Early Learning (3-5 years)

About the Program

Our Early Learning program is for children who are deaf and hard of hearing who are between the ages of three and five. This program is designed to promote your child’s: listening and spoken language skills as well as their physical, emotional, social, and cognitive development. Careful consideration and adaptations are made based on the child’s listening and spoken language needs. This program is delivered five days a week (Monday to Friday) from September to the end of June. We are happy to announce that this program is now part of the $10/day childcare program!

What Does the Program Look Like?

• Fosters language development through play. Children get to engage in a wide range of activities such as music, painting, story-time and other activities typical to a preschool like environment. However, every aspect of these activities is intentionally designed to develop the child’s listening, spoken language, and academic skills with the goal of preparing them for kindergarten.

• Individualized Educational Plans (IEPs) are conducted twice a year for all children in this program. IEPs identify comprehensive goals in the area of audition (hearing), repetitive and expressive language, speech, cognition, and social pragmatics. IEPs are used to evaluate your child’s progress and are completed by the child’s teacher and in consultation with other staff.

• In addition, regularly guided observation sessions are conducted throughout the year with parents, which gives you a unique opportunity to observe how your child learns and interacts in the classroom. This allows you to be more informed and engaged in your child’s development at home and in the community.

• Lastly, children in this program have regular access to Speech and Language Pathologists and Audiologists to monitor their growth and development. Each child is seen on a weekly basis for individual intervention with a Speech and Language Pathologist.  All staff members consistently work together to ensure optimum language, social and academic development!

MESSAGES FROM EARLY LEARNING FAMILIES

"We are so grateful for all the amazing educators and staff that helped our child succeed and thrive in ways we could only imagine. Thank you SO MUCH for the incredible two years of preschool. We will remember and cherish these years for the rest of our lives."

"I honestly can’t think of a better program to ready your kids for kindergarten. The curriculum was outstanding in every way! It was also very different this year compared to last year, and I really appreciate all the thought that went into each month."