Westmead Feelings Program

The Westmead Feelings Program 2 is a 15-month intervention program developed by The Children’s Hospital at Westmead and published by ACER. The program enables facilitators to teach emotion recognition, perspective-taking, problem-solving and emotion regulation skills to autistic children aged 8 to 14 years old without accompanying intellectual impairment.

Westmead Feelings Program 2 is aimed at children with fluent speech who are able to read and write.

The comprehensive online Westmead Feelings Program 2 Facilitator Certification Course is designed to provide professionals with the knowledge, skills and confidence to effectively implement the 15-month Westmead Feelings Program 2 intervention in their setting to the highest standard.

This course is suitable for teachers, special educators, psychologists, allied health and disability practitioners who intend to provide Westmead Feelings Program 2 in their setting, and wish to gain the knowledge, skills and confidence to successfully implement the program. 

Prerequisite

Note:  Purchase of the Westmead Feelings Program 2 Resource Kit is restricted to psychologists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, allied health professionals, special educators, school counsellors and teachers.

Intended learning outcomes

Participants will be able to:

• demonstrate the capacity to use Westmead Feelings Program 2, including all key resources, to teach autistic children the skills required for understanding emotions, problem solving, perspective taking and managing emotions
• demonstrate the capacity to use Westmead Feelings Program 2 to teach parents and teachers of autistic children how to be ‘emotion coaches’, supporting skill development in understanding emotions, problem solving, perspective taking and managing emotions
• analyse and critically evaluate a range of positive behaviour support strategies to be able to effectively deliver Westmead Feelings Program 2 to autistic children 
• apply knowledge to implement differentiated teaching strategies.

AITSL Professional Standards for Teachers

The course specifically addresses Professional Knowledge standards 1.5 and 1.6.

Standard 1.5: Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities.
Standard 1.6: Strategies to support full participation of students with disability.

We have provided all of our clinicians with access to the training required for the use of the Westmead Feelings Program and find it an invaluable resource for our practice. The skills, strategies and knowledge in the program are practical and clearly beneficial to clients as well as their families. I would highly recommend this to any clinician working with autistic children to further enhance their professional toolkit.

Mr Daniel J Wendt, Clinical Psychologist, NSW

The Psychology Board of Australia

The Westmead Feelings Program 2 Facilitator Certification Course satisfies the guidelines for 20 hours of continuing professional development required for the annual registration of psychologists.

Course in detail

The course consists of four units and two learning assurance tasks. It covers proficiency in 12 separate areas of Westmead Feelings Program 2, through interactive tasks, activities and videos. 

Unit 1: introduction and overview

• History, research and development of Westmead Feelings Program 2.
• Differentiated teaching methods for the learning profile of autistic children.

Unit 2: Teaching ‘Westmead Feelings Program 2 Module 1: Understanding emotions’ to children, parents and teachers

• How to develop children’s awareness of their own and others’ emotional states
• How to introduce parents and teachers to their role as emotion coaches, and encouraging communication
• Conveying the emotional and social strengths and challenges for autistic children 
• Familiarity with the Feelings Strength Bar and associated worksheets

Unit 3: Teaching ‘Westmead Feelings Program 2 Module 2: Problem solving and perspective taking’ to children, parents and teachers

• How to develop children’s abilities to solve problems and feel empathy
• How to develop children’s understandings of the link between thinking, feeling and doing, and encouraging helpful thinking
• Consolidating parents’ and teachers’ use of visual cueing to assist with problem solving
• Familiarity with problem-solving and perspective-taking videos and worksheets

Unit 4: Teaching ‘Westmead Feelings Program 2 Module 3: Managing emotions’ to children, parents and teachers – webinar

• How to assist children with techniques for enhancing positive feelings and coping with not-so-good emotions
• How to develop parents’ and teachers’ emotion-coaching skills in the context of managing difficult situations
• Familiarity with Feelings Control Kit strategies and worksheets
• A live (and recorded) webinar, providing an opportunity to discuss and give feedback on the implementation of different aspects of the program

Learning assurance tasks

The learning assurance tasks are: a multiple-choice quiz and a 5−10 minute video demonstrating proficiency in one area of the Westmead Feelings Program 2 delivery. 

On successful completion of the course, participants will receive:

• an accredited certificate, enabling participants to facilitate Westmead Feelings Program 2 at the highest standard with children, parents and teachers, in schools, hospitals and other relevant clinical settings
• the opportunity to be listed on ACER’s online certified practitioners’ register.

Delivery mode: Online

Time and duration: 20 hours of online coursework, over approximately 10 weeks. For course start dates, please refer to our website https://www.acer.org/professional-learning

Resources: The Westmead Feelings Program Resource Kit is required for this course. If you don't have access to a Resource Kit, this can be purchased here.

For further information please contact ACER Sales Support
ph: +61 3 9277 5656
e: sales@acer.org