Early Childhood Development and Education, Associate of Arts

Speaker 1:
As more emphasis is placed on high quality education for children at the earliest stages of development, the requirements for those who teach are also changing. 

The Ohio State University's online Associate of Arts degree in Early Childhood Development and Education will provide you with the knowledge, skills and credentials you need to have a holistic understanding of child development and to provide a strong foundation for children. 

This completely online program provides the flexibility to obtain your education while continuing to work full-time.

You'll be taught by some of the leading researchers and world-renowned faculty from Ohio State's College of Education and Human Ecology. 

We're examining best practices in child development and education. "One of the great things about taking this at Ohio State is that we have done a really strong job of bringing together research based practices are. 

There's lots of different ideas available, but you know that these ones are tried-and-true. They're things that we know from child development research that we know from research in early childhood classrooms." 

Throughout your coursework, you'll learn how to provide the high quality education that young children need guided by a deeper understanding of the many factors that influence children's development including biology, family and community. 

"My life focus has been about trying to make a difference in the lives of children and families. And high quality care when children are young is a way that we can buffer a lot of other things that may be happening in their life."

Scheduling is flexible and you may attend part-time or full-time. The program can be completed in less than four semesters if attending full-time or up to ten semesters if attending part-time. 

Upon graduation you'll be prepared to work with children from birth to five years of age in public and private childcare and preschool settings. 

What are you waiting for? Visit online.osu.edu/aaecd to take the next step in your career.
 

Speker 1:
My name is Raban and my pronouns are she and her and currently I'm An Early Child educator at the A Sophie Rogers Schoenbaum Family Center.

 I recently graduated with my associates degree in Early Child Education and Development online from the Ohio State University.
 
 One of the reasons that I started the associates in Early Child Education and Development was when I started I wasn't sure if I wanted to commit to a 4-year degree.
 
I didn't want to do like a four year and then drop out midway and feel disappointed. So this was two years. 

I like let's do this and get this under the belt and then we'll see afterwards.

Once I started honestly I loved it so much that now I've started my bachelors in Human Development Family Sciences and they kind of go hand in hand so that kind of worked out for me.

I've lived in Ohio for the past 12-13 years I was a stay at home mom for a really long time you know I was very involved with my own son's education. He had some special needs so I saw firsthand how important it was you know the 0 to 5 age group and how incredible influence it had on him and his growth and he had amazing teachers when I would see that I really wanted to do that for someone else as well.

So I think that was one of my main motivation to to do what I'm doing right now. 

So one of my absolute favorite courses was Early Childhood Language and Literacy Development. 

I think it just amazed me how important that is developing their language early on. I mean you're basically you know setting their foundation so it should be very strong and I think it's a good projector of how they do later in life with education so that was one of my absolutely favorite courses I was able to vanage the workload of the program because it was totally in asynchronous and online and they gave me a lot of flexibility and room to work.
 
 With I thought it was going to be difficult since I'm a distant student but the professors were only one email away. They were always present and I was I appreciate it because they would always provide feedback on every assignment every discussion so almost I, I mean honestly it didn't feel like I wasn't on campus just from personal experience.
 
I had the information like I said you know I had bits and pieces here and there like what works with children and how I can help my own child as well but when I started pursuing the degree everything kind of came together and it turned my information into knowledge that I could now implement into the classroom and even at home.

I honestly wish that I knew what I know now with my own son when he was growing up because it it's very eye opening.

I would tell someone if you're passionate about it this is definitely the way to go. 

I mean it can own is a great way to start your professional career as a in teaching, as a teacher but I think if you want to build upon it and pursue your education that's another opportunity as well I mean it can open up a lot of possibilities for you.