Applied Experience

Central to the department's mission is helping students integrate coursework and research with direct practice 'in the field'. Direct practice can mean working in educational settings, hospitals, and other environments where children and youth are continuously present and being served. It can also mean working in research, policy, and other places where children and youth may not be present or present only on occasion, but where the work being done directly affects the lives of children and youth, such as research labs assessing infants at risk for developing autism, and state agencies overseeing large programs for children and youth.

Applied Experience Opportunities

  • CSHD 004: Topics in Child Development: Identity, Community, and Voice
  • CSHD 066:  Self & Identity:  Negotiating Place in Society
  • CSHD 067: Resilience in Development: Children, Youth, and Adversity
  • CSHD 99/199: Community Field Placement (requires Instructor approval; only open to CSHD Majors and, when space permits, declared CSHD Minors)
  • CSHD 100: Child and Family Health Seminar and Fieldwork (requires Instructor approval)
  • CSHD 130: Literacy in Action: Fostering Literacy in Emergent Readers
  • CSHD 141: Independent Study (requires Instructor approval)
  • CSHD 143: Special Topics-Autism Across the Lifespan
  • CSHD 143-09: Special Topics-From Both Sides of the Screen: Observational and Ethnographic Methods for Understanding Children
  • CSHD 143: Special Topics-Foundations in Diagnostic Assessment of Children in Education and Healthcare Settings
  • CSHD 143-22:  Making Education Equitable in Covid: Literacy in Action
  • CSHD 145: Technological Tools for Playful Learning
  • CSHD 163: Infancy: Prenatal to Age Three
  • CSHD 171: Curricula for Young Children in Schools, Preschools, and Makerspaces
  • Fieldwork Abroad
  • CSHD 232: Master's Capstone Internship (Master’s degree students only)
  • CSHD 236, 237: Doctoral Internship (Doctoral students only)

Field Placements by Category (Partial List)

  • Applied Research Labs
  • Arts-Related Programs for Children and Youth
  • Early Intervention (Language Delay)
  • Education (and Special Education)
  • Family and Youth Services
  • Healthcare (Mental and Physical)
  • Juvenile Justice
  • Media (e.g., Children's Television)
  • Museums (e.g., New England Aquarium)
  • Policy & Advocacy
  • Technology