Child Development Courses
Combining theoretical perspectives with practical fieldwork, the Child Development Program places the social, emotional, cognitive, and cultural lives of children at the forefront.
Students engage in research throughout the program, reading and learning directly from primary sources such as journals, current research, and the writings of leading psychologists—not textbooks. From the beginning, students are immersed in child-development theory, which they relate to their experiences with children in small seminars and one-on-one conferences. Fieldwork opportunities abound, from therapeutic preschools, to elementary or secondary schools, to child-life programs on pediatric wards.
Master of Arts in Child Development 2026-2027 Courses
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Seminar—Fall | 3 credits
PSYC 7445
Note: Offered also as EDUC 7445. Restricted to First Years.
In the Art of Teaching and Child Development programs, we place the observation and documentation of children and their learning at the center of our work with them. The emphasis is on seeing every child as capable, unique, and knowable and on children as active makers of their own meaning and knowledge. Observing is focused on what the child can do and is interested in and on how each child thinks and learns. We assume that practitioners create their own knowledge through longitudinal observation and documentation of each child as a thinker and learner. This knowledge is the foundation for our responsive practice with them in the full range of settings, as well as for curriculum development and instructional planning that accommodate individual interests and approaches to learning. The ideas and processes developed at Prospect Archive and Center for Education and Research, by Patricia Carini and others, will be the foundation of the work throughout the course. The Prospect Descriptive Processes and, in particular, the Descriptive Review of the Child will give students a formal and systematic framework for drawing together their observations of children over time. In addition, the review processes developed at Prospect Center will be discussed as avenues for collaborative inquiry and meaning-making among practitioners and families. Students will participate in a Descriptive Review and will review longitudinal collections of children’s work. Students will also learn about descriptive inquiry processes for reviewing curricula and teaching practice. Students will share observations of children in both early-childhood and childhood education settings and develop a language of description. We will discuss the importance of creating spaces for children where each child is visible through strength. Students will develop a child study that includes: a description of the child using the headings of the Descriptive Review, a collection of the child’s work, and reflections on the implications that the longitudinal documentation of the child holds for teaching and working with the child.
Faculty
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Fieldwork—Fall | 2 credits
PSYC 7860
Note: Pass/Fail. Restricted to Second Year Art of Teaching and Child Development dual degree students.
The intent of this fieldwork is for students in the program to have the opportunity to gain experience working directly with children, both one-on-one and as a group, while gaining insight into the lives of children and families. Fieldwork placements will be assigned by the director of the Early Childhood Center based on the student’s final schedule.
Faculty
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Thesis—Fall | 6 credits
PSYC 7415
Note: Pass/Fail. Restricted to Second and Third Years.
Students will design and develop an original research project, choosing a topic of interest to study and investigate. This project will culminate in a master’s thesis. Students will develop and submit for approval both a thesis proposal and relevant IRB materials (which might include an IRB proposal).
Faculty
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Seminar—Fall | 1 credit
PSYC 7851
Note: Pass/Fail. Generally taken in fall of the second year. Restricted to Second and Third Years.
The primary objective of this course will be to provide a supportive structure for students as they complete their thesis work and prepare for life after Sarah Lawrence College. This will include a biweekly seminar meeting focused on collaborative workshopping of ongoing thesis work. We will also invite in Sarah Lawrence alumni/ae, faculty, and staff to discuss various aspects of professional development, as everyone finds that helpful. The objectives of this course are for students to: (a) Develop, implement, evaluate, and report on their final thesis project, drawing on their colleagues and their thesis advisors as key resources; (b) Effectively support their colleagues, as they develop, implement, evaluate, and report on their final thesis projects; and (c) Develop and enhance their expertise as a child-development professional.
Faculty
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Fieldwork—Fall | 1 credit
PSYC 7830
Note: Pass/Fail. Restricted to First Years.
Observation and documentation of children and their work are essential to understanding children and development. Students are expected to bring their work in classrooms to bear on course readings, class discussions, and written work. The intent is for students in the program to have the opportunity to gain experience working directly with children, both one-on-one and as a group, while gaining insight into the lives of children and families. In the first year, students work with children in the Early Childhood Center (ECC) for both semesters. Students will meet together to discuss their fieldwork experience and how it relates to their coursework and future goals. Placements will be assigned by the director of the Early Childhood Center based on student schedules and ECC classroom needs and availability.
Faculty
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Seminar—Fall | 3 credits
PSYC 7170
Note: Also offered as EDUC 7470. Restricted to First Years.
What is development, and how does it occur across different children, contexts, and time periods? Does development proceed in the same manner for all children, or are there variations as a result of biological, environmental, and/or cultural differences? Are there some aspects of development that are universal, such as walking, and others that vary across children, such as talking? How might we test these questions, when the contexts in which we live influence the questions we ask about development and the ways in which we interpret our observations? The primary objective of this course will be to learn to use developmental theory to understand the mechanisms by which developmental change occurs. We will additionally focus on the usefulness of observation and research in testing theory, as well as the usefulness of theory in structuring our observations and other forms of research with children. To do so, we will discuss several key classic and contemporary theories of development that have influenced, and/or are especially relevant to, early-childhood and childhood education practice. Theories discussed will include psychoanalytic and psychosocial approaches; evolutionary and ethological approaches; cognitive-developmental approaches; information processing, dynamic systems, and developmental cognitive neuroscience approaches; social, cultural, and historical approaches; and cultural-ecological, bioecological, developmental systems and other holistic approaches. As we study each theory, we will focus on the kinds of questions that each theory asks and the “image of the child” that each puts forth. Recent challenges within the field have highlighted specific conceptual problems, which we will address. Are patterns of development universal or culturespecific? Can childhood experiences be thought of as proceeding in a series of stages? How do we construct methods for studying children that will recognize and validate the significance of differing social and cultural experiences? How can we forge a multicultural view of development such that development is understood in terms of how it is experienced within a given cultural context? As we discuss these questions, we will continually focus on the integration of theory and practice through reflections on field experiences in early-childhood and/or elementary classrooms. Required papers will reflect this integration.
Faculty
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Thesis—Spring | 6 credits
PSYC 7420
Note: Pass/Fail. Restricted to Second and Third Years.
Students will design and develop an original research project, choosing a topic of interest to study and investigate. This project culminates in a master’s thesis. Students will develop and submit a final thesis project by the end of this course.
Faculty
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Seminar—Spring | 1 credit
PSYC 7852
Note: Pass/Fail. Generally taken in spring of the final year. Restricted to Second and Third Years.
The primary objective of this course will be to provide a supportive structure for students as they complete their thesis work and prepare for life after Sarah Lawrence College. This will include a biweekly seminar meeting focused on collaborative workshopping of ongoing thesis work. We will also invite in Sarah Lawrence alumni/ae, faculty, and staff to discuss various aspects of professional development, as everyone finds that helpful. The objectives of this course are for students to: (a) Develop, implement, evaluate, and report on their final thesis project, drawing on their colleagues and their thesis advisors as key resources; (b) Effectively support their colleagues, as they develop, implement, evaluate, and report on their final thesis projects; and (c) Develop and enhance their expertise as a child-development professional.
Faculty
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Fieldwork—Spring | 1 credit
PSYC 7835
Note: Pass/Fail. Restricted to First Years.
Fieldwork placements will be assigned by the director of the Early Childhood Center based on the student’s final schedule. Students will discuss their fieldwork experience and how it relates to their coursework and future goals in Graduate Seminar I (PSYC 7850).
Faculty
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Seminar—Spring | 1 credit
PSYC 7850
Note: Generally taken in spring of the first year.
The primary objective of this course is to provide a supportive structure for students as they prepare to develop their thesis work. This will include a weekly seminar meeting focused on qualitative and quantitative research methods, research ethics, and contemporary research questions and approaches; collaborative group workshops; and individual and group conference meetings with faculty supervisors on either a regular or an as-needed basis. The seminar component will include readings on, and discussions of, research methods and ethics that are specific to the research in which students may be interested in engaging for their thesis work, as well as the discussion of contemporary research articles that are relevant to potential research projects. Some weekly seminars will be led by invited faculty in child development, education, psychology, and related disciplines.
Faculty
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Seminar—Spring | 5 credits
PSYC 7471
Note: Offered also as EDUC 7471.
This course will explore how people develop, influence, and shape their social settings—families, communities, and educational institutions—in childhood and in adolescence. We will focus on theories of individual and family development, the local and global dynamics of learning, and cognition and social relations across culture and society. Physical health, adverse childhood experiences, trauma, and learning are intertwined in the context of the child’s social, emotional, intellectual, and physical development and affect children’s learning and development. We will also examine the development of multiple identities (racial/ethnic, gender, social class) in young children. This interdisciplinary focus draws from current theory, research, and practice in areas as diverse as psychology, sociology, anthropology, and gender studies, among other disciplines. This class is appropriate for those interested in child development, early-childhood and elementary education, special education and/or adolescent development, and secondary education.
Faculty
Electives
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Seminar—Fall | 5 credits
PSYC 7001
Some of the most interesting and important pieces of knowledge a child will ever learn are not taught in school; so it is with the child's social world. Unlike “reading, writing, and ’rithmetic,” there is no “Social Thinking 101.” Further, by the time children reach school age, they have already spent years learning the “lessons of life” and affecting those around them. This course will explore the social world of the child from birth through adolescence, with a special focus on the parent-child relationship. For example, we will examine such issues as different parenting “styles,” the long-term consequences of divorce, and the “hurrying” of children to achieve major milestones at ever-earlier ages. We will also explore the parents’ role in the child’s moral development, investigating the growth of moral emotions such as empathy, shame, and guilt. We will then expand our focus to include the role of gender, culture, and the power of peers in shaping the child’s sense of right and wrong. Conference work may include field placement at the Early Childhood Center or other venues, as interactions with real children will be encouraged.
Faculty
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Seminar—Fall | 3 credits
PSYC 7500
Note: Child Development graduate students may request a 2-credit independent study with Kim Ferguson to accompany this course should they wish to take it as one of their electives.
In this research internship course, students will gain research experience through active engagement in a psychology research lab with a member of the psychology faculty. This will involve an internship within a research lab on campus, including a weekly lab meeting, a weekly collaborative meeting across labs, ongoing contributions towards research and practice within their lab and/or community settings, additional individual and group meetings as needed, and additional synchronous and asynchronous research work. Weekly lab meetings will involve reading and discussing research articles and research-methods papers specific to the topics of research being undertaken by each student and faculty member. Students will be expected to learn the current research approaches being employed by their supervising faculty member and to contribute toward ongoing research in the form of a research practicum. They may also have the opportunity to develop and implement their own independent research projects within the labs in which they are working, depending on lab priorities. Students will be expected to make progress on research projects between meetings, as determined in collaboration with their primary supervising faculty. The weekly collaborative cross-labs meeting will include readings on, and discussions of, research methods and ethics—both broad and specific to the research in which students are involved—as well as the discussion of contemporary research articles that are relevant to student and faculty research projects. All faculty and students involved in the research experience will take turns leading the discussion of current research, with faculty taking the lead at the beginning of the semester and students taking the lead as their expertise develops. Students participating in the course will be expected to attend and actively participate in weekly collaborative cross-labs meetings and weekly lab meetings; keep an ongoing journal and/or scientific lab notebook; select and facilitate group and lab discussions of relevant contemporary research articles (at least once for each meeting type); work within a lab and/or community setting, as appropriate for their projects; contribute toward ongoing research and practice within their lab or community settings; report on their ongoing lab research in the form of a short paper prepared for possible publication and a poster at the Science and Math Poster Symposium; and provide their colleagues with ongoing verbal and written feedback on their projects. Students will be responsible for working collaboratively with their colleagues to further develop their understanding of each of the topics covered in class. Interested students are strongly encouraged to interview with the faculty member they wish to work with.
Faculty
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Seminar—Fall | 5 credits
PSYC 7156
Psychological trauma has been described as unspeakable, so cognitively disorganizing and intense that it is difficult to put into words the experience and the emotions that it evokes. Yet, the language that survivors use to describe their traumas provides insight into the psychology impact of trauma and the process of recovery. This course will begin with an overview of theories of trauma, resilience, and post-traumatic growth, as well as an introduction to the study of trauma narratives and how language reflects emotional and cognitive functioning. We will then explore different aspects of the cognitive, emotional, and biological impact of undergoing a trauma and how these changes are reflected in the language that trauma survivors use as they speak and write about their experiences. We will consider works by experts on trauma and language, including Judith Herman, Bessel van der Kolk, and James Pennebaker, as well as current research in the field of trauma and trauma narratives. Through these readings, we will address topics such as what makes an experience traumatic, how representations of trauma in popular culture color our perceptions of trauma and recovery, the role of resilience and growth following a trauma, and what we can learn from attending to the content and structure of language. This course will be of interest to students who are curious about how the words we use reflect our cognitive and emotional functioning, especially for students interested in pursuing topics such as these at an advanced or graduate level.
Faculty
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Seminar—Fall | 5 credits
PSYC 7075
We have time, energy, questions, and few responsibilities. We want to push the envelope, resist compromise, lead revolutions, and turn the world upside down. Because we do not yet know quite how to be, we have not settled and will not let the dust settle around us. —Karlin and Borofsky, 2003
Many traditional psychological theories of development posit a brief transition from adolescence to adulthood; however, many people moving into their 20s experience anything but a brief transition to “feeling like an adult,” pondering questions such as: How many SLC alums can live in a Brooklyn sublet? What will I do when I finish the Peace Corps next year? In this course, we will explore the psychological literature concerning emerging adulthood, the period from the late teens through the 20s. We will examine this period of life from a unified biopsychosocial and intersectional perspective. This course will be a hands-on introduction to conducting qualitative and quantitative psychological research on the intersection of race/ethnicity, gender, and sexuality with people in emerging adulthood.
Faculty
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Seminar—Fall | 5 credits
PSYC 7162
Play provides us with an amazing and informative lens for observing the development and complex inner lives of young children. Yet, play is being threatened by increasing amounts of time spent on technology and a growing societal focus on scheduled activities and academic goals. This course will offer an introduction to the many fascinating aspects of play, including the importance of unstructured free play, how play shapes the brain, sensory processing and self-regulation in play, outdoor play, cultural contexts of play, and humor development in play. Through readings, video illustrations, and discussion of student fieldwork at the Early Childhood Center, we will explore the many ways in which play contributes to the complex social, cognitive, emotional, and imaginative lives of children. This course will provide a foundation for Early Therapeutic Approaches for Young Children and Families (PSYC 7220). Fieldwork at the Early Childhood Center is required for this course.
Faculty
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Seminar—Spring | 5 credits
PSYC 7002
Making friends, losing friends, keeping friends...through the use of psychological and literary texts, we will explore the important functions of friendship for children and adolescents. During much of the 20th century, psychologists had assumed that adults serve as the major social influence on a child’s developing sense of self and personality, that perhaps only toward adolescence would children’s social relations with peers come to play an important role in their lives. We now know better. In recent years, there has been a tremendous increase in the study of friendships and peer relations throughout childhood, even in toddlerhood. The important psychological benefits of having friends are increasingly recognized. So, too, are the potential problems of its obverse: Children who are truly without friends are at greater risk for later social emotional difficulties. We will explore the writings of major theorists such as Piaget, Sullivan, Youniss, and Rubin; read and discuss the recent studies that have observed “friendship in the making”; and examine what friendship means to children and adolescents in their own words. In addition, fieldwork at the Early Childhood Center or elsewhere will be encouraged, so that students can have firsthand knowledge of children’s social relations.
Faculty
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Seminar—Spring | 3 credits
PSYC 7500
Note: Child Development graduate students may request a 2-credit independent study with Kim Ferguson to accompany this course should they wish to take it as one of their electives.
In this research internship course, students will gain research experience through active engagement in a psychology research lab with a member of the psychology faculty. This will involve an internship within a research lab on campus, including a weekly lab meeting, a weekly collaborative meeting across labs, ongoing contributions towards research and practice within their lab and/or community settings, additional individual and group meetings as needed, and additional synchronous and asynchronous research work. Weekly lab meetings will involve reading and discussing research articles and research-methods papers specific to the topics of research being undertaken by each student and faculty member. Students will be expected to learn the current research approaches being employed by their supervising faculty member and to contribute toward ongoing research in the form of a research practicum. They may also have the opportunity to develop and implement their own independent research projects within the labs in which they are working, depending on lab priorities. The weekly collaborative cross-labs meeting will include readings on, and discussions of, various concepts in research related to open science practices, finding funding/grant writing, collecting and analyzing data, as well as the discussion of contemporary research articles that are relevant to student and faculty research projects. All faculty and students involved in the research experience will take turns leading the discussion of current research, with faculty taking the lead at the beginning of the semester and students taking the lead as their expertise develops. Students participating in the course will be expected to attend and actively participate in weekly collaborative cross-labs meetings and weekly lab meetings; keep an ongoing journal and/or scientific lab notebook; select and facilitate group and lab discussions of relevant contemporary research articles (at least once for each meeting type); work within a lab and/or community setting, as appropriate for their projects; contribute toward ongoing research and practice within their lab or community settings; report on their ongoing lab research in the form of a short paper prepared for possible publication and a poster at the SciMath Poster Symposium; and provide their colleagues with ongoing verbal and written feedback on their projects. Students will be responsible for working collaboratively with their colleagues to further develop their understanding of each of the topics covered in class. Interested students are strongly encouraged to interview with the faculty member they wish to work with.
Faculty
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Seminar—Spring | 5 credits
PSYC 7370
We have never known as much about the minds of children as we do now. Using the same tools, our understanding of adult cognition has also led us to surprising conclusions: Babies are often better than adults at distinguishing faces of other races, and toddlers perform spontaneous scientific experiments with their toys. This research has also raised questions: Why do adept adult readers seem to skip over entire words? Can we simultaneously entertain multiple possible interpretations of the sentences that we see and hear? And, as the movie Frozen forces us to consider: How do we finish each other’s sandwiches? In this course, students will learn about classical and cutting-edge methods for studying learning and reasoning. This course will be a deep dive into multiple measures of behavior, starting with measurements of looking behaviors (e.g., real-time eye tracking, habituation paradigms, headturn methods), reading time, reaction time measures, and naturalistic tasks and interviews with toddlers and children. We will also review the promise of neural methods (fNIRS, fMRI, EEG), as well as their constraints. For each of these methods, we will explore how they shape ongoing debates about how best to design experiments, analyze data, and build inclusive theories that reflect human variation. In conference projects, using one of the studied behavioral methods, students will design an experiment to test their own research question, revise the proposal after peer review, and analyze and present their findings in an APA-style scientific paper. During lab sessions and conference meetings, students will learn to use their chosen behavioral method, implement the experiment, and collect preliminary data. By the end of the course, students will have a strong understanding of several central research methods in psychology, their own perspective of the strengths and limitations of different approaches, and the tools to critically evaluate and communicate about published findings.
Faculty
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Seminar—Spring | 5 credits
PSYC 7138
Note: Offered also as EDUC 7138.
How do varying childhood experiences impact children’s mental health and well-being? What happens when the course of development is affected by trauma or depression? This seminar will focus on challenges that arise in child and adolescent development, drawing upon approaches in clinical psychology, developmental psychology, and cultural psychology/clinical ethnography. We will analyze how particular psychological experiences and behaviors have been typically understood as abnormal or pathological and how they are intertwined with the experience of child development. We will also explore how these challenges are diagnosed, as well as critical commentaries on clinical diagnosis and treatment, in order to analyze the merits and drawbacks of the common approaches to these issues. Students will learn about the clinical categories of conditions such as ADHD, autism, depression, and anxiety, as compiled in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR), as well as how those disorders are assessed and treated in clinical and educational settings. We will look at case examples to illuminate the causes, symptoms, diagnosis, course, and treatment of such psychological conditions in childhood and adolescence. Through readings and course discussion, students will be invited to question the universal applicability of Western clinical approaches that rest on particular assumptions about normality, behavior, social relations, human rights, and health. We will also explore how diagnostic processes and psychological and psychiatric care are, at times, differentially applied in the United States according to the client’s race/ethnicity, class, and gender and how clinicians might effectively address such disparities in diagnosis and care. Students will complete conference projects related to the central themes of our course and may opt to work at the Early Childhood Center or a local community program that serves children or adolescents.
Faculty
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Seminar—Spring | 5 credits
PSYC 7220
This course will explore several therapeutic approaches for young children and their families, with a particular emphasis on the theory and technique of play therapy. While this course will focus most on Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT), we will also look at the methodology of other types of approaches, such as filial therapy, cognitive behavioral play therapy, and DIR/Floortime therapy. In addition, course material will highlight cultural considerations, therapeutic work with parents and caregivers, challenges in treatment, self-reflection, self-regulation, sensory processing, interoception, and analysis of clinical case studies. Readings, class discussions, group play-based activities, and video illustrations will provide students with both a theoretical and introductory clinical basis for play-based therapeutic work with young children in early-intervention approaches.
Faculty