Transcript for:

Early Learning Institute Teachers Video

What I love about the preschool at ELI, it that it’s a wonderful mix of children who have strengths and still some learning differences or learning needs.

We have always- one of the big goals has been to have a preschool. Primarily one motivating factor was just that we saw a lot of kids graduating out of our program but not qualifying for the next step. So the idea was to get a preschool where we could support some of these kids.

We have 10 children total, and most of the little ones who we either knew before getting early start services, and we actually have a couple who go to a special ED preschool class in the morning, and come to us in the afternoon.

At least half of these children have pretty big struggles. They have gifts, but they also have struggles, so one might think it would be challenging but I really find it quite exciting because- first of all it’s such a wonderful mix, of gifts and strengths and personalities…and it just seems to work.

To me, as a teacher, being able to teach to the moment of a given child, and have these little ones together no matter who they are. And I think we have a luxury since we keep it at 10 children, and yet we have 4 skilled teachers in there. We have this real luxury of being able to dance in and out, support children when they need it, but its not as restricted as some other environments. But I think these little children land with us because for them to forge ahead and go to a community preschool, say with 24 children…it would just be too much for them. So they are fragile, yet sturdy at the same time.