This course examines language as a complex and dynamic system for the purposes of thought and communication, with a focus on development occurring between birth and age eight. This course also examines how practitioners may guide and shape this pivotal developmental process, using theory and science to inform educational and clinical practices for measuring and fostering early childhood language development in positive ways.

This course is designed to provide skills, practice, and knowledge in advanced theory and methods of ABA. Emphasis will be placed on the theory, principles, procedures, and science of ABA. Analysis and design of advanced research models will be a major focus of this course; therefore, students must have knowledge and experience withresearch design.

The course will focus on the basic principles of ABA. The course will cover the characteristics, theories, basic definitions, principles, and processes of behavior analysis and basic behavior change techniques. Upon completion of this course, students are expected to have a solid knowledge base of the basic concepts, principles, and techniques of applied behavior analysis.

Social & Emotional Learning introduces current research on the social and emotional development of students and teachers in educational settings. It also presents students with the current theory underlying social and emotional learning (SEL) curriculum and programs and the empirical research on the efficacy of such programs.

This course is designed to increase students' knowledge of and ability to implement foundational and targeted instructional strategies aimed at promoting children's early mathematics skills in domains including numeracy, operations, geometry, patterning, and measurement. We will explore how to observe students' mathematics skills and how to collect meaningful information on children's mathematical thinking and use that to inform instruction.

Through this course, students will gain an in-depth understanding of self-regulation during early childhood and how this promotes children's success in school. We will focus on how adults serving in a teaching role support children's self-regulation development. Students will learn how to establish learning environments and implement practices that promote children's display of self-regulation in the areas of emotion, behavior, and cognition.

Examines principles and practices necessary for addressing the learning needs of diverse student populations (including culturally and linguistically diverse students, gifted learners, English learners, students with disabilities) at all levels of schooling. Includes role of curriculum, on-going assessment, learning environment, and instructional strategies for addressing student readiness, interest, and learning profile.

This course will familiarize the student with ethical issues and responsibilities of special educators and behavior analysts by leading organizations in the fields of education and mental health. Informed consent, due process, protection of confidentiality, and selection of least intrusive, least restrictive behavior change procedures will be presented and discussed within the context of case method.

This course addresses reading and writing development from emergent literacy through adolescent readers with attention to diverse needs of students. The course also addresses components of effective literacy programs (e.g., concepts of print, fluency, phonological awareness, phonics, spelling, writing, comprehension, vocabulary) and evidence-based practices for reading and writing instruction informed by assessment within an MTSS framework.

Understanding the Code provides students with a deep understanding of the code and why building this knowledge across a child's reading development is crucial. Students learn how phoneme awareness and phonics lead to automatic word recognition, the influence of orthography, and how the meaning layer of language (i.e., morphology, syntax, semantics) supports decoding, spelling, and vocabulary.