Spiders! Scorpions! Centipedes!

The moment a couple of the pre-schoolers discovered the surprises buried in bins of cotton balls, a stampede of kids came swarming. Just like that, the science center at the Young Professor’s Preschool in Raymore was overrun.

So many of the ideas preached by LINC’s Infant Toddler Specialist Network were in motion.

The space was open, not quartered by walls and cubicles. Games and toys lay across tables and shelves like a scrumptious learning buffet for each child’s curious choosing.

And when the children scrambled after the same treasures of hidden plastic spiders and insects, they crowded joyfully, nothing but “soft touches,” happy and safe.

“It really gave us a new enlightenment of how to teach,” Young Professor’s co-owner Paula Smith said of LINC’s training and consultation program for Missouri’s Infant Toddler Specialist Network. “The children get to pick where they go. It just flows so much easier.”

How to get ITSN preschool support

Go online: kclinc.org/itsn

That’s just part of a comprehensive strategy and redesign of childcare spaces that the state offers for free to participating centers throughout the state.

LINC’s team of specialists have been working with 18 childcare centers across seven counties in and around Kansas City — and getting positive results.

For seven centers that have completed both a pre and post evaluation by the state measuring on the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS), the average score on a seven-point scale has risen from 2.8 to 4.3 after training with LINC — a 53.8% increase.

“The program offered by LINC was very, very successful and very helpful,” said Shamshad Frazier, director of Mercy Child Care Center in south Kansas City.

She particularly liked the cultural emphasis — getting early childhood teachers to be attuned to “the cultural diversity we have,” Frazier said. That includes reaching out to the families, encouraging the children to bring some of that culture from home to the school. It means delighting in different languages and working to bridge the differences from both directions.

Typically, members of LINC’s team look for opportunities to redesign spaces, recommend removing unnecessary barriers or walls and setting up inviting learning centers, help the teachers with ideas for new supplies, or stock the centers with games and toys from LINC’s storage room.

The program also offers a series of training sessions. All of it funded by the state.

“I love the trainings,” said Angelica Lehman, director of Kingdom Academy in Kansas City. “They’re really extensive, really broken down where you can understand.”

She especially appreciates LINC’s approach to individualizing the care to each child.

“(The training) talked about building relationships with children,” Lehman said, “and getting to know the child, really understand their needs in the moment of their learning.”

The goal, said LINC’s program director Lauren Walls, is to strengthen the Kansas City area’s field of child care centers so more children are entering kindergarten ready to learn, including children whose homes and families may not have as many resources as others.

“We want to level the playing field,” Walls said, “(and) make sure all children are receiving the education they deserve.”

Paula Smith at Young Professors is all in. When her center saw a chance to get a second round of LINC’s ITSN training for new staff, she said, “I was, like, ‘Oh yes! Come again!’ When I can get somebody in here that knows exactly what they’re doing and what it should look like, it’s utopia. It will be fabulous.”

The benefits, she said, extend to her staff and through the children into their and their community’s future prosperity.

“This is the beginning of their education,” Smith said. “This is where it all starts.”

By Joe Robertson/LINC Writer