To enable Child Development associate degree students to recognize, at a theoretical level, groups of children who are at risk from developmental, social, economic, psychological, or physical perspectives. Within the scope of this course, it is aimed for students to analyze the negative impacts of risk factors—such as diverse family structures, neglect and abuse, addiction, delinquency, migration, and poverty—on child development; to learn early prevention and intervention approaches targeted at children at risk; and to acquire theoretical knowledge regarding multidisciplinary professional collaboration processes.

The theoretical framework of the concept of the child at risk; being a child in broken, single-parent, or high-risk family types; types, symptoms, and developmental impacts of neglect and abuse; dynamics of parents/children with chronic physical or mental illnesses; emotional and behavioral disorders in childhood; the reflections of macro-level risks—such as poverty, living on the streets, migration, and war—on the child; characteristics of children driven to substance addiction and delinquency; risk situations of children with special needs; protective, preventive, and interventional theoretical approaches alongside inter-institutional collaboration models.