TRANSCRIPT

Adam Hildebrandt: The OSU Child Development Lab is among the oldest in the country and it's a place where students and future teachers come together for a one-of-a-kind educational experience.

Background sound: What kind of ruler was it?

Dr. Jennifer Stepp, Program Coordinator for Early Childhood Education: So the Child Development Lab is a hands-on developmentally appropriate child care facility that we get to use um within OSU as a laboratory um for our students who are studying education. It is a place where children grow and learn to the best of their ability between the ages of one and five.

Tammy Waterhouse, CDL Teacher: And this is like the Disneyland of schools. When I came here I was so amazed at what goes on here because there's so many toys and so many puzzles and so many books and so many people. It's just really fun here.

Adam Hildebrandt: Okay, tell me more about cheetahs.

Child: Um, I like them.

Adam Hildebrandt: Why do you like them?

Child: Because they're my favorite animal and I like to chase my sisters.

Adam Hildebrandt: One advantage of the Child Development Lab is that it gives OSU students a chance to get real-world experience without having to leave campus.

Jennifer Stepp: So in ECE or early childhood education we're very fortunate that we get to have this mock classroom so we have half of our classroom set up as a lecture which is where our ECE students who are majoring in ECE come. This is where they have all of their core classes and so any resource that an ECE teacher student would need to go to create a lesson they have access to. So, we do lots of things in here we will lecture and then we will automatically go over to this side of the classroom to implement.

Kinzie Kardokus, Student Employee: It's been really rewarding um as I've taken a lot of child development classes and gone through the program. It's really cool to like apply what I'm seeing in the classroom to what I'm learning.

Tammy Waterhouse: That's one of my favorite parts about working here is to get to be with college students. They bring great value to our classrooms and they learn from us and we learn from them and it's a really a good experience.

Kinzie Kardokus: I've learned so much from just the way that they handle situations and certain kids and like how they apply things and their teaching methods. I've learned a lot.

Jennifer Stepp: And so to see students take what they're learning in the classroom in our classroom and then transform that into a learning center for the children um is just it's it's so rewarding.

Adam Hildebrandt: Having both certified teachers and student teachers in class means increased resources and a more thorough education for CDL students.

Child: A B C D E F G.

Jennifer Stepp: When we think about our children developing between that ages of zero or birth to five, that's that's such a crucial time. The CDL provides one-on-one support, meets the children where they are, but also provides a very developmentally appropriate environment where children are playing. They're using play to learn.

Tammy Waterhouse: That's one of my main goals every year is to teach them that learning is fun and that they learn to love reading books. One of the the most important things we teach here is the social things like how to say, "No I don't like that. Can I have a turn?"

Kinzie Kardokus: I think they benefit so much. My first week here I was put in preschool one and they were doing sign language. Like a lot of them can't really talk that well and so them knowing like more, please, all done, like thank you. I was just mind-blown. I was like, these kids are so, so smart and then I don't know their social interactions in preschool three and pre-K are incredible and I encourage anyone who has a small kid to put them in here.