Practicum in Child Maltreatment

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course is intended to expose students to the child welfare system and the effects of child maltreatment and foster care on child development. The seminar portion of the course will include training on mandated reporting, and the child welfare system, and discussion of current research on child maltreatment, foster care, child development, and developmental psychopathology. The practicum portion of the course is designed to give students hands on experience with children in custody of the Department of Child Services in South Bend. Each student in the practicum will be paired with a child who is currently placed in foster care because of substantiated child maltreatment. The student will serve as a mentor to this child, and will spend 1-2 hours with the child twice weekly in the child's foster home.