South Carolina State University

Hours of Operation: Children enrolled in the CDLC may arrive at 7:30 a.m. and must be picked up by 4:30 p.m.

THE VISION

CDLC will:
• Provide a developmentally appropriate safe and healthy facility for the optimal development of toddler, and pre-school children.
• Be a child friendly, child centered and child safe environment.
• Focus on the holistic needs of infants, toddlers, and pre-school children in Orangeburg and surrounding areas.
• Be a demonstration site for child development professionals in the state of South Carolina.
• Infuse technology in all aspects of the program.
• Promote a multi-cultural and diverse enrollment.
• Recruit and provide the support to retain a diverse, highly qualified faculty and staff.
• Lead the state in contributing to the body of knowledge for child development.
• Be an interactive link to all departments in the university community.

MISSION

“A Community of Learners: Local and Global”
The CDLC’s mission is to serve a diverse population of preschool age children by providing them with high quality, developmentally appropriate educational experiences while giving college students opportunities to observe and work directly with preschool children, resulting in positive, productive citizens in a global society

PHILOSOPHY

The Child Development Learning Center’s program and curriculum are guided by principles of child development including physical development, cognitive development, language development and psychosocial development. The staff of the Learning Center is concerned with the development of the child as a whole. There is no single theory of child development that attempts to explain all aspects of development. However, the constructive theoretical approach is used in the program. The approach is based on Piaget and Vygotsky’s theories emphasizing socially constructed knowledge. Constructivists see development as the result of experiences along with the way individuals interpret, recognize, and modify experiences.

The Child Development Learning Center is a child-centered program. The program is based on sound principles of child development and early childhood education. The significance of child-centeredness is that the children, and their development and individual needs, provide for the basis for planning the daily program, for scheduling, and for the content of the curriculum. The programmatic thrust at the Child Development Learning Center is based on developmentally appropriate practices and the High/Scope Curriculum.