and their relationship with behaviour, learning, and emotional regulation.
  2. Analyse educational situations and children’s behaviour taking into account personal, developmental, family, school, and social factors.
  3. Identify and differentiate typical developmental variations from potential warning signs, recognising the limits of the teacher’s role in relation to diagnosis.
  4. Observe, describe, and document behaviour objectively, distinguishing observable facts from interpretations, judgements, or labels.
  5. Formulate hypotheses about the function of behaviour based on the analysis of antecedents, behaviour, consequences, and the context in which it occurs.
  6. Identify the main manifestations of behavioural and personality difficulties and disorders that may arise in educational settings and analyse their impact on school life.
  7. Relate executive functions and self-regulation processes to everyday classroom situations, identifying potential educational support needs.
  8. Identify risk and protective factors across different contexts of child development and assess which factors can be addressed or strengthened by the school.
  9. Propose preventive and educational intervention strategies tailored to the child’s needs and aimed at promoting self-regulation, participation, inclusion, and well-being.
  10. Design educational responses to practical cases, justifying the proposed actions based on the knowledge acquired and the available evidence.
  11. Communicate observations and needs professionally to families, teaching staff, and specialist professionals, identifying when coordination or referral is necessary.
  12. Critically analyse the influence of adult expectations, labels, and responses on children’s behaviour, self-concept, and participation.
  13. Evaluate the role of the school as a protective factor, identifying practices and characteristics of educational environments that promote child development and well-being. 
       

Syllabus

BLOCK I. Understanding Child Development
  • Mental health and psychopathology.
  • Developmental stages.
  • Temperament, character, and personality.
  • Neurodevelopment and executive functions.
  • Attachment.
  • Risk and protective factors.
  • Sleep, nutrition, physical activity, and screen use.
BLOCK II. Understanding Behaviour in the School Context
  • Behaviour as a form of communication.
  • Functional analysis of behaviour.
  • Emotional self-regulation.
  • Disruptive behaviour and adaptation.
  • From behaviour to disorder: frequency, intensity, persistence, and impact.
  • Positive classroom culture and prevention.
  • Rules and school coexistence.
BLOCK III. Detection and Educational Intervention
  • Systematic observation and early detection.
  • Common manifestations: enuresis, encopresis, sleep and eating disorders, and emotional and social difficulties.
  • Introduction to the main behavioural disorders from an educational perspective.
  • Working with families and interdisciplinary coordination: the teacher’s professional role and boundaries.
  • Educational intervention strategies and behaviour management techniques: positive reinforcement, token economy, extinction, time-out, anticipation, gradual exposure, and physiological regulation strategies.
BLOCK IV. The School as a Protective Factor
  • Inclusive education and UDL (Universal Design for Learning).
  • Group cohesion.
  • Mediation and conflict resolution.
  • Bullying and cyberbullying.
  • Family-school collaboration.
  • The teacher as a protective figure. 
       
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