The Allen County Educational Service Center Preschool serves 3, 4, and 5-year-old students eligible for special education services as well as typically developing peers. We are committed to providing a high quality program that offers varied opportunities and materials to build an understanding of diversity in culture, family composition, differing abilities, language and gender. We believe that family involvement is critical to a child’s growth. Parents are partners in the development and provision of learning situations. We strive to build a community in which all children and families are welcomed and supported with acceptance and respect. It is a place where children with and without disabilities play and learn side by side.
Early childhood education lays the groundwork for the development of a lifelong learner. As educators, it is our goal to support the whole child by providing learning opportunities in all areas of development including cognitive, social-emotional, sensory, motor, perceptual, and language skills. These opportunities are introduced through play. During play, children discover concepts and relationships and practice newly acquired skills. As they play with peers and adults, they acquire important social skills, including negotiation and conflict resolution, social conversation, and role taking. Play is development and learning in action. In play, children demonstrate their understanding of the world and their role in it. The teachers serve as facilitators to guide the children in their interactions with the varied learning opportunities. As adults observe children's play, they can describe their developmental levels, needs, and interests. Play is the best vehicle for integrating learning across all developmental domains.
We strive to provide a fun, safe, and exciting culture that encourages students to take risks, problem-solve, and move toward independence. Our program provides learning experiences that incorporate student interests and address individual needs. We believe every student has the right to learn at their own developmental rate with different instructional techniques. We try to provide experiences that will help children feel good about themselves and confident about their abilities. We attempt to provide activities that will assist children as they grow to their full potential. Curriculum experiences are to be research based, aligned with the content standards, rich with differentiated learning, and problems to solve which provides reasons and opportunities to use language in play. Instructional strategies are designed with intention to support, challenge, scaffold, and extend children’s abilities and skills.