Undergraduate Courses

To see our current and upcoming offerings, visit Yale's online course catalog: https://registrar.yale.edu/yale-course-search.

Under Program/Subject, select 'Child Study Center' and submit the search.

Introduction to Child Development

CHLD 125a, PSYC 125a, EDST 125a
Instructors: Nancy Close (Primary), Carla Horwitz
Description: This course provides students a theoretical base in child cognitive, social, and emotional development and tools to sensitively and carefully observe infants and young children. The course includes an overview of major theories in the field, focusing on the complex interaction between the developing self and the environment, exploring current research, theory, and practice. Students have the opportunity to see how programs for young children use psychodynamic and interactional theories to inform curriculum development.

Developmental Psychopathology

CHLD 334/534, PSYC 334/534
Instructors: Fred Volkmar (Primary), Eli Lebowitz, Denis Sukhodolsky
Description: Designed for advanced undergraduates or beginning graduate students, this course provides an overview of developmental psychopathology during childhood and adolescence. It is team taught by a child psychiatrist and three psychologists and covers aspects of normal development, assessment methods, clinical disorders, treatment, and legal and social policy issues. Treatment models are reviewed, along with relevant issues of culture, ethnicity in expression of psychopathology in childhood.

Theory and Practice of Early Childhood Education

CHLD 127b, PSYC 127b, EDST 127b
Instructor: Carla Horwitz
Description: The course deals with development and delivery of curricula for young children ages 3-6 and the current context of educational reform and debate. Goals are to deepen insights through critical analysis of educational programs for young children in light of current research and developmental theory and to understand how political context contributes to the practice of education. Regularly scheduled seminar discussions and workshops engage students in learning. The course uses newspaper and magazine articles and other recent media as primary sources in addition to current research and other texts.

Language, Literacy, and Play

Instructors: Nancy Close (Primary), Carla Horwitz
Description: The focus of this course is to demonstrate the complicated role that play has in the development of language and literacy skills. A major part of each topic presentation involves a discussion of the role that play has in the curriculum in enhancing these developmental areas. Because learning to play, learning language, and learning literacy skills are all part of the process of thinking and communication, the course provides a view which attempts to demonstrate the integration of language, literacy, and play in an early childhood education curriculum.

Autism and Related Disorders

CHLD 350b, PSYC 350b, EDST 350b
Instructors: Fred Volkmar (Primary), James McPartland
Description: This is a weekly seminar focusing on autism and related disorders of socialization. A series of lectures on topics in etiology, diagnosis and assessment, treatment and advocacy, and social neuroscience methods; topics cover infancy through adulthood. Supervised experience in the form of placement in a school, residence, or treatment setting for individuals with autism spectrum disorders.

The Yale Seminar on Autism and Related Disorders (summer session)

PSYC S350E
Instructor: Fred R. Volkmar MD
Description: This course consists of on-line lectures (3 per week) and two mandatory live online discussion groups focused on autism and related disorders of socialization.