Children and Adolescents Category

The Optimistic Child

11 CE Hours
289 members have taken this course
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This course has been retired. We regularly update our course catalog to ensure relevance.

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About the Course

Whether unfamiliar or familiar with some of the concepts involved in this material, you can benefit from information in this course. This book shows that learning the skills of optimism not only reduces the risk of depression in children, but also boosts school performance, improves physical health, and provides children with the self-reliance they need as they approach the teenage years and adulthood. Aaron T. Beck said of this book, "The first major work to provide an effective program for preventing depression in childhood.

This course is based on the book, The Optimistic Child created by Seligman, Martin E.P., Ph.D.

Course Material Author

Seligman, Martin E.P., Ph.D.

He is professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and past president of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Seligman is the leading authority in the world on learned helplessness and on explanatory style. He has written more than 12 books and more than one hundred fifty articles on motivation. His research has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Aging, the National Science Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation.

Seligman, Martin E.P., Ph.D. authored the material only, and was not involved in creating this CE course. They are identified here for your own evaluation of the relevancy of the material this course is based on.

Course Creator

Keith Gibson, Ph.D.

Target Audience

This course is recommended for health care professionals, especially psychologists, counselors, social workers, and nurses who provide services to or seek knowledge about the impact of children learning the skills of optimism.

Learning Objectives

After taking this activity, you should be able to:

  1. 1 to be able to describe how pessimists and optimists tend to think about life.
  2. 2 to be able to explain how rumination combined with pessimistic explanatory style contribute to depression.
  3. 3 to be able to teach others the skills of learned optimism.

Disclosure to Learners

CE Learning Systems adheres to the ACCME's Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Medical Education. Any individuals in a position to control the content of a CE activity – including faculty, planners, reviewers, or others ― are required to disclose all relevant financial relationships with ineligible entities (formerly known as commercial interests).

The following relevant financial relationships have been disclosed by this activity's planners, faculty, and the reviewer:

Planners and Reviewers

The planners of this activity have reported that they have no relevant financial relationships.

Material Authors

There are no known relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Course Creator

Keith Gibson, Ph.D. – There are no known relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Commercial support

There is no commercial support for this distance-learning course.

Use our CE Approvals tool to look up your state requirements and how can help you meet them, or log in to your member account to show approvals relevant to your licensure.

Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy and Mental Health Counseling (FL CSW, MFT, MHC)

11 CE credit hours
Eligible until Mar 27th, 2027
Impact CE, a service of CE Learning Systems, is approved by the Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy and Mental Health Counseling (Provider # 50-315).
More Info

Florida Board of Psychology

11 CE credit hours
Eligible until Mar 31st, 2031
Impact CE, a service of CE Learning Systems, is approved by the Florida Board of Psychology (Provider # 50-315).
More Info

Materials for Course The Optimistic Child

Materials for Course The Optimistic Child

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