The BA in Childhood Studies at Essex is an interdisciplinary degree where we explore the social and emotional worlds of children from birth to 25. It is a wonderful introduction for students wishing to deepen their knowledge about children's lives and forge a career in children's education, health and well-being.

Are you fascinated by children's behaviour? What drives their development, what informs their behaviour and shapes their identity? Do you want to help children with emotional, social, behavioural and education difficulties? Why do some children falter through life's ups and downs, whilst others seem to thrive in adversity and are more resilient? Do you want to make a difference to children's lives? If so, this course is for you.

Children today face a wide range of new and challenging experiences, including unprecedented access to media, wider cultural diversity, online bullying and larger school numbers. Their early experiences of childhood affect them for the rest of their lives. You can make a positive contribution to these formative years.

Childhood studies is a vibrant and exciting field which has expanded in recent years to include knowledge from psychology, sociology and psychoanalysis. This course lays the foundations for a career working with infants and children, whether in education, health care or children's services. It can also lead to further study in a range of courses from social work or teaching to speech and language therapy.

You gain a solid understanding of child development, the ecology of childhood (the place of children in different societies) and consider the way our concepts of childhood shape and condition children's lives. You will also learn about the direct work with children through undertaking a placement in each year of study where you can begin to make links between theory and practice in year one this placement can be with children of any age, in year two this is focussed on infant observation. Assessment is mainly by course work.

Topics include:

Psychosocial approaches

Child development

Attachment theory

ADHD, developmental trauma and Autism

Criminological approaches

Play and infant observation

The social history of childhood

Children in literature

Therapeutic work in groups

Wellbeing and resilience

Psychodynamics of teaching, learning

Therapeutic work groups

Our Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies is internationally recognised as one of the leading departments for work on the role of the unconscious mind in mental health, as well as in culture and society more generally.