School of Arts and Sciences
Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study & Human Development

Undergraduate Concentrations of Study

Eliot-Pearson offers undergraduate students majoring in CSHD, several opportunities to prepare for a professional specialty. The program offers concentrations of study for students who wish to focus on one of these areas within child, youth, and/or family development; these are listed below with specific courses that apply to those concentrations. Alternatively, a student may wish to develop an individualized plan of study (IPS), which is constructed together with the academic advisor.

The concentrations offered are as follows:

Child and Family Health/Well-Being

The concentration in Child and Family Health/Well-Being focuses on the health and well-being of children and adolescents in a variety of settings including schools, families, clinics, hospitals, and early intervention centers. The concentration provides training in understanding clinical issues of health and well-being from a developmental and systems-based perspective (e.g., family, community, and culture). This concentration is designed for those students who are interested in careers in health and health-allied fields such as pediatric medicine, speech-language pathology, early intervention, and pediatric psychology.

Concentration Courses

  • CSHD 64: Parent Child Relations
  • CSHD 67: Resilience in Development: Children, Youth, and Adversity
  • CSHD 68: Adolescence and the Transition to Adulthood
  • CSHD 90: The Exceptional Child
  • CSHD 100: Child and Family Health Seminar and Fieldwork
  • CSHD 120: Assessment of Children
  • CSHD 143-05: Autism Across the Lifespan
  • CSHD 143-07: Sexuality and Gender
  • CSHD 143-15: Child Mental Health in Educational Settings
  • CSHD 143-16: Plugging the Preschool-to-Prison Pipeline: Incarceration, Children, and Families
  • CSHD 149: Evidence-Based Interventions
  • CSHD 156: Developmental Neuroscience and Disorders of Development
  • CSHD 163: Infancy
  • CSHD 164: Cultural Diversity in Child and Family Services 
  • CSHD 168: Adolescence and the Transition to Adulthood
  • CSHD 174: Designing Educational and Therapeutic Environments
  • CSHD 190: Children with Special Needs
  • CSHD 191: Developmental Psychopathology and Adaptation
  • CSHD 192: Approaches to ‘Problem Behaviors’
  • CSHD 193: Pediatric Psychology
  • CSHD 195: Developmental Disorders in Language and Reading
  • CSHD 197: Learning & Attentional Difficulties: Assessment & Teaching

21st Century Literacies: Media & Technology

The interdisciplinary concentration in 21st Century Literacies: Media & Technology prepares students to use, design and critically evaluate new media and technologies for young people; to participate and direct the implementation of programs aimed at using these to foster children's development; and to acquire technical skills and theoretical knowledge that will contribute to their development as researchers and/or practitioners in this emergent field. Students will have the possibility of field experiences doing internships in settings where technology and media is used in the Boston area, as well as in different research labs at Tufts and at the Center for Educational Engineering Outreach (CEEO). This concentration takes a psychosocial approach to technology and media and includes, but is not limited to, the creative use of technology for teaching and learning. The concentration prepares students to understand and work towards the positive role that technology and media can play as a literacy of the 21st century in all aspects of human development. Working with an advisor, students will choose a plan of study that accommodates their unique needs and interdisciplinary backgrounds.

Concentration Courses

  • CSHD 145: Technological Tools for Thinking
  • CSHD 159: Understanding Child Development through Film
  • CSHD 167: Children and the Mass Media
  • CSHD 169: Creating Children's Media
  • CSHD 176: Children's Literature
  • CSHD 143-10: Children's Television Project

Identity Development in Global Context

The concentration in Identity Development in Global Context focuses on the study of identity from multiple disciplinary perspectives, recognizing it as central to the wellbeing of humans as they negotiate their place and position in local, national, and increasingly connected global communities. The concentration is designed to examine identity as multi-layered and multi-dimensional, with implications for psychological health, civic empowerment, and advocacy to build inclusive and equitable communities that support and enhance the lives of children, youth, and families in diverse contexts. Courses cover the multiple and intersecting dimensions of identity (e.g., gender, ethnic, racial, sexuality, class, personal). The course work, opportunities for research and applied work offered in this concentration support student interest in working with children, youth, and families in educational, clinical, health, and extracurricular settings. This includes opportunities for diversity and inclusion leadership in such settings as well as applications and analysis of identity concepts in digital media and the creative arts.

Concentration Courses

  • CSHD 34 Children as Earth Stewards
  • CSHD 62 Childhood Across Cultures
  • CSHD 66 Self and Identity
  • CSHD 68 or CSHD 168 Adolescent Development and the Transition to Adulthoo
  • CSHD 143-07 Sexuality and Gender
  • CSHD 143-19 Raising Young Moral Citizens
  • CSHD 151 Advanced Intellectual Development
  • CSHD 155 Language Development
  • CSHD 157 Religious-Spiritual Development
  • CSHD 161 Advanced Personal & Social Development
  • CSHD 164 Cultural Diversity in Family and Community
  • CSHD 177 Bilingual Studies
  • Gender Development: Deconstructing, Demystifying, and Reimagining the Gender Binary (Course to be developed)

Individualized Plan of Study (IPS)

The Department of Child Study and Human Development offers undergraduate majors the opportunity to design an Individualized Plan of Study (IPS).

Guidelines and Requirements
The IPS allows CSHD majors the flexibility to follow their individual interests in the field of child study and human development. An IPS is created in consultation with a student's major advisor and must receive signed approval from student's major advisor. The courses in a student's IPS should be a thematically coherent set of courses and should be accompanied by an IPS form, which requires a brief rationale for the student's course choices, including their applied or research experiences.

Individualized Plan of Study Form
The courses in a student's IPS should be a thematically coherent set of courses and should be accompanied by an IPS form, which requires a brief rationale for the student's course choices, including their applied or research experiences.

Please submit this form as an electronic attachment to Janet Wysocki (janet.wysocki@tufts.edu), upon declaration of your major in child study and human development, and after consultation with your major advisor.