Talking Time Learning Center was created to give children a more unique learning experience in a small group setting.  We believe that each child needs to build upon their strengths while identifying their weaknesses. At Talking Time this belief becomes a reality as every child has a personal plan of education that allows for their optimum learning potential.

THERAPEUTIC PROGRAM

This program services children 18 months to six years.   This program is for children who need or are currently receiving speech therapy and require a more treatment based focus to participate in a small group setting.  This program offers a unique experience that allows children to develop their verbal  skills so that they can express their wants and needs. Other areas of focus include: Improving language comprehension, improving reasoning skills, use of symbolic and pretend play, developing social skills and peer interaction.  All skills are targeted using structured play, art, music/movement, sensorimotor tasks, and language based activities. The speech-language pathologist works with the students in small groups as well as individually. Our low staff to student ratio allows for a heavy emphasis on intentional communication skills and generalization of goals to different settings.  Our goal is to increase the child’s readiness to transition and participate in a more traditional classroom setting. 

ENRICHMENT PROGRAM

This program services children two to six years.  This program is for children  who DO NOT need speech and language therapy.  We provide a challenging yet achievable curriculum which will engage children in thinking, reasoning, and communicating with others.  Our language based approach will promote school readiness skills through activities that are integrated across different developmental areas:  cognitive development, fine motor and gross motor development and social/emotional development. 

The following criteria must be met in order for a child to be accepted to our Enrichment Program:

• Must be at or above chronological age in receptive and expressive language skills.  The enrichment children serve as a peer model for using speech and language within the group dynamic to have their needs met.
• Have appropriate pragmatic use of language based on his/her age. 
• Have age appropriate play skills, pretend play, turn-taking and demonstrate independence in ability to follow classroom expectations/directions.
• Exhibit behaviors that are conducive to a group learning experience.
• Overall, may not exhibit delays in any area of development.

ADVANCED Pre-K & K+ PROGRAMS:

These programs meet four afternoons per week and focus on the Indiana state standards for kindergarten.  Material is presented at an accelerated pace for those children who meet the following criteria:

• The student is beginning to show interest in reading or is at an emergent reader level.
• Has knowledge base of letters and their sounds.
• Has the concept of numbers- identifies numbers and labels numbers.
• Has mastered labeling colors and shapes.
• Has story comprehension skills-the student can independently express the main idea of a story and recall facts upon request.
• Responds to "WH" questions and maintains the topic in converstaion.
• Can maintain attention in a group activity for 7-10 minutes independently.
• Engages in pretend and cooperative play independently with peers.