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 150 Child Life and the Hospitalized Child
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: Disabilities and Difference in Children
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 196: Contemporary Families in the 21st Century
CSHD 197: Learning & Attentional Difficulties: Assessment & Teaching

Children, Arts, and Media

The concentration provides opportunities to conduct research on the multiple ways media and the arts impact children's cognitive, social and emotional health and development.

Concentration Courses

CSHD 113: Media Literacy
CSHD 130: Literacy in Action
CSHD 143-19: Children, Arts, and Media (core course for the concentration)
CSHD 153: Children's Television Project
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
CHSD 178: Creative Dance for Children
CSHD 179: Child Art

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.