There are some new kids in the house!
Hunter College’s School of Education has launched a playgroup for infants and toddlers and their families that helps special-needs children while promoting experiential learning for students.
The hour-and-a-half long playgroup focuses on language development and social interaction in a playful environment, including the introduction of sign language to build vocabulary, story time, song, and sensory play. It meets monthly in the Elise C. Tepper (’56) and Family Early Childhood Classroom in the West Building.
The playgroup exemplifies how Hunter acts as an anchor institution in New York City, providing high-impact learning opportunities for its students and the community. The families come from all over the city, but mostly from Manhattan. Parents learn about the playgroup through outreach directed at their children’s schools and social-media parent groups. Each session is capped at six children with their parents, four graduate students, and a faculty member.
“The playgroup has turned out to be such a wonderful opportunity for the children, their parents, and our students to come together and engage in varied activities,” said Assistant Professor Nancy Sall, who supervises students in the Early Childhood Development & Learning Program in the Department of Special Education. “The parents coming have commented that they appreciate being able to see how their children participate in a group ‘school-like’ environment.”
The Tepper Classroom was outfitted in 2022 with state-of-the-art furniture, toys, and books to teach language skills to the youngest children, thanks to a $250,000 gift from Tepper and her family. Tepper studied early childhood education at Hunter.
Sall said that many families have come each session since the playgroup started in February, but new ones have begun attending regularly. Assistant Professor and Early Childhood Development & Learning Program Leader Jamie Bleiweiss said they hope to expand the playgroup next year, hosting further sessions designed for preschool-aged children.
The playgroup serves as a clinical experience for a special-education course “Families, Parenting, and Family-Professional Partnerships” in the Early Childhood Development & Learning Program.
“As a student it is really helpful for us to be in a setting where we can interact with families under the guidance of somebody more experienced — a professor — who has been in the field for a long time,” said student Donatella Zamora. “We have that freedom to apply what we have learned and not worry that we are going to make a mistake.”
The yearlong master’s course focuses on creating effective partnerships between families and professionals so that children can learn in the classroom, at home, and in community settings. It examines child learning and development across diverse cultures, languages, abilities, settings, and urban contexts.
Learn more about early childhood education and other programs offered by the School of Education.
