Associate of Science Degree in
Early Childhood Education

This course offers a broad overview of the business world for both business and non-business majors. It is an introduction to the business environment, business ownership, management, marketing, technology and information, and finance.
Credit Hours: 3

This course presents the basic principles of communication that are particularly applicable in business and industry, providing a foundation for more effective communication skills. It focuses on the proper use of English grammar in business settings.
Credit Hours: 3
Prerequisite: EN130

This course introduces the student to the field of early childhood education by describing at a fundamental level how children learn, the stages of early childhood development, how teachers work with children and their parents, what is taught, how to create and evaluate an early childhood environment, and issues and trends in the field.
Credit Hours: 3

This is a survey of the field of psychology, including the development of behavior, physiological mechanisms of behavior, perception, motivation and emotion, consciousness, learning, memory, personality, and mental health.
Credit Hours: 3

This course examines childhood development by observing physical and psychosocial factors that lead to cognitive, language, and literacy development according to a child's age. Child development theories, studies and assessments will also be presented.
Credit Hours: 3

This course presents the basics of written communication in business. It also explores differences in approach and format for various business documents, and covers techniques for planning, researching, organizing, and writing reports.
Credit Hours: 3

This course discusses 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.
Credit Hours: 3

This course presents 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, and will themselves become a much more patient and understanding disciplinarian.
Credit Hours: 3

This course provides an overview of the structure and operations of the federal government, including constitutional principles, rights and liberties, the political process, and the relationships among the three branches of the federal government.
Credit Hours: 3

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.
Credit Hours: 3

This is a comprehensive review of mathematical skills and concepts commonly used in academic and vocational applications. Topics include whole numbers, fractions, decimal notation, ratios and proportions, percents, statistics and measurement, geometry, real numbers, and algebra.
Credit Hours: 3

Play is a core component of an early childhood curriculum. This course reinforces the importance of play and teaches students how to integrate play into the art, music, movement, and drama curricula. This course also analyzes the connection between play and creativity, and demonstrates techniques for fostering creativity.
Credit Hours: 3

This course teaches the student why art activities are important to young children and how to provide those art activities in the classroom. Topics include child development, art, and cultural diversity, aesthetics, the senses, and art programs, teaching, planning and evaluating art, and roles, strategies, responses and assessment.
Credit Hours: 3

The optimal physical and cognitive development of a young child depends on proper nutrition, a safe but challenging learning environment, and care sensitive to the child’s individual health status. In this course, 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.
Credit Hours: 3

This course provides an introduction to the partnerships that teachers must create with parents and others, in order to achieve the best results for children in their classroom. Topics covered include home visits with parents and children, meetings with parents, and parental visits to the child’s classroom. Issues of separation and communication are addressed, along with resolving troublesome behaviors.
Credit Hours: 3

This course is designed to assure a basic level of computer applications literacy, including word processing, spreadsheet, database, email, and the Internet. The course also covers various types of computer hardware and networking methods. (This course has been designed so that access to a computer is helpful, but not required.)
Credit Hours: 3

This is an introduction to the special needs of children with developmental disabilities, and how to implement programs that include these children in an early childhood classroom. Topics include exceptional development, physical impairments and learning and behavior problems, and encouraging social, language and thinking skills.

Movement and music are believed to provide equally valued benefits in the areas of cognitive development, physiological development, physical health, school success, and reading and math achievement. This is a broad-based course in physical education for children, which emphasizes the development of fundamental motor skills through child-centered activities that involve the use of music.
Credit Hours: 3

This course provides 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.
Credit Hours: 3

A sociological overview of the ways in which cultural diversity influences children’s social skills and behavior, communication, learning styles, literacy development and professional development, plus suggestions for teachers in working with children from diverse backgrounds.
Credit Hours: 3