Early Childhood Education

The Addison Early Learning Center prepares the whole child to reach his/her full potential through active learning and first-hand experiences. We celebrate individual differences and foster home, school, and community partnerships.

The Addison Early Learning Center philosophy is to provide assistance to preschool age children whose school readiness skills and behaviors are not as strong as they should be to ensure school success. To meet the needs of those children, the program concentrates on social/emotional skills, language development, motor skills, and educational concepts. Children who have weaknesses in one or more of these four growth skills may struggle in kindergarten. For that reason, our program stresses opportunities for developing skills and behaviors that lead to kindergarten success. With the help and encouragement of the staff, these children will be successful and grow in self-confidence. The staff will work to involve parents in school, class, and home activities to build early learning skills and prepare students for kindergarten.

All children 3-5 (but not eligible for kindergarten) are possible candidates for the Addison Early Learning Center. Students enter the program through a developmental screening process and are determined to be at-risk or may enter the program with an Individualized Education Program (IEP). Our school has three programs: Preschool for All, Preschool Expansion and Early Childhood.  Our Early Childhood program serves children with disabilities. Students with disabilities may also be placed in a Preschool for All or Preschool Expansion classroom or transition to these rooms throughout the year. Students in the Early Childhood classrooms have exposure to typically developing peers with a strong focus on their individual goals. Students in the Preschool for All and Preschool Expansion classrooms work on individual goals through peer modeling. 

Within 45 days of a child’s enrollment, parents and teachers work together to complete two screening tools: the Dial-4 and the Ages and Stages. Ages and Stages is a parent completed child monitoring system completed at the initial screening. The scoring of the questionnaires determines if children are within the normal range of development, if they need to be rescreened after a period of time, or if they need to be referred to a specialist for further evaluation and support. Within 45 days, teachers also assess students using Teaching Strategies Gold.

Data is gathered to determine if there are any areas of need. If the child needs further screening, parents will be contacted. Screening data helps to create the child’s initial instructional goals including social-emotional and executive functioning. One enrolled in the program, data is collected using Teaching Strategies Gold and the DECA social and emotional screener. All data is reviewed every six weeks to determine areas of support and success.