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Unit of study_
OCCP1101: Disability Across the Lifecourse
2025 unit information
Between birth and death, people experience common biological growth and ageing processes. Cognitive capacity changes, psycho-social understandings and culturally significant behavioural milestones can also be observed over the lifespan. When most people experience processes in much the same way as others, or change most of the time "on time" it can be called "typically developing" or "normative". People with disability may have growth, ageing, cognitive, psychosocial or behavioural patterns that are different to "the norm" or are considered "atypical". This unit explores dimensions of "atypical" development, recognizing the value in being able to describe and understand disability difference from an informed perspective, at the same time critiquing the social risk and individual damage that can be caused by characterizing difference as "not normal". Variation in lifespan development is part of the human condition, it can be described and explained, but is not a reason to stigmatize or classify others as "not one of us". The case for person-centred, not impairment-focused approach when working with people who have disability across the lifespan is introduced.
Unit details and rules
Managing faculty or University school:
Medicine and Health
| Study level | Undergraduate |
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| Academic unit | Participation Sciences |
| Credit points | 6 |
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Prerequisites:
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None |
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Corequisites:
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None |
| Prohibitions:
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None |
| Assumed knowledge:
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None |
At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:
- LO1. Identify typical bio-psycho-social changes that occur across the lifespan.
- LO2. Demonstrate a coherent understanding of contemporary approaches to lifespan development
- LO3. Explore how development, functioning, disability and health interact over the lifespan to affect participation of individuals.
- LO4. Demonstrate critical thinking by identifying questions, issues and problems that arise for people with disability when normative approaches to lifespan development are taken
- LO5. Identify how cultural competence can contribute to engaging productively, collaboratively and openly with people of diverse ability across the lifespan and in diverse contexts
- LO6. Develop awareness of intersectionality across the life trajectory for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person living with a disability
- LO7. Solve problems by applying knowledge of lifespan development disability and health in a manner that is person-centred, sensitive to context, informed by scholarship and evidence-based.
- LO8. Use online, verbal, written, structured and unstructured communication methods to convey an understanding of disability and lifespan development
Unit availability
This section lists the session, attendance modes and locations the unit is available in. There is a unit outline for each of the unit availabilities, which gives you information about the unit including assessment details and a schedule of weekly activities.
The outline is published 2 weeks before the first day of teaching. You can look at previous outlines for a guide to the details of a unit.
| Session | MoA ? | Location | Outline ? |
|---|---|---|---|
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Semester 1 2025
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Normal day | Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney |
Outline unavailable
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Modes of attendance (MoA)
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