Springfield business looking to start a therapeutic preschool for kids with special needs

Preschool is such an important time in a child's education; it sets the foundation for the rest of their school years. But for kids with special needs, it can be difficult finding the right environment for their individual success.

Melanie Stinnett works closely with special needs children. She is the owner of TheraCare in Springfield, which provides speech, occupational and music therapy for kids and adults.

Stinnett said that part of the goal when the clinic opened was to serve whatever needs the community might have. Right now, she believes that is an inclusive and therapeutic preschool for special needs kids.

She wants to open a preschool that will focus on combining therapy with education specialized for each child.

A non-profit, called TheraCare Foundation, was just established, so the vision is to be able to offer the program to families at as low a cost as possible.

"When you think about the cost of therapy, potentially one-on-one therapies, along with the cost of preschool, that can get pretty high," Stinnett said. "But our vision is to really subsidize that cost, but it probably won't go down to zero. But the cost would hopefully be manageable for families dealing with the cost of therapies and other things as well."

This type of program is something TheraCare believes will be unique to this area, with an emphasis on different types of therapy included on a daily basis.

"Therapy's involved, so speech, occupational, physical therapy, music therapy," Stinnett said. "Able to push into the classrooms, able to pull them out for one-on-one therapy time, encourage social interactions that are appropriate and just do all those things together. So a big, collaborative effort really."

Another important aspect would be the inclusiveness, placing special needs kids alongside non-special needs children to develop social skills.

The preschool is ready to go any time, they'd like to start out first with a group of four to six kids and the class would be located in TheraCare's current facility. However, the TheraCare Foundation needs funding to operate as a non-profit so that they can offer the program to families at a low cost.

Right now, the best thing the community can do is spread the business's goal with word of mouth. The community is also welcome to donate to help the non-profit preschool get off the ground. Donations can be made with a check payable to TheraCare Foundation and mailed to 3023 S Fort Ave Suite B, Springfield, MO 65807 or dropped off at that same address.