Child and Family Studies
www.linnbenton.edu/education
The Child and Family Studies Program offers a 12-credit Certificate in Working with Families, a 12- or 13-credit Child Care Directors Certificate, a 16-credit Certificate in Childhood Care and Education, and a one-year certificate and a two-year Associate of Applied Science degree (AAS) in Child and Family Studies to prepare students for employment in the field of early childhood education.
The program emphasizes concepts in growth and development, curriculum design, positive guidance, and provides opportunities to apply knowledge and skills with children birth to five years of age in the Head Start Periwinkle Child Development Center (PCDC), the program’s on-campus lab school. You must have current inoculations and complete the Central Registry background check before working directly with children.
If you are interested in related areas of study, see the following sections of this catalog: child care — see child care provider training; elementary school teaching — see Education; Human Development and Family Sciences programs — see Human Services; parent education — see Parenting Education.
Some financial assistance is available for Child and Family Studies majors. See the CFS Program Chair for more information.
Student Learning Outcomes
A student who successfully completes an Associate of Applied Science in Child and Family Studies will:
- Work as an effective team member and lead teacher.
- Assess and utilize various types of communication strategies to meet the unique needs of families.
- Link families with appropriate community resources.
- Recognize and honor diversity in interactions with children and families.
- Select from a wide variety of guidance strategies to meet individual needs of children.
- Adapt learning environments and activities to meet the needs of individual children.
- Plan, implement and evaluate developmentally appropriate activities and learning environments.
- Develop and practice record-keeping, observation and assessment skills.
Associate of Applied Science Degree in Child and Family Studies
Graduates with two-year degrees may become teachers of young children in child care centers, family child care homes, Head Start programs or parent cooperatives. They plan and implement developmentally appropriate learning experiences to foster young children’s physical, social-emotional, cognitive and language development. They may design indoor and outdoor environments, keep records, and confer with parents.
See an advisor if you are interested in a Bachelor’s degree in this field. LBCC has articulation agreements with Southern Oregon University (SOU) and Oregon State University (OSU). Students may pursue an AAOT with emphasis in Child & Family Studies or complete the Child & Family Studies AAS degree requirements plus 30 specialized general education courses and transfer to SOU. The AS in Human Development & Family Sciences, Child Development option transfers to OSU with specified general education and program courses.
The AAS degree in Child and Family Studies is designed to be completed in two years, but this assumes that the entering student has basic skills in writing and college-level math. If you did not place into WR 121 and MTH 065 on the writing and mathematics portions of the Computerized Placement Test (CPT), you may be required to take pre-college courses that extend completion of your degree beyond two years. Research has shown that students who get started on this work during their first few quarters of college are more likely to finish their degrees than those who postpone it. Linn-Benton offers a summer term that will allow you to gain these skills and stay on track to complete.