Help babies and toddlers under age 3 take their first steps.
The Infant/Toddler Undergraduate Certificate is a specialized curriculum designed for early childcare teachers and providers, Head Start teachers, WVU students and others who work with young children from birth to three years of age.
It prepares teaching professionals to work with babies and toddlers in preschools, daycare centers, community centers, healthcare settings, or in nonprofits or social service agencies.
The specific body of knowledge in the Infant/Toddler Certificate satisfies new state and federal mandates that teachers of very young children must have formal recognition of their training in order to obtain and/or maintain employment.
If you enjoy working with children and want to enter this field, or if you are already working in an educational setting for infants and toddlers, this certificate will give you the qualifications you need to advance in your career. It will prepare you to make a difference in the life of a child.
There are 19 hours in the Infant/Toddler Certificate program. The certificate can be completed alone or within a degree program.
After completing the certificate in Early Childhood Education, students will demonstrate knowledge of social, emotional, cognitive, language, motor, and physical development of infants and toddlers, as well as the best practices for facilitating infant and toddler growth in these domains.
They will apply the major theories of infant and toddler development to the home and classroom context and will be able to construct and create positive and enriched infant and toddler environments that optimize development in all domains and set the stage for lifelong learning.