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BSc (Hons)

Childhood Development

Understand how children and young people learn, grow and experience challenges across different contexts. This hands-on degree combines psychology, therapeutic approaches and real-world experience in a supportive, research-focused environment that prepares you to make a meaningful difference.

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Key Course Details

  • UCAS Code

    L230

  • Start Date

    September

  • Location

    Pontypridd

  • Campus Code

    A

Fees

  • Home students

    £9,790*

  • International students

    £17,200*

  • Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.

  • UCAS Code

    L231

  • Start Date

    September

  • Location

    Pontypridd

  • Campus Code

    A

Fees

  • Home students

    £9,790*

  • International students

    £17,200*

  • Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.

You’ll explore key psychological theories of childhood and adolescence, focusing on both typical and atypical development, as well as mental health and wellbeing. The course examines children and young people within their wider contexts, including the influence of adversity, relationships, and societal change.

DESIGNED FOR

This course is ideal if you know you want to work with children but are still figuring out which specialised route you want to take.

Career paths

  • Teaching
  • Nursery/Early Years
  • Social Work
  • Third Sector Organisations
  • Youth and Community Work

Skills taught

  • Critical Thinking
  • Communication
  • Creative Problem Solving
  • Research
  • Reflection

Professional recognition

Our BSc (Hons) Childhood Development course meets the requirements for the UK Intermediate Behaviour Analyst (UKiBA) certification, offered by the UK Society for Behaviour Analysis. Please see the UK-SBA website for more information. 

Please note that all individuals registered as UKiBAs must receive ongoing supervision from a UKBA (cert), must adhere to the UK-SBA Code of Ethical and Professional Conduct, have an up-to-date DBS check, hold professional indemnity insurance, and have completed appropriate safeguarding training.

We make a difference in practice, not just on paper. Our courses are designed by people who offer jobs - and taught by people who have real work experience.


Course Highlights

External Partnerships

We work closely with our external partners to create meaningful learning experiences that give you the opportunity to inspire change in the real world and to develop the right knowledge and skills for your future careers.

Outstanding Facilities

Take advantage of the industry-standard equipment in our purpose-built psychology laboratories and gain valuable hands-on experience at our on-campus Early Intervention Service.

Research Informed Teaching

Learn alongside research active academics, developing your real-world research skills through a research project with an external partner, designed to build your skills and make a difference.

Module Overview

In Year One, you’ll explore child and adolescent development, wellbeing, and behaviour, gaining hands-on experience, practical skills, and insight into research, policy, and the factors shaping children’s lives today. 

Understanding Child and Adolescent Development  
Dive into the fascinating world of child and adolescent development. From first words to moral reasoning, you’ll explore how children grow physically, socially, emotionally, and cognitively, and what influences that growth.  

Behavioural Insights in Child Development  
You’ll explore behavioural science to understand children’s behaviour, build practical observation and ethical skills, and gain valuable experience working in our supportive on-campus Early Intervention Service.  

Understanding Child and Adolescent Wellbeing  
Explore the research, policies, and practices that support the wellbeing of children and young people. You'll be introduced to modules, frameworks and global and international approaches to children's and young people's wellbeing.  

Working with Children in Context  
This module invites you to look beyond the obvious and explore the complex web of influences that affect children's development and wellbeing every day.  

In Year 2, you’ll apply research and ethical practice to understand children’s behaviour, trauma, and diverse needs, using behavioural strategies and inclusive approaches to promote wellbeing, learning, and positive outcomes.

Research Methods and Ethics for Real-World Enquiry 
You’ll explore research with children and adolescents, learning ethical and practical methods, and gain hands-on experience tackling real-world data with external partners while developing academic and professional skills. 

Adverse Childhood Experiences and Trauma-Informed Practice 
Explore the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), trauma, and stress on children and young people, learning how these shape brain, behaviour, and wellbeing, and how to promote resilience and support through trauma informed practice. 

Working with Children in Specialist Contexts 
Explore how neurodiversity, disability, social and emotional challenges, and exclusion affect children’s participation in education and society, while learning to apply inclusive, rights-based, and ethical approaches to support diverse needs effectively. 

Behavioural Strategies to Promote Children’s Learning 
Building on your assessment skills, you’ll design and implement behavioural interventions to promote prosocial behaviour, reduce challenging behaviours, and see how applied behavioural science makes a meaningful difference in educational and clinical settings, including valuable work experience in our Early Intervention Service. 

In Year 3, you’ll complete a research project that responds to the needs of an external partner, develop advanced behaviour change skills and deepen your understanding of child and adolescent mental health, preparing yourself for impactful work with children and young people.

Applied Research: Designing Projects that Matter 
This module lets you apply your research skills by designing a meaningful project for an external partner addressing real-world issues affecting children and young people, exploring topics from parenting and education to social media, identity, and wellbeing. 

Child and Adolescent Mental Health 
Building on your previous learning, the module will develop your understanding of factors that shape mental health in children and young people, and how professionals work therapeutically with children and young people in practice.

Advanced Behaviour Change Strategies and Professional Practice 
Apply your classroom knowledge in our Early Intervention Service, working with experienced practitioners to support behaviour change programmes, while reflecting on the practical and ethical considerations of professional work with children. 

Applied Research: Conducting Research for Real-World Impact 
In this module, you’ll move beyond theory to real, impactful research. Building on prior learning, you’ll collect and analyse data, bringing ideas to life and applying practical research skills.

Course Highlights

How you’ll learn

On this course, you’ll learn through a three-part weekly structure: knowledge-based workshops, skills development sessions, and real-world challenge-based learning. You’ll consolidate key knowledge, develop professional and transferable skills, and apply what you learn to authentic problems, including a research project with an external partner. Research, digital fluency, and employability are embedded throughout, giving you opportunities to work on assessments aligned with real-world practice. You’ll gain hands-on experience in our Early Intervention Service, develop practical skills using tools like SPSS and Generative AI, and build confidence in a supportive environment. 

How you’ll be assessed

You’ll be assessed through a variety of oral, written, and creative tasks, designed to match each module’s learning outcomes and help you develop key professional skills like critical thinking, reflective practice, and communication. Assessments gradually build in challenge and include a wide range of tasks, including portfolios, classroom tests, research reports, presentations, and podcasts. Formative workshops, peer and tutor feedback, and self-reflection will help you build confidence, track your progress, and gradually develop a professional CV capturing the knowledge, skills, and experience you gain throughout the course.

Placements

A key element of the Childhood Development course is the work-based learning in our Early Intervention Service embedded at each level of your study.  This gives you the opportunity to learn about how a specialist nursery is run and to gradually build your hands-on skills working within this setting as part of your learning.  Outside of this our careers service can support you to access work experience opportunities in a range of settings where available, including schools, child and family welfare charities, and youth justice. You can also apply for further placement and work experience activity through our Psychology Plus scheme.

Facilities

The course offers dedicated teaching spaces, a purpose-built psychology lab with high-tech research equipment, and a range of social learning areas for collaboration and quiet study. You’ll also gain experience in our on-campus Early Intervention Service, which is a specialist nursery for children with delays in their learning and development. Immersive learning facilities simulate real-world settings, giving you the opportunity to apply theory, develop practical skills, and engage directly with research and professional practice. 

Did you know?

three social work students sitting at a desk working from a laptop in the university library
  • Education at USW is top in Wales for student satisfaction (Complete University Guide 2027)

  • Top in Wales for teaching quality (Guardian University Guide 2026) 

Did you know?

99%

of USW Education graduates are in Employment and/or Further Study 15 months after graduation

(Graduate Outcomes Survey 2022/23)
  • Education at USW is top in Wales for student satisfaction (Complete University Guide 2027)

  • Top in Wales for teaching quality (Guardian University Guide 2026) 


Careers and Employability

Graduate careers

The BSc (Hons) Childhood Development degree will help you develop a range of practical skills and engage you in work-based learning, giving you both the knowledge and tools to work with children and young people in a variety of settings. This course opens doors to a range of exciting career opportunities across many settings, including youth work, nurseries and early years settings, schools and third sector organisations. There are a range of professional qualifications that this course will help prepare you for, such as Behaviour Analysis, Social Work, and Youth and Community Work. Many of our graduates also use their qualification and experience to go onto further professional PGCE and teaching qualifications to gain a career path in an educational setting.  

Possible career paths

This Childhood Development degree opens the doors to many different career paths, but many of our graduates use their qualification and experience to go onto further professional PGCE and teaching qualifications to gain a career path in an educational setting. Using the knowledge of child and adolescent development that you gain in this degree can help create empathetic teaching practices that create a safe learning environment for children and adolescents with a variety of learning needs. Your understanding of the psychological development of children would allow you to make informed decisions, develop appropriate interventions and strategies, and may help you to influence positive changes to educational systems.

Careers support

On top of the amazing support from the University’s Careers and Employability Service offered to all students at USW, we work closely with the University’s Careers and Employability Service to support you with placement opportunities, ensuring that you find tailored experience that suits your aspirations.   

Our degree has been designed with our external partners to ensure it gives you the right knowledge and skills relevant for working with children and young people today. You will have opportunities to work in our Early Intervention Service, to complete a research project designed with an external partner and to respond to “live briefs” set by our external partners as part of your assessments.  You can also apply to take part in additional opportunities through our Psych Plus scheme to boost your CV. 

Sandwich years

A sandwich year enables you to apply the knowledge gained during your degree to real-world work situations. You’ll equip yourself with a transferable skillset and gain invaluable work experience that will help you to stand out to potential employers in future job applications. A sandwich year also provides a fantastic opportunity to network and, if you impress your employer, you may even find you have a job waiting for you when you graduate. Many employers like to take on dedicated employees as showcased via a sandwich year placement scheme.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

UCAS points: 96 (or above)

Typical qualification requirements:

  • A Level: CCC to exclude General Studies
  • Welsh BACC: Advanced Skills Baccalaureate Wales Grade C and CC at A Level to exclude General Studies 
  • BTEC: BTEC Extended Diploma Merit Merit Merit 
  • Access to HE: Pass the Access to HE Diploma with a minimum of 96 UCAS tariff points
  • T Level: Pass (C and above)

 

Additional requirements include:

The University normally requires a minimum 5 GCSEs including Mathematics/Numeracy and English at Grade C or Grade 4 or above, or their equivalent, but consideration is given to individual circumstances

International applications welcomed:

We welcome international applications with equivalent qualifications of our entry requirements. For more details related to your country of residence, please view our dedicated country pages.

English language requirements

International applicants will need to have achieved an overall of IELTS 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in each component/TOEFL 4 overall and a minimum of 4 in each component or equivalent.

Equivalents can be located on our English Language pages.

If you have previously studied through the medium of English, IELTS might not be required, please visit our country specific page for further details. If your country is not featured, please contact us.

If you do not meet the English entry criteria, please visit our Pre-Sessional course pages.

Contextual offers

We may make you a lower offer based on a range of factors, including your background (where you live and the school or college that you attended, for example), your experiences and individual circumstances (as a care leaver, for example). This is referred to as a contextual offer, and we receive data from UCAS to support us in making these decisions.

USW prides itself on its student experience and we support our students to achieve their goals and become a successful graduate. This approach helps us to support students who have the potential to succeed and who may have faced barriers that make it more difficult to access university.

 

We're here to help

Whether you a have a question about your course, fees and funding, the application process or anything else, there are plenty of ways you can get in touch, and we'd love to talk to you. You can contact our friendly admissions team by phone, email or chat to us online.

 

Fees and Funding

UK Full-time Fee

£9,790

per year*
International Full-time Fee

£17,200

per year*
International Full-time Fee

£17,200

per year*

Further Information

Studying at university is one of the most significant investments you'll ever make. Whilst you’re studying, you’ll have two main financial obligations – tuition fees and living costs. There’s lots of financial help available from the University of South Wales and external funding sources, that may provide loans (which have to be paid back) and grants, scholarships and bursaries (that don't).

*Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits. Once enrolled, the fee is anticipated to remain at the same rate throughout the duration of your study on this course except as described below.

Please be aware that we may increase the maximum fee for home students on full-time undergraduate courses only where the Welsh Government increases the permitted level of inflation of fees. Fees for all students (including part-time, postgraduate and international students) may be amended in accordance with our applicable Fees and Debt Management Policy.  We will ensure that students are given clear, intelligible, unambiguous and timely information about our courses and costs in good time, ahead of the next academic year.

 

Fees and Funding Scholarships and Bursaries Cost of Living Support

Additional Costs

As a student of USW, you’ll have access to lots of free resources to support your study and learning, such as textbooks, publications, online journals, laptops, and plenty of remote-access resources. Whilst in most cases these resources are more than sufficient in supporting you with completing your course, additional costs, both obligatory and optional, may be required or requested for the likes of travel, memberships, experience days, stationery, printing, or equipment.  

*Obligatory  

 Students will be expected to pay for a DBS or certificate of good behaviour from their home country. The DBS fee includes £49.50 for the enhanced DBS certificate, the Post Office Administration fee and the online administration fee

Cost: £64.74

Subscription required for each year of the course for a yearly fee of £16. Please note the service has to be joined within 30 days of receipt of your enhanced DBS certificate

Cost: £16

All years of study. Cost is dependent on location

Cost: Up to £500

 

I chose Childhood Development because it offered strong placement opportunities at the Early Intervention Service and covered a broad spectrum of topics, allowing for flexibility in exploring different interests.

Skye Maxwell

BSc (Hons) Childhood Development 

The best aspect of the course is the opportunity to gain insight into a wide range of areas related to working with children. The lecturers are experts in their fields and share real-world experiences from their own careers, which I found particularly helpful when reflecting on the direction I wanted to take in my own professional journey. 

Rosie Nel 

BSc (Hons) Childhood Development  

University Quality Assurance

At USW, we regularly review our courses in response to changing patterns of employment and skills demand to ensure we offer learning designed to reflect today’s student needs and tomorrow’s employer demands.

If during a review process course content is significantly changed, we’ll write to inform you and talk you through the changes for the coming year. But whatever the outcome, we aim to equip our students with the skillset and the mindset to succeed whatever tomorrow may bring. Your future, future-proofed.

Two psychology students studying at a desk surrounded by books and psychology equipment

Psychology Plus

Our psychology degrees offer hands-on experience, plus free opportunities through Psychology Plus to boost your skills and stand out in jobs or further study.


Life at USW

Halls are a big part of your student experience and there’s accommodation at all three of our locations. If you don’t want to live near the campus, there are great transport links to keep you connected.

How to apply

All applications for full-time undergraduate courses or foundation degrees should be made via UCAS. Take the next step: Apply through UCAS. You can apply to us directly for all part-time undergraduate courses, if you’re seeking advanced entry or you’re an international student. To apply directly, please choose the application form below for your preferred start date and mode of study (full-time or part-time).

Advanced entry

If you already have a relevant qualification or experience related to the course you're applying for, you may be eligible to start at a later stage of the course. For example, students from partner colleges can ‘top up’ their qualifications to a degree by joining us in Year Two or Year Three of a course. This process is known as ‘advanced entry’, you can apply directly to the University for 'advanced entry' using the application forms provided above.

Applicants accepted through advanced entry may study a different combination of modules to those advertised, as they will be joining a course already in progress. You will be contacted and advised about these modules once your application has been processed and an offer made.

International admissions

International applicants can apply to us directly. If the University has an in-country team in your region, your application will be assigned to them for assistance.