Syosset's Variety Preschooler's Workshop, a major Long Island center that serves young children with developmental disabilities and their families, recently held a groundbreaking ceremony symbolizing their upcoming construction to expand their facilities - a project called Sharing the Dream... Sharing Success.

VPSW's most recent project will include renovating and expanding its Syosset facility to enhance the direct services it provides to children and families. It will also create the VPSW Training and Research Center, in order to train educators from other programs in its proven methods.

VPSW was one of the first programs in the Northeast for young children with learning, language and behavioral disabilities. The center, and its staff of over 250, is known for its training and research projects, and is expanding these programs to serve more children and families across the country.

"We are adding some new space to replace some outdated space for kids," said Judith S. Bloch, founder, president and CEO of VPSW. "We will do some local training and training for the child care community that is now including children with disabilities. The new training center will not be open and done until the spring."

VPSW is currently conducting training classes in the field and they have been holding seminars, which help early care and childcare staff promote language and deal with behavior problems and identifying children who may be eligible for special services.

Children who are classified, meaning children that have a developmental disorder and are now attending childcare or preschool programs, are now included in VPSW's services. "As a result of the work that we have been doing at almost 100 nursery schools throughout the region, we have been hearing from their staffs about what they would like to know more that they can do in their regular setting to promote language with these children who have disabilities," said Bloch.

There is a federal law, dealing with inclusion, that says all children are entitled to an education and entitled to be included in places and facilities that provide services to typical children. If a child has a behavioral, language or learning problem, the nursery school or day care facility cannot easily exclude such a child. They have to include them in the program. In the process, there is the problem of taking care of children with special needs as well as other children. This is the training that VPSW is doing now for the staff, which will help them meet this challenging task.

VPSW received a $400,000 grant from the Kresge Foundation and also Astoria Federal Savings, headquartered in Lake Success, donated $25,000 to support VPSW's 21st Century Major Gifts Campaign: Sharing the Dream... Sharing Success.

"Variety Preschooler's Workshop has embarked on this renovation and expansion project in response to the growing need for services," said Bloch. "There is a rise in the incidence of children being treated for autism. At the same time, more children with disabilities are being included in programs for typically developing children and the administrators and staff of those programs are urgently seeking help to prepare to meet these new challenges. Astoria Federal has taken a leadership role in Long Island's business community in helping address these problems - in stepping forward to help build a brighter future for young children with disabilities and their families."