By Sarah Wang | Staff Writer
The Piper Center for Family Studies and Child Development is a laboratory school that provides model programs for infants, toddlers and preschool children. It offers education for young children and their families, a learning environment for undergraduates, context for researchers and a collaborative work environment for teachers.
Dr. Nicole McAninch, child and family studies division leader, said the Piper Center gives students who are pursuing a degree in child and family studies a “unique opportunity to observe and apply theoretical concepts to real-world scenarios.” According to McAninch, these students holistically study individual development and family dynamics across a lifespan; later on, they apply their findings to a variety of clinical, nonprofit and educational fields.
Michelle Kiefer, director of the Piper Center, said the center also features a professional development component. It is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, which she said is the highest accreditation for an early childhood center in the United States.
“We believe that as early educators, we’re coming alongside a family and really joining them in the care and education of their child at those young years,” Kiefer said. “We feel like our job is to really partner with the family and work through that with them.”
McAninch said all three of her children went to the Piper Center at one point. She said the center is dedicated to using methods and techniques that are rooted in theory and research.
“One way they do this is through the center’s chosen guidance strategy: conscious discipline,” McAninch said. “For our family, learning and using a guidance strategy that was about building strong relationships, creating emotional intelligence and activating critical thinking from a young age was an amazing experience.”
Amanda Harris, lead teacher at the Piper Center, said she started working at the center as a student worker during her freshman year in 2016. She said she has experienced kindness, accountability, collaboration and encouragement as a teacher over the years.
“Children have to learn and see over many interactions that you, as a teacher and safe-keeper, are a safe place outside of their guardians,” Harris said. “This is also the blessing of this job: to become a trustworthy and safe person for children and families.”
Harris said the Piper Center is not just a day care; rather, it is a school working to guide the wonderings and development of children. It strives to cultivate skills in every developmental domain, to nourish emotional understanding and healthy expression and to prepare children for the world that awaits them.
“I see our school as an extension of family for the child, and it is so important for those two special places in a child’s life to work together,” Harris said.
