Course description
The Early Childhood Education Undergraduate Certificate program focuses on subject areas relevant to your educational and career goals. The program is comprised of one or more required courses followed by electives within an area of specialization, offering a customized, cost-effective and flexible education for working adults – what better way to remain current and develop new skills!
Upon completion of the program, you will have the option of transferring your credits towards the corresponding undergraduate program and earning your Associate or Bachelor's degree at Ashworth.
The Early Childhood Education Undergraduate Certificate program is comprised of 5 courses of 3 credit hours each. Each course contains a printed or online study guide with course overview, lecture notes, practice exercises, computer-scored multiple choice tests and hand-graded assignments. To complete the program, students must take 1 required course and 4 electives.
Required Course
E01 - Careers in Early Childhood Education
Introduces the student to the field of early childhood education by describing at a fundamental level how children learn, how teachers work with children and their parents, what is taught, and where the teaching takes place.
Electives
E02 - Child Development
Examines childhood development by observing physical and psychosocial factors that lead to cognitive, language, and literacy development according to a child's age.
E03 - Curriculum Development
How to develop and implement appropriate curriculum for young children. Topics include the use of play, cooking, and physical activity; and techniques for fostering creativity and emotional, social, and verbal competence within the curriculum.
E04 - Guidance and Discipline
Guidance and discipline concepts applicable to children's behavior in preschool and primary school classrooms. By applying the concepts taught in this course, the student will be able to help children become responsible and productive.
E05 - Children's Literature
Literature is a core component of an early childhood curriculum. This course will teach students how to evaluate appropriate resources and how to use these resources in a classroom to meet specific educational objectives.
E06 - Creative Expression and Play
Play is a core component of an early childhood curriculum. This course will reinforce the importance of play and teach students how to integrate play into the art, music, movement, and drama curricula. This course will also analyze the connection between play and creativity, and will demonstrate techniques for fostering creativity.
E07 - Art and Creative Development
This course teaches the student why art activities are important to young children and how to provide those art activities in the classroom.
E08 - Health, Safety, and Nutrition
The student will learn how the topics of health, safety, and nutrition are interrelated, how to assess children's health, how to plan for safety and attend to children's injuries, and how to foster nutritious eating habits.
E09 - Home, School, and Community
Introduction to the partnerships with parents and others that teachers must create in order to achieve the best results for children in their classroom. Among the topics covered are home visits with parents and children, meetings with parents, and parental visits to the child's classroom.
E10 - Exceptional Children
Introduction to the special needs of children with developmental disabilities, and how to implement programs that include these children in an early childhood classroom.
E11 - Movement and Music
A broad-based course in physical education for children, which emphasizes the development of fundamental motor skills through child-centered activities that often involve the use of music.
E12 - Cultural Diversity
A sociological overview of the ways in which cultural diversity influences children's behavior, communication, and learning styles, plus suggestions for teachers in working with children from diverse backgrounds.
E13 - Early Childhood Literacy
An introduction to teaching young children how to read and write during the preschool years. This course covers the progression of communication, language, literacy, and listening, and the uses of children's literature to facilitate the development of literacy in early childhood.
