NOTE: To be admitted to this program, students must have an associate’s degree or 60+ transferable college credits. Currently, the program is offered at our Los Angeles and Sacramento Academic Centers and two off-site locations in Los Angeles: Ontario site and Orange County site.

The major in Child Development focuses on the cognitive, social, affective, emotional, and physical development of children from birth through adolescence. Students study children’s growth and development within familial, school, and societal contexts. The major provides students with a strong foundation and training in the field, building upon child development courses completed at the community college level. The major responds to recent government mandates; the “No Child Left Behind” initiative requires that all federally funded preschools/head start programs have teachers with a bachelor’s degree by 2013.

The Child Development major has been specifically designed for:

• Professionals working in and managing licensed day care centers, preschool programs, and programs for adolescents.
• Anyone wishing to pursue a career in Child Development.
• Students wishing to pursue an elementary education teaching credential after completing their bachelor’s degree in Child Development.
• Students wishing to pursue graduate education in this field.

Benefits

• A program developed by field practitioners with advanced degrees.
• Personal attention from an advisor and staff who understand your academic and scheduling needs.
• The option to earn college credits through CLEP, DANTES, Challenge Exams, prior learning assessment, certified learning, and credits recommended by ACE though military training.
• Up to 90 transferable college credits accepted toward the degree.
• Faculty-guided instruction by Child Development professionals.
• Accelerated degree completion option.
• Joining a learning community of child development professionals.

Upon completion of the major in Child Development, graduates will be able to:

• Differentiate and implement both formal and informal methods of student assessment, both process and product.
• Implement developmentally appropriate curriculum and instructional practices.
• Analyze current issues as related to programs for children.
• Construct a developmentally appropriate curriculum for children in a group setting.
• Compose appropriate techniques and learning activities for working with children.
• Examine state-mandated requirements of a childcare facility.
• Demonstrate familiarity with state-mandated health and safety requirements and processes.
• Evaluate environments to ensure that they meet the developmental needs of children.
• Differentiate and implement appropriate guidance techniques for working with children.
• Scrutinize developmental changes in children’s cognitive, affective, social and emotional understanding, and how these influence early childhood education.
• Assess the need for individualization and develop strategies for meeting the needs of diverse children in the classroom.
• Emphasize the importance of integrating diversity and multiculturalism in developing curricula and managing child development programs.
• Discriminate between various stages and phases of human development: infancy, early childhood, middle-childhood, and adolescence.
• Analyze and evaluate the theoretical perspectives of developmental psychology.
• Define motivation and identify psychological motives in the lives of children.
• Synthesize current trends in the assessment of children based on the way the child’s mind functions rather than on traditional views of learning that reflect solely a “mechanical” or rote view of human competence.
• Compare/contrast and critique the most recent classroom assessment methods for assessing not only what children know but also how they think, perform, and apply what they know in authentic, real-world contexts.

Accelerated Completion Opportunities

• 3+1 program for those that need only 32 upper-division credits in their degree plan.
• Attending on-ground classes that meet face-to-face seven to eight (7-8) times in an eight (8) week session.
• Class meetings are weekly in eight (8) weeks sessions.
• Transferring credits from other regionally accredited colleges and universities.
• Requesting credit for knowledge gained outside the classroom through work or professional experience.
• Successfully completing CLEP or DSST (sometimes known as DANTES) tests.
• Applying college credits for training through certified learning.