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.
How to apply Apply through Clearing Book an Open Day Chat to Us
Key Course Details
-
UCAS Code
L230
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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.
Course Highlights
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?
- 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)
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
£9,790
per year*£17,200
per year*£17,200
per year*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
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.
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.