This module focuses on development across the lifespan with a particular focus on communication and eating, drinking and swallowing. It provides students with an understanding of how age and ageing are lifelong dynamic processes. It scaffolds students' comprehension of the typical milestones and trajectory of how diverse human abilities (e.g., communication, social and emotional, physical, cognitive) develop and evolve dynamically throughout the life-course; and to appreciate how these interact emergently to underpin human capacity for multi-modal communication and eating, drinking, and swallowing. Core frameworks, concepts, and contemporary issues relating to the ways age and ageing are biologically characterised, genetically and environmentally mediated, and conceptualised across societies and cultures will be considered. Students will additionally explore the implications of differences in gender representation across ageing and developmental research.

This module will focus on typical and atypical development. Content includes: Typical developmental milestones; the evolution of multi-modal communication (physical, sensory, and mobility abilities, mental and cognitive processing, social and emotional abilities), and feeding, eating, drinking, and swallowing, from in utero, through childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and older age; Diverse approaches to conceptualising typical development and ageing, including biological (e.g., genetic versus environmental influences, biological aging processes); structural (e.g., contemporary, international and national health and social policies); societal (e.g., multilingual and multicultural differences, ageism, social determinants and gender-based differences); and theoretical (e.g., positive and successful ageing paradigms, gender representation and positionality in the research literature); Applications to working with clinical populations including how multiple development abilities are interactive prerequisites for the development and progression of communication and swallowing.

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to: Explain the typical development and evolution of multimodal communication across the lifespan. Describe the typical development and evolution of feeding, eating, drinking, and swallowing across the lifespan. Summarise how diverse human abilities (e.g., sensory, motor, physical, cognitive, social and emotional) underpin typical communication and swallowing development and evolution.

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to: Demonstrate an appreciation of how age and ageing are lifelong dynamic processes that can be characterised in a multitude of ways including biologically, socially, culturally, and structurally. Value the positionality underpinning how age and ageing are characterised in research, policy, and clinical literature sources, including gender and cultural representation, ageism, and social determinants of health.

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to:

The student attends a combination of lectures and private study each week. The module is delivered in a structured and interactive format with a mixture of class-based discussions and lectures, and online learning. Curiosity and agility are developed through opportunities to explore diverse and sometimes contrasting approaches to characterising human development and ageing; and to challenge their own values and attitudes. Learning is scaffolded through opportunities for peer-to-peer discussion (graduate attribute: articulate), web-based content including professional guidelines, contemporary international and national policies, texts and further learning resources, all updated yearly to reflect recent research and developments in this area.