About Our Child Development Center
The JCC Child Development Center opened August 24, 1998. Two years later, it was licensed
as a five-star center. The center was originally NAEYC accredited in August 2002.
The center earned NAEYC accreditation again in April 2009 and successfully renewed
for another 5 year term in April 2014. Currently, the JCC Child Development Center is the only licensed, five-star, NAEYC
accredited center in Johnston County.
Because the center is located on a college campus, the children are introduced to
many exciting learning opportunities such as story time at the library, performances
at The Paul A. Johnston Auditorium, and field trips to The Frank Creech Art Gallery
and various departments around campus.
In addition to providing an exciting and developmentally appropriate learning environment
for our young children to explore and grow, the center is also a "Teaching Lab" for
adult students in the JCC Early Childhood Education program as well as other students at JCC and throughout the community. Specifically, adult 
students/ community providers are learning how to work with young children in helping
them develop their cognitive skills, social & emotional skills, language skills and motor skills.
The community uses our center as a resource for demonstrating "best practice" in
the field. We are often observed by other centers/teachers/ community therapists/
childcare service providers in demonstrating effective teaching strategies and how
to guide children's growth and development appropriately. Each classroom has a one-way
mirror observation booth with an audio system for unobtrusively viewing/observing
the children and often capturing video for developmental documentation of the children
and for educational / teaching purposes.
We pride ourselves in partnering with the families in making this experience a holistic
one and having an open-door policy to all families and encouraging family participation
in our classrooms/ decision making.
Our center utilizes Creative Curriculum:Teaching Strategies for Early Childhood - 
which is "child centered" on their individual needs and interests and is "widely regarded as a forward-thinking, comprehensive, rigorously researched curriculum approach that honors creativity and respects the role that teachers play in making learning exciting and relevant for every child." We study themes/ topics that the
children demonstrate interest in and through those themes they learn social/emotional
skills (such as emotion recognition, emotion management, empathy, & navigating socially
in a classroom, i.e. sharing/ problem solving), academic skills (such as pre-math
skills, early literacy skills & language development), cognitive skills (problem solving,
critical thinking) and gross/fine motor development and refining.
The JCC Child Development Center believes that imposing worksheets/homework on young
children is inappropriate. Instead, they will learn at their own pace through engagement
in the classroom, experiences with peers, through navigating their social world, through
experimenting with concepts, ideas and through essentially "owning" what they want
to learn at their own pace and development level. By the time our children leave the
center, they are more than fully prepared to enter "big school" writing their letters/names,
knowing their numbers and other "academic" concepts, but most importantly- having
the emotional control and the social capability to interact and navigate kindergarten
successfully. We believe that a solid foundation of social and emotional development
can be the absolute key to later academic success.
For more information, contact:
Child Development Center Director
Johnston Community College l PO Box 2350
Smithfield, NC 27577
Office: Health Building F141
Phone: (919) 209-2010
