Established in 1991, the Mill Neck Manor Early Childhood Center (ECC) provides early and intensive assistance to hearing children, ages three and four, with a range of special communication needs including speech and language delays and disorders, cognitive and motor deficits, and autism-related disorders. After completing the program, most preschoolers will attend kindergarten in their home school districts.

The Mill Neck Manor Early Childhood Center offers full or half-day classes, five days a week, for pre-schoolers with deficits in language, cognition, social interaction and/or motor skills. Specially-trained staff members target each individual child to maximize potential. The program includes music, computer skills, and art. Individualized speech, physical and occupational therapies, as well as family support, are also integral parts of the program.

Class size ranges from eight to 15 children with three staff members per class. All teachers are New York State certified in Special Education. All Teacher Assistants are certified as such.

In the summer of 2003, the Early Childhood Center opened its first integrated pre-school class which includes communication and language delayed three and four year-olds with their typically developing peers.

The integrated classes are offered to parents in the local community and to parents who have special needs children already enrolled in the Early Childhood Center who would like their other pre-school children to attend as well. The class allows the special needs students to learn, play and socialize with typically developing children their age. All of the children benefit from the lessons, activities, friendships and small class size that the program provides.

Currently, there is one integrated class that meets on-campus at the Early Childhood Center and two classes that meet off-campus at sites in Oyster Bay and Locust Valley.

The Early Childhood Center offers full evaluations for pre-school children suspected of having communication needs. This includes:

• Speech/language evaluation
• Educational and Psychological evaluation
• Audiological evaluation