Our Program
At Walnut Lake Preschool ...

Parents can:
  • Be appreciated as knowledgeable about their own child.
  • Learn about their child’s development.
  • Strengthen their sense of effectiveness and joy in parenting.
Children can:
  • Be respected as individuals.
  • Learn to know, express and master feelings.
  • Develop a sense of their own competence as they interact with the world.
  • Become loving and compassionate with themselves and others.

Our comprehensive model combines the best practices in early childhood education with an innovative psychoanalytic understanding of child development. In our specialized classroom we blend an educational curriculum with therapeutic services to strengthen the child’s emotional resources, social capacities, cognitive development, motor skills, speech and language.

We work individually with each child, while strengthening the group experience, social development and enhancing the parent-child tie. We provide a high child to staff ratio (4:1 or better) allowing children to receive individual support and attention throughout the day. Classes are five half-days with an optional extended lunch period.

A family consultant, an experienced child therapist, is assigned to each family as an expert resource about development. Parents meet regularly with the consultant who also observes in the classroom and conferences with teachers. A child analyst and other therapeutic specialists will observe regularly in the classroom and confer weekly with the teaching staff.

We provide a safe environment in which limits and boundaries are established and monitored so that children develop inner controls. When helping to settle conflicts we are mindful of allowing the child to save face – reminding and helping them to express themselves verbally rather than in physical aggression or withdrawal. 

We work to empower children to resolve differences with others in cooperative and constructive ways. Teachers facilitate this process by remaining calm, acknowledging and labeling feelings, gathering information, restating the problem, and offering or asking for solutions. Corporal punishment and shaming are never used at school.

A therapeutic classroom works with the individual child’s multiple needs and strengths, while at the same time facilitating group cohesion. This kind of small and specialized program is necessary for some children who have difficulty functioning in a regular classroom. We believe that successful learning can take place employing this integrative model only when teaching to the whole child.

Our programs are designed to benefit children, parents and the community and are based on the premise that normal development depends upon the successful integration of a range of psychological, environmental and neurobiological factors.

Walnut Lake Preschool welcomes children from all ethnic, racial, religious or national backgrounds and diverse family structures. Our goal is to turn no family away for financial reasons. Various tuition arrangements are available.  
Walnut Lake Preschool
2075 Walnut Lake Road
West Bloomfield, MI 48323
Phone: 248-339-6263
Email Walnut Lake Preschool