By Diane Lewis | 09/09/2024
Do you want to make a difference in a child's life and be part of their growth during the most critical years? Do you have a desire to work with children up to the age of eight?
Early childhood education offers a rewarding and fun career path, but you might wonder, “What exactly can I do with a degree in early childhood education?”
In early childhood education, you’ll have a profound impact on young lives. Working with young children is not only about teaching, but it’s also about shaping their future by:
- Nurturing their social and emotional development
- Fostering their physical development
- Guiding their language skills
- Stimulating their cognitive growth
You will learn to create fun and supportive learning environments, design developmentally appropriate activities, and understand the unique needs of each child in your care.
Early Childhood Education Jobs
When you are enrolled in an early childhood education program, you have the chance to learn how to work with more than just young students. You’ll also discover how to talk to parents and other family members, communicate with other early childhood education instructors in the field, and explore the latest theories and practices in child development.
After you complete your degree, there are various career options, depending upon the degree you earn and your professional goals. In a private or public childcare center, for instance, you could choose to become a:
- Childcare assistant teacher
- Childcare lead teacher
- Preschool teacher
- Kindergarten teacher
- Assistant center director
- Childcare center director
In public or private schools catering to young children, you could be a:
- Paraprofessional
- Teacher assistant
- Substitute teacher
- School counselor
- Elementary school teacher (kindergarten through third grade)
- Special education teacher
- Education consultant
- Curriculum developer
- Family support specialist
- Early intervention specialist
- Education coordinator
- School counselor
With an early childhood education degree, the opportunities before you are as diverse as your ambitions. Whether you're drawn to shaping young minds in a classroom, supporting families in your community, or even influencing early education policy, your career path can be customized to align with your personal goals, interests, and the unique needs of your region.
Making a Positive Impact as an Assistant Teacher
The path you choose could lead you to making a positive impact on children. For example, if you choose to become an assistant teacher, you'll play a crucial role in nurturing children's growth and development. You'll engage with them through play, support their learning journey, and collaborate closely with the lead teacher to create a vibrant, enriching classroom environment.
Your role goes beyond just assisting the lead teacher; you are there to ensure that a child's needs are met by providing support, comfort, and positive interactions. By providing individualized attention, you contribute to the child’s success and play a key part in delivering the curriculum effectively.
The Role of a Lead Teacher
If you want to become a lead teacher, you will design, create, and organize a classroom that will stimulate the curiosity, creativity, and growth of every child.
You will write and develop a curriculum to meet the developmental needs of the age group of the children in your class. You will also observe children to understand their strengths, challenges, and interests so that you can create strategies to support their developmental and learning journey.
You will also document each child's growth and track their progress in the classroom to make sure they meet the developmental milestones. Lead teachers can teach a wide range of age groups, ranging from toddlers to older children.
Becoming an Early Childhood Education Director
In this field, there are director positions that will give you the opportunity to lead, mentor, and inspire others after you obtain an early childhood education degree. In a director’s role, you will guide and support teachers and assistant teachers, helping them grow professionally and enhance their teaching skills.
Directors oversee the day-to-day workings of a childcare center, making sure everything is running smoothly. The work includes providing tours for prospective parents who want to enroll their children in a childcare center, guiding curriculum oversight for other teachers, and making sure that your childcare center meets state licensing rules and regulations.
The Rewarding Role of a Nanny
Nannies have also become a popular and rewarding career path for graduates who have obtained an early childhood education degree. This type of work offers a unique opportunity to work directly with parents and children in their homes in an impactful way.
As a nanny, you serve as an early childhood educator and provide individual care and education for their children in their home and communities. You are also responsible for creating a stable nurturing environment that meets the family's goals for their children.
Nannies provide daily care and help the child meet developmental milestones through engaging lessons. Many nanny positions are live-in situations, providing parents with the support they need during the day or at night. As a nanny, you are responsible for preparing meals, organizing educational activities, and facilitating playdates with other children.
The Early Childhood Care and Education Degree at AMU
For students interested in gaining the knowledge to seek a role in early childhood education, American Military University (AMU) offers an online associate degree in early childhood care and education.
These courses are taught by experienced faculty members with a background in early childhood education and are offered in an online learning environment to create a classroom experience that is convenient for students. Some courses offered in this degree include:
- Childhood Educational Development: This course will help you learn what instructional strategies are developmentally appropriate for young children. You will learn about family dynamics by identifying theoretical applied solutions by providing appropriate activities for young children.
- Infant and Toddler Programs: This early childhood education course will help you understand the fundamentals of infant and toddler development. You will discover how to implement activities to meet a child's physical, social, emotional, and cognitive needs. In this course, you’ll understand to how to prepare age-appropriate activities, schedules, and health and safety policies. You’ll also gain a knowledge of recordkeeping and reporting of children’s progress to parents.
- Introduction to the American Family: This course covers the family during modern times. The course includes information on diverse family issues, including single parents, childcare, cohabitation, and trends that affect American family life.
- Infant-Toddler Development: This early childhood education course looks at the whole development of the child in the first three years of life, including a child’s physical, cognitive, emotional and social development. This course reviews milestones, abnormal development and diseases, parenting, family dynamics, and environments.
- Parenting: This course covers child-rearing practices and developing practical skills for working with parents and children. In this course, your early childhood education classwork will cover family systems, communication, diverse families, conflict management, custody concerns, and challenges as a parent.
For more information about this degree in early childhood care and education or other education degrees, visit our program page.
Note: This program does not award professional licensure and does not qualify you to apply for teaching licensure or teacher certification. This program may be helpful in preparing to earn certain professional certifications.