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  2. Partnering with Allied Health Professionals for Child Development and Health [ECS3270]

School: Education

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

  • Unit Title

    Partnering with Allied Health Professionals for Child Development and Health

  • Unit Code

    ECS3270

  • Year

    2026

  • Enrolment Period

    1

  • Version

    1

  • Credit Points

    15

  • Full Year Unit

     N

  • Mode of Delivery

    On Campus
    Online

  • Unit Coordinator

    Dr Amelia RUSCOE

Description

This unit introduces pre-service teachers to allied health professions relevant to early childhood and primary settings. Allied health professionals play a vital role in supporting children's development and well-being, collaborating with educators to enhance support both in and beyond the classroom. Students will explore the roles of speech pathologists and occupational therapists in creating a comprehensive support system for children and families, focusing on speech, language, communication, and motor integration. The unit also addresses the holistic impact of health literacy and nutrition on child development, including strategies for managing food allergies and promoting healthy routines and rituals. By enhancing their communication and health literacy skills, pre-service teachers will be equipped to partner effectively with allied health professionals, ensuring children and families receive essential resources and support for optimal growth. This unit includes guest speakers and content developed by the School of Medical and Health Sciences.

Prerequisite Rule

Must have passed a minimum of 180 credit points in Y42 Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood Studies)

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Discriminate between the complementary roles of educators, allied health professionals and associated support systems.
  2. Explain the educator’s responsibilities, including referral processes, when working with allied health professionals and families to support children.
  3. Critically reflect upon the role of the educator in supporting holistic health literacy development and nutrition.
  4. Distinguish the roles of health professionals and educators for undertaking critical processes and procedures that reduce risk and maintain child safety.

Unit Content

  1. Allied health professions relevant to early childhood education.
  2. Understanding the educator’s role in supporting children (birth-8) beyond the classroom.
  3. The roles, responsibilities and contexts in which speech pathologists and occupational therapists work with young children.
  4. Supporting parents and children through the referral process and identifying additional resources.
  5. Strategies for working in partnership with families and allied health professionals to enhance children’s health, development, learning and wellbeing.
  6. Risk recognition and prevention in children’s contexts, responsibilities and response procedures to ensure child safety and well-being.
  7. The importance of nutrition during child development, including food allergy management.
  8. Health literacy routines, rituals, and learning contexts to foster lifelong healthy habits.

Learning Experience

ON-CAMPUS

Students will attend on campus classes as well as engage in learning activities through ECU's LMS

City CampusJoondalupSouth West (Bunbury)
Semester 2Not Offered8 x 4 hour seminarNot Offered

For more information see the Semester Timetable

ONLINE

Students will engage in learning experiences via ECU’s LMS as well as additional ECU learning technologies

Additional Learning Experience Information

Weekly 4-hour workshops comprising a combination of lectures, case studies, practical tasks and interactive learning experiences best suited to deliver content. In addition to time allocated to workshops, students will be required to complete readings and explore online resources, and assessment tasks.

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

ON CAMPUS
TypeDescriptionValue
AssignmentIntegrated support plan50%
ReportCritical reflection and role analysis50%
ONLINE
TypeDescriptionValue
AssignmentIntegrated support plan50%
ReportCritical reflection and role analysis50%

Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005)

For the purposes of considering a request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005), inherent requirements for this subject are articulated in the Unit Description, Learning Outcomes and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the support for students with disabilities or medical conditions can be found at the Access and Inclusion website.

Assessment

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. Informal vivas may be conducted as part of an assessment task, where staff require further information to confirm the learning outcomes have been met. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

Academic Integrity

Integrity is a core value at Edith Cowan University, and it is expected that ECU students complete their assessment tasks honestly and with acknowledgement of other people's work as well as any generative artificial intelligence tools that may have been used. This means that assessment tasks must be completed individually (unless it is an authorised group assessment task) and any sources used must be referenced.

Breaches of academic integrity can include:

  • Plagiarism: Copying the words, ideas or creative works of other people or generative artificial intelligence tools, without referencing in accordance with stated University requirements. Students need to seek approval from the Unit Coordinator within the first week of study if they intend to use some of their previous work in an assessment task (self-plagiarism).
  • Unauthorised collaboration (collusion): Working with other students and submitting the same or substantially similar work or portions of work when an individual submission was required. This includes students knowingly providing others with copies of their own work to use in the same or similar assessment task(s).
  • Contract cheating: Organising a friend, a family member, another student or an external person or organisation (e.g. through an online website) to complete or substantially edit or refine part or all of an assessment task(s) on their behalf.
  • Cheating in an exam: Using or having access to unauthorised materials in an exam or test.

Serious outcomes may be imposed if a student is found to have committed one of these breaches, up to and including expulsion from the University for repeated or serious acts.

ECU's policies and more information about academic integrity can be found on the student academic integrity website.

All commencing ECU students are required to complete the Academic Integrity Module.

Assessment Extension

In some circumstances, Students may apply to their Unit Coordinator to extend the due date of their Assessment Task(s) in accordance with ECU's Assessment Procedure - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000001386.

Special Consideration

Students may apply for Special Consideration in respect of a final unit grade, where their achievement was affected by Exceptional Circumstances as set out in the Assessment Procedure - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000003318.

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