Orlando Day Nursery Association’s mission is to develop the whole child by providing high quality, affordable care and early childhood education services in the Orlando area.
Programs: The most important goal of our early childhood curriculum is to help children become enthusiastic learners. This means encouraging children to be active and creative explorers who are not afraid to try out their ideas and to think their own thoughts. Our goal is to help children become independent, self-confident, inquisitive learners. We're teaching them how to learn, not just in preschool, but all throughout their lives. We're allowing them to learn at their own pace and in the ways that are best for them. We're giving them good habits and attitudes, particularly a positive sense of themselves, which will make a difference throughout their lives. The activities we plan for children, the way we organize the environment, select toys and materials, plan the daily schedule, and talk with children, are all designed to accomplish the goals of our curriculum and give each child a successful start in school.
ODN screens all children’s development using the Ages & Stages Questionnaire (ASQ). During the school year 2008-2009, 75% of the children ODN served scored above the cut-offs in the five developmental areas (gross motor, fine motor, cognitive, language, social/emotional). This low result was part of our incentive to find and implement a new curriculum, purchase new classroom materials and change our playground area. During the School year 2009-2010, 85% of the children ODN served scored above the cut-offs in the five developmental areas. This shows the improvements made by our curriculum changes but more improvement is needed for every child to be ready for school by kindergarten.
ODN is adding to our assessment process the Ages & Stages Social Emotional Questionnaire, the Child Observation Record assessment and a portfolio process to ensure that we are meeting every child’s needs. Our goal is for 90% of the children we serve to score above the cut-offs in the five developmental areas screened by the ASQ.