Introduction

Introduction

The Childhood Center is one of the central labs of the Childhood Studies' Department in the Faculty of Home Economics at King Abdul-Aziz University. The center is given the responsibility to supervise over the university general kindergarten for the academic year 1431/1430 and it was officially registered as a central lab which follows the Business and Knowledge Organization under the name of the Childhood Center on 6/6/1430. The practical, research, and training Childhood Center provides the secure and healthy educational environment for the children, to ensure that they get the appropriate opportunities for physical, social, intellectual, and sentimental growth, through different educational programs that include many strategies, such as: cooperative learning, discovery and fun games; in addition to the academic and educational parts which develop the child's cognitive growth and enhance individual abilities. The center derives its programs from The Holy Quran and the honorable Sunnah. The Childhood Center makes advantage of all available resources in the classroom environment and all interactive activities. Besides, highly qualified and active teachers take care of the children and provide them with opportunities to learn, grow and imagine. They also train them to acquire self-reliance and confidence skills that would enable them to move flexibly from home to school environment. A fact that would make the children realize that they are able to rely on themselves and cope with the new environment. The center includes a group of distinguished supervisors, administrators and teachers that are specialized in early childhood. The center makes applied researches for faculty members, graduate and bachelor students in childhood fields or areas related to childhood studies, like (Psychology, sociology, phoniatrics, hearing, teaching methods, special education, vocational education, nursing, and paediatrics) in order to develop the research areas. The centre also provides the ideal environment to train and develop the teachers of normal and special needs children. The training includes the centre's teachers, childhood studies', students and teachers from outside the centre.