In the Early Learning Center, children have the opportunity to grow and learn alongside peers who have special needs, as well as special strengths. We believe that young children who learn to respect, understand, and accept individual difference and diversity are quite likely to grow into adults who do the same. The Early Learning Center provides a developmentally appropriate, integrated, and enriching preschool experience for young children from 3 to 5 years of age. The teachers' role is to create an environment in which the children can make discoveries and solve problems using a rich variety of materials.
Teachers plan around a sequence of high interest themes.
Children make choices about which activities they will do, and negotiate turns at particular centers when an area is full. Much important learning which occurs in preschool has to do with learning how to interact with other children, and with learning to express thoughts and needs in socially acceptable ways. This social development is closely linked to the development of language and cognition, and provides many repeated and rich learning opportunities. Integrated refers to the fact that the Early Learning Center includes typically developing children, children with hearing impairment, and children with special needs. The numbers of typically developing children are consciously kept equal to or higher than the numbers of children with hearing impairment or other special needs.