Child Development
An 18-credit minor across child and adolescent development, family systems, and trauma-informed care — for students stepping into work with kids and families.
About the Minor
ACU’s Child Development Minor is built for students stepping into work that revolves around children and families — child life, education, counseling, social work, foster care and adoption, pediatric healthcare, children’s ministry, and family-services nonprofits. Eighteen credits cover developmental psychology across childhood and adolescence, the family systems kids actually live inside, and the trauma-informed lens any of that work increasingly requires.
The minor’s six courses balance three angles. Child and adolescent development (CHD 101, CHD 314) build the developmental psychology foundation. Family Structure and Function, Parent/Child Relations, and Gender Studies (FAM 316, 425, 440) widen the view to the family systems and cultural realities that shape every child. And Trauma and Families (CHD 416) adds the trauma-informed framework that distinguishes prepared practitioners from well-meaning amateurs.
Pairs especially naturally with Psychology, Christian Ministries, Education, Family Studies, or Pre-Occupational Therapy — and serves as strong preparation for graduate study in counseling, marriage and family therapy, social work, or child life.
What You'll Learn
Understand Child Development
Trace cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development from infancy through middle childhood.
Engage Adolescent Development
Work through the developmental changes that shape adolescence — identity, autonomy, relational shifts, neurodevelopment.
Apply Trauma-Informed Care
Recognize how trauma affects children and families, and build a framework for responding well in helping settings.
Read Family Systems
Understand families as systems — how structure, function, and dynamics shape individual children and adolescents.
Engage Cultural and Gender Dimensions
Examine how gender, culture, and family configuration affect development from a thoughtful Christian perspective.
Connect Theory to Practice
Translate developmental theory into the practical work of helping kids and families in real settings.
Working With Kids and Families From a Biblical Worldview
A Biblical Worldview takes children seriously as image-bearers, takes families seriously as God's primary discipling structure, and takes broken systems seriously as places where restoration is real work.
Children as Image-Bearers
Every child carries the dignity of being made in God's image — including the child who's hard to love, the child working through trauma, and the child whose family is struggling. The minor treats children not as research subjects or clinical cases but as people whose flourishing matters because of who they are.
Grounds your work with kids in respect and patience rather than in fix-it urgency.The Family as Formative
Scripture presents families as the primary place where children are formed — for better and for worse. The minor's three family-studies courses take that seriously, equipping students to understand both the goodness of healthy family systems and the real damage of dysfunctional ones.
Equips you to work with whole families rather than just individual children.Trauma and the Work of Restoration
A Biblical Worldview takes trauma seriously without despairing. The minor's trauma-informed lens treats restoration as real possibility — not naive optimism, but the conviction that even deeply wounded children and families can be helped toward wholeness over time.
Prepares you to do helping work without burning out or pretending the wounds aren't real.Where This Minor Takes You
The Child Development Minor opens doors across helping professions, education, ministry, and graduate study in counseling and family therapy.
Child Life Specialist
Add the developmental and trauma-informed foundation that pediatric hospital child-life programs assume.
Children's Ministry Director
Lead children's, youth, or family ministries with formal training in development and family systems.
Foster Care and Adoption Services
Bring trauma-informed understanding into foster care, adoption, and family preservation work.
Educational Support and Counseling
Step into school counseling support, behavioral specialist, or family-liaison roles.
Family-Services Nonprofit Staff
Serve in mission, mercy, and family-strengthening organizations with grounded developmental literacy.
Bridge to MFT or Counseling Graduate Programs
Build preparation toward ACU's MS in Marriage and Family Therapy or other graduate counseling programs.
Why Students Choose This Minor
The Child Development Minor at ACU stands out for its trauma-informed framing and the breadth of family-systems coursework — both unusual at the undergraduate level.
Trauma Course Included
CHD 416 Trauma and Families is required, not optional. Most child-development minors leave trauma to graduate programs.
Whole-Life Developmental Range
CHD 101 covers childhood; CHD 314 covers adolescence. Few minors pair both in the required core.
Three Family-Studies Courses
Family Structure, Parent/Child Relations, and Gender Studies build a working understanding of the systems kids actually live inside.
Pre-Graduate Preparation
Strong foundation for MS in Marriage and Family Therapy at ACU or graduate counseling, social work, and child life programs elsewhere.
Same Faculty as the MFT Program
ACU's Department of Natural and Psychological Sciences faculty teach across the undergrad minor and the graduate MFT degree.
Getting Started
The Child Development Minor has light prerequisites and a flexible course sequence — most students complete it across their sophomore through senior years.
Talk With Your Academic Advisor
Map the 18 credits into your degree plan and identify which child-and-family topic area you want to emphasize.
Take CHD 101 or CHD 312 Early
FAM 316 Family Structure and Function requires ECE 261, CHD 312, or CHD 314 as a prerequisite. Taking a development course in your sophomore year keeps the rest of the minor on schedule.
View CHD 101 →Plan Around the Trauma Course
CHD 416 Trauma and Families is one of the minor's most distinctive courses. Save it for junior or senior year when the rest of your developmental coursework gives you the context to engage it deeply.
Stack Toward Graduate Work (Optional)
If you're considering ACU's MS in Marriage and Family Therapy or graduate counseling work, talk with the department about which electives in your major best complement the minor.
Explore More Options
Ready to Work With Kids and Families?
The Child Development Minor gives you the developmental, family-systems, and trauma-informed foundation that helping professions actually use. Apply or reach out today.
