Jessica Kass Center

The Jessica Kass Infant and Toddler Center offers a comprehensive, multi-age group care and education format for children ages six weeks through three years. The program is uniquely structured so that infants and toddlers share the same space and care givers in family groupings. Each staff member has a family: an infant (age six weeks - 12 months), a yearling (age 12 to 24 months), and a toddler (age 24 to 36 months). Extended families or child care teams include four primary families (12 children and four adults). Extended families or teams share space in one comprehensive environment. Staff members work five days a week and have the same "family" of children every day. Children stay in with the same staff member in their family group for the three year program cycle. This continuity of care offers children the chance to establish emotionally close long term relationships with the adults who care for them.

"...when a baby or young child has a sensitive and responsive caregiver or teacher for many hours of the day over a long period of time, an emotional bond will develop. One would guess this happy reliable relationship would make the infant or young child feel more secure, confident, and eager to learn. Now research says it's so!"

- Elicher and Fortner-Wood

Summary:

Family groupings are composed of one infant, one yearling and one toddler with a nurturing, skillful adult
The same staff members care for the same children every day
Children stay with same care giver for the full three year program cycle
The physical space offers a warm, home-like environment
The space is designed to give children independence and self-initiate work
A range of stimulating work materials is provided to children as their competency grows
Recent brain development research supports Jessica Kass Center approach of consistency in caregivers and environment

Surveys of research, such as "Adult-Child Relationships in Early Childhood Programs," by Dr. James Elicker and Cheryl Fortner-Wood and published in Young Children, November 1995, the journal of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, affirm how critical establishment of a long-term stable bond between child and a very limited number of caregivers is for the child's successful development and how rare this is in the child care centers across the nation. J. Ronald Lally's "The Impact of Child Care Policies and Practices on Infant/Toddler Identity Formation", published in the same issue of Young Children, also affirm the impact of the caregiver on infants and toddlers.

"12 million infants and toddlers are at risk of physical, cognitive, or behavioral deficits as a result of their environments."

- Starting Points: Meeting the Needs of Our Youngest Children

A report issued by the Carnegie Foundation (Starting Points: Meeting the Needs of our Youngest Children, 1994) found that half of the nation's 12 million infants and toddlers are at risk of physical, cognitive, or behavioral deficits as a result of their environments. The physical layout of the Jessica Kass Infant and Toddler Center is designed specifically to facilitate the growth of infants and toddlers. The warm, home-like environment includes an observation area for parents to visit anytime, an enclosed quiet crib area for napping and a full kitchen for meals and snacks.

The children's "work" materials, as they are called in the Montessori school, are available on low shelves so children can self-initiate work. The Montessori philosophy stresses respect for oneself, others and the environment and the Jessica Kass Infant and Toddler Center operationalizes the concept in several ways. Work materials are organized and stored in ways that enable children to independently choose work, successfully complete the work and put the work back ready for the next person to use. A range of materials is available to the children so they may choose increasingly challenging work as their competency grows. This physical space arrangement helps build the child's self-esteem by providing an environment they can successfully care for themselves with a minimum of adult intervention.

"The brain development of infants and toddlers proceeds at a staggering pace...By age three, the brains of children are two and a half times more active than the brain of an adult...This suggested young children-particularly infants and toddlers -are biologically primed for learning."

-Rethinking the Brain: New Insights into Early Development

The importance of ages birth to three cannot be underestimated because it is during this time that personality develops. According to Rethinking the Brain: New Insights into Early Development, a 1997 report generated from a meeting of 150 leading brain scientists at the University of Chicago, "early care has a decisive and long-lasting impact on how people develop, their ability to learn and their capacity to regulate their own emotions. How parents...and caregivers respond to children at very early ages directly affects children's brain development." If the environment is hostile, unsafe or un-stimulating, children's neural pathways may not be strong enough to develop motivation to learn, self-esteem and empathy. The daily activities of the Jessica Kass Center include both a consistent environment combined with opportunities for new experiences for growth.

Providing consistent care for children requires parent involvement and frequent communication between parents and caregivers. The Jessica Kass Center provides a variety of established mechanisms to supplement the daily parent/staff member conversations when children are dropped off or picked up. A home report is prepared for each child every day by the child's caregiver to highlight important parts of the child's day. Accident/Incident Reports are written up for parents to read and sign in the event of minor, non-emergency injuries. Parent/Teacher conferences are held twice a year for parents and teachers to discuss each child's physical/social development, as well as the child's self-maintenance skills, development of sensory discrimination, language, and other classroom activities, such as art and music.

Informal communications tools are used as well. Parents receive a monthly Jessica Kass Center newsletter which covers classroom activities and special events, as well as a Columbus Montessori monthly parent information guide and a quarterly community newsletter. Annual parent meetings, on topics such as what goes on in the Montessori environment and using the Montessori philosophy at home, are held by staff members to reach parents on specific topics. All of these mechanisms are used to try to insure parents and caregivers work as a coordinated team.