Early Childhood Recreation - Summer Pilot & Cohort

Blending academic and behavior essentials, we completed a Summer pilot of our Early Childhood Recreation program. This pilot was supported by Northern Trust and the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, who each contributed $12,600 in charitable contributions to work with children with developmental disabilities, medical complexities, or who are otherwise historically underserved.

Our motto has been, “The playground can be a classroom,” and this summer has demonstrated that. Children of all abilities and backgrounds participated in team sports and activities, such as soccer or hopscotch, with academic and behavioral curricula integrated into those games.

We also sought to exhibit that a single program can be flexible and individualized enough to be successfully implemented with children who are medically fragile, with profound autism, with other developmental disabilities, or are typically developing while still being recognizable as the same program delivered regardless of a child’s ability or resources.