Early Childhood Studies or SEND degree?

[Carbondioxide]

I can't decide on this one. Have anybody of you had any experience and can give me advice? I want to work with children, I know it's a low pay, but would doing SEND degree specialising in that area help me more?

I would really appreciate any pros or cons you know about these xx

Work with children in what capacity?

They are quite different to each other. .
Early years you will work with children 5 and under.

SEND you can work with children of all ages and a huge range of needs.

The SEND will overlap but you may find yourself working with older children.

The rate places are going SEND could give you a wider range of job opportunities as so many more mainstream settings need good SEND knowledge.

I am doing an Early Childhood degree, we cover age 0-8yrs, I love it because it's a really broad course, a mix of sociology, psychology, bit of neuroscience, and policy. My course has a module covering SEND but universities do vary.I'm not doing the degree for career progression myself, more for personal satisfaction as I didn't go to university first time round. I have done a bit of paid 1-1 work with children with additional needs in early years settings and it's very poorly paid (but early years is in general).Hopefully others will be along to talk about how useful each degree might be in terms of future employment opportunities.

I guess, I have realised my issue is if I am capable of working with SEN because my personality is quite softish, and I'm sure in this field there need to be people working who can be more firm, assertive? Definitely, in my heart I would prefer SEND degree over Early Years. But that's why the degree is there to teach techniques and ways how to be in control and implement strategies to not allow children become absolutely reckless? Yes, I'm scared of that. I'm not bothered of being abused because of challenging behaviour. I see myself helping others, but I don't want to make a mistake and choose a career where my personality is not fit for it...?

Do you have any experience of working in Early Years or SEND?

I did work with adults with learning disabilities, but I guess it's much different with kids.

But what role do you actually want to do?

I think you need to consider what your career path/interests are as others have said. I certainly wouldn’t be doing a degree in SEND unless I had previous or current experience and knew it was the line I wanted to pursue. I imagine the degree will deal a lot with policies and legislation rather than top tip on how to handle challenging behaviours but I could be wrong. Do you want to be a teacher?

@Carbondioxide I would get some work experience before you commit.
I work in a PRU and work with all sorts of people with regard to qualifications. You can either do it or you can't. Spending years at uni would make no difference if you don't have what it takes.
Some people walk out after an hour. Some people have been there years. Some have the skin of a rhino and some are 'softer' as you say.
You either like it or hate it. In my opinion.

I think i don't have a specific role in mind as yet, Early Years could give an opportunity to be a nursery nurse, TA or anything else related to kids. While SEND is more specific, I believe it could give more advantages if I choose to pursue that.
Dilemma.

You can work in an SEN school role without a degree

You need to clearly identify your ultimate goal before spending tens of thousands of pounds on a degree.

It sounds like you want to do a SEN role and early years would be a back up.

In which case I'd go an get some experience as others have said and see if the reality matches up to your expectations. Good luck.

You could look at doing a level 2 or 3 in early years or as a TA and try to get some volunteer experience in a nursery/school/school that is more of a specialist provision. Then you could apply for a degree in September if you think it would be beneficial.