Who is this degree for?
This program will provide you a deep, interdisciplinary understanding of early childhood development. It is excellent preparation for professional or leadership roles in the full range of disciplines and systems that serve young children and their families.
Our graduates have had notable success in a whole range of fields — from child care and education to social service and mental health, from policy-making and analysis to health care and even the arts. These are the fundamentals that everyone needs to be effective working with or for children and families.
Specialization
You can take your study even deeper by adding a specialization:
Administration
Explore the planning and implementation of administrative systems that effectively carry out an organization’s mission, with an option to seek the Illinois Director Credential.
Child Life
Learn to advocate for children and families as a child life specialist — helping them face the unknown, making the complex understandable, and facilitating the optimal development of children whose medical treatment has deprived them of the typical opportunities for learning and growth.
Children with Special Needs
Gain expertise in working with young children with developmental delay/disabilities and their families, in early education, community, and home environments.
Family Services
Explore the social, legal, and political contexts in which young children and their families live, ranging from the many configurations of families and communities to the welfare system, early intervention, medical and mental health, courts, and schools.
Infancy
Be prepared for the complex role of the infant specialist, working with infants and families in the context of their community, with an option to apply for the early intervention credential.
Infancy and Administration
Combine deep expertise of working with infants with the organizational understanding gained through the Administration Specialization.
Course Work
To give you the most comprehensive understanding of child development of any program in the country, our core courses include relevant aspects of every discipline, including developmental psychology, neurobiology, anthropology, psychiatry, education, sociology, health, and social work.
Sample course schedules
Core Courses:
- C410 – Social and Historical Perspectives on Early Care and Education
- C413 – Adult Education and Supervision
- C421 – Human Development I: Psychosocial Development in Infancy and Childhood
- C422 – Human Development II: Psychosocial Development from Early Adolescence through Adulthood
- C425 – Physical Growth and Development
- C426 – Development of Cognition, Language, and Play I: Cognitive Development
- C427 – Development of Cognition, Language, and Play II: Language Development
- C439 – Child Assessment
- C440 and C441 – Internship and Tutorial I and II
- C450 and C451 – Integrative Seminar I and II
- C490 – Research Methods
