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Early Learning Center set to open in June
The former Girls Inc. building on Wyoming Road near the UD campus has been extensively remodeled to accommodate 237 children from age 6 weeks to 12 years in a model early care and education center, director Karen Rucker said. The center will provide full-day, year-round care for 30 infants, 48 toddlers and 84 preschoolers and also will offer before- and after-school care, as well as a full-day summer camp program and a kindergarten program, for 75 older children. In addition, it will serve as a site for University students in a variety of fields to gain experience working with children and as a research center for faculty and students to conduct their studies. All the children’s classrooms, as well as special activity rooms and the gym, can be viewed from state-of-the-art observation booths. The booths, which are equipped with controls to operate the cameras and microphones located unobtrusively in the rooms, can be used by students and researchers to observe children as they play and learn. “The Early Learning Center is a unique facility that will support education and research programs for UD students and faculty while providing exemplary care to a diverse population of children from the University community and from the wider Delaware community,” Provost Dan Rich said. “It will provide a wonderful opportunity for clinical education for our students in such fields as early childhood education, nursing, physical therapy and nutrition, to name just a few. It also will be a focal point for interdisciplinary research on early learning and development by faculty from many academic departments, including psychology and education.”
The center also is expected to help develop and to be a model of best practices in child care and to be a professional development site for other providers statewide, Rich said. Rucker noted that the center’s professional staff of 47 will enable each group of children to have small class sizes and low child-to-staff ratios, resulting in a great deal of individual attention. Each infant room, for example, will accommodate six babies and two staff members to care for them. Toddlers will be in rooms of eight children with two staff members. “In addition, we’re going to have large numbers of students doing internships and practicums here, which will give the children even more personal attention,” Rucker said. “Our ratios are very good already, and then the University students’ help will be icing on the cake.” Although early childhood and elementary education students are expected to be a substantial number of the UD students doing work at the center, Rucker said such colleges and departments as agriculture and natural resources; psychology; nursing; physical therapy; hotel, restaurant and institutional management; health, nutrition and exercise sciences; consumer studies; music; and foreign languages and literatures also plan to be involved. “The interest in collaboration from all over campus has been remarkable, and it just keeps growing,” she said. The center, which also will offer support services to families, has been designed to target children with such risk factors as poverty, foster care and disabilities. Each age group will consist of a diverse group of youngsters, enrolled according to the center’s established priorities. “One of our main goals is to have a population that reflects the population of the real world,” Rucker said. “That diversity will be an important element of the center.” Besides providing model services, the center is housed in a 30,000-square-foot building that includes high-quality, child-centered physical features. On a tour of the facility, Rucker pointed out that the infant rooms have diffused overhead lighting, to protect babies’ eyes when they are lying on their backs, and extra vents directly above the changing areas. All the rooms have such safety features as child-proof electrical outlets and protective panels that cover the space between doors and jambs to prevent pinched fingers, and the exterior doors of the building are equipped with alarms. Each infant and toddler room has climbing equipment, and all bathrooms have child-size fixtures and sufficient space to maneuver a wheelchair. An art room is available for special projects, as well as a science and technology room that will be equipped with computers and other materials. The center has a laundry room; a kitchen where a nutrition assistant will prepare breakfast, lunch and snacks; and a comfortably furnished room set aside for nursing mothers who want to visit and feed their babies. There also are meeting rooms, with space to hold a UD class, and rooms where researchers can meet with children and families. The outdoor playground is being completed, with two large tricycle paths laid out and equipment due for delivery soon. The center also has rooms set aside for a Pediatric Rehabilitation Clinic, which is planned to open in the fall to offer physical, occupational and speech/language therapy to children enrolled in the center and to those from the community. Enrollment in many of the center’s categories and age groups is full, and a wait list is being maintained. Rucker said parents have been eager to register their children, even before the building renovations were anywhere near completion. “What has filled this center is the University’s reputation,” she said. “The families who registered hadn’t seen the building, and they didn’t know me, but they knew the University’s reputation for offering quality service.” Rucker, who came to UD last year to be the center’s director, has worked in early child care and education for more than 20 years, in corporate day-care centers and as a consultant providing technical assistance to centers. “This project is especially exciting, because it’s so much more than a child-care center,” she said. “It represents a real collaboration across campus. And, with the benefit of all the resources the University has to offer, it will provide rich opportunities for everyone.” For more information about the Early Learning Center, call 831-6205 or e-mail [ud-elc@udel.edu]. Article by Ann Manser To learn how to subscribe to UDaily, click here. |
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