CEID - Sunshine Preschool
Community SubscriberBerkeley, CA
The Center for Early Intervention on Deafness (CEID) is a non-profit organization that supports hearing impaired children.
Parent Q&A
Parent Reviews
Parents, please Sign in to post a review on this page.I’ve had two kids in CEID’s hearing classroom and we love it. The teachers are dedicated and caring, and I love that my kids are exposed to people with all different abilities. They bring sign language home and it’s been a useful communication tool for our family. CEID also organizes lots of programming in addition to normal classes — from movie nights to coffee meet ups for parents, to sign language classes. It’s been a wonderful community for our family!
Sunshine Preschool is such an amazing community. We have been lucky to have our child attend for a year and a half and we're excited to send our younger child there when they're old enough. The teachers and staff are the most caring people, and I really appreciate how they keep us parents informed on our child's development on an ongoing basis. The small class size ensures that each child's unique needs are supported. When I drop off my child in the morning, they run in with joy and they're greeted with smiles and hugs all around. I have so much comfort know that my child is having the time of their life at school with such a wonderful group of people.
My child attended Sunshine full-time from the time they were two until they matriculated to T-K.
I cannot over emphasize how caring and thoughtful the staff there are.
My kiddo learned so much about who they are, how they want to be in the world and what it means to be a friend.
I will forever be grateful for the time we had there.
We absolutely loved our speech therapist (Carol Lettko Email: Carol [at] ceid.org) that we worked with through CEID in Berkeley. Your child does not have to go to the school. http://www.ceid.org
This might be easier to talk about by phone - hapoy to that, so please just let me know. We went through a similar move with a deaf/HH child a few years ago. There are only a couple of specialized options that I would recommend - one in Redwood City and one in Berkeley. We decided to come to Berkeley, and our kids attended the Center for Early Intervention on Deafness (CEID) on Grayson Street in Berkeley. This school serves kids from birth through to Kindergarden. They serve children with all kinds of complex conditions, including D/HH, and they teach both sign language and focus on spoken/oral skills. For the preschool age group, they generally have a ratio of 4:1 for the D/HH teacher’s classroom. There is also a regular preschool (Sunshine) onsite, but we chose to keep our twins together in the D/HH classroom. Our child with normal hearing served as the “language model” for that class. We did the evaluation for services through our local school district (Berkeley Unified), so that fees for the affected child were 100% covered. You can also go through one of the “Early Intervention” “Regional Centers” for children with special health needs: https://www.dds.ca.gov/rc/
CEID has preschool programs that I believe would cover both of your kids. My daughter goes to their Sunshine classroom, which is for hearing kids. Highly recommend them. It’s a wonderful organization. https://www.ceid.org/
You can reach out to Anna to see if it’s a good fit.
anna [at] ceid.org
Have you looked at the Center for Early Intervention on Deafness in south Berkeley? They have a couple of classrooms for deaf and hard-of-hearing students and one class for mostly “typically developing” students, with all the classrooms playing together on a shared playground as well as engaging in other activities together. My child (not deaf or HOH) attended for one year (we moved her for reasons unrelated to the school - we were very happy there), and it was an extremely sweet and wonderful experience. As I recall, there was at least one other family in a similar situation to yours, with twins of differing development, and they loved the school. The staff there is extremely helpful, so even if it’s not a great fit they could likely point you to other resources/options in the Bay Area.
The place you're looking for is CEID (Center for Early Intervention on Deafness). There's a deaf/hard of hearing preschool that meets in the mornings and also includes OT and speech from your child's IEP. Also on site is a preschool that your deaf child could attend before and after their DHH program and your hearing child could attend all day. They are phenomenal with deaf children who have additional needs!
Contact them to get more info about how to enroll (your hearing child should be easy, but there may be a wait list; your deaf child would probably need your local school district to place him at CEID and pay, so which district you move to will be critical as many districts want to keep kids at local schools). The DHH program would be free to you as long as it's your child's IEP placement. Their website (ceid.org) has tuition rates posted for the 2020-2021 year, so they may be different now, but as of then the cost of childcare for your hearing child would be $1400/month for 5 day/week 8am-5pm; afternoon only care is $830/month for 5 days/week
Look at this amazing preschool: https://www.ceid.org/
Center for Early Intervention on Deafness.
It is in Berkeley, right near the Berkeley Bowl West. It has both a deaf/hard of hearing classroom and a preschool for typically developing kids-- so it might work for both your kids (both my kids went at the same time, they are both typically developing).
It is possible that some of the cost for the deaf/hard of hearing kid might be subsidized-- but since it was not the case for my kids, I don't know about that aspect of the situation.
The school was fantastic for my kids, we loved the school-- and the parents of the Deaf/Hard of hearing students thought the place was amazing.
We had a great experience at Sunshine, which allows part-time and part year, if they have space. Sunshine is on Grayson in Southwest Berkeley. They share a campus with CEID, which is a preschool for deaf/HH kids. The teachers were so nice! Our boys loved the large center playyard with a playstructure in the middle bicycle track around the edge.
When I started working at UC Berkeley, we moved over to the Early Childhood Education Centers run by the university. We also had a great experience there - especially with teacher Cheryl Kagawa. She was amazing - did all kids of fun art and science activities with the kids. They drew 100 rockets for C.Johnson when she had her 100th birthday and built a whole Mission Control in the classroom. Anyway, they often have more space in the summer, so you might be able to get a short-term summer only place.
Archived Q&A and Reviews
March 2009
I'd appreciate some recent reviews of Sunshine Preschool at CEID in SW Berkeley. Did your kids enjoy and engage in this unique program? Did you ever find it too structured? Did the kids get enough time outdoors? Thanks for your thoughts. We're looking to start our 2 year old there in the Fall. sally
Both of my children currently attend Sunshine Preschool, and we are very happy there. We love the small size, and the wonderful student to teacher ratio (generally 4:1). The teachers are kind and caring, and clearly find joy in the children they work with. They plan fun activities and follow the children's lead when they have ideas of their own. My children are learning a lot of sign language, as am I.
I also enjoy the interaction with CEID. It is an amazing opportunity for children to interact with other children of different abilities. They have music with the deaf class, and the older Sunshine kids each have a chance to make weekly visits to the deaf class (for a month) for the regular morning activities. The organization has a wonderful sense of community. I am very grateful for the experiences my children are having.
Please contact me if you have any questions. Laura
Feb 2009
Re: Looking for a preschool with an afternoon session
Sunshine Preschool at CEID has afternoons only as an option. It is a wonderful mixed age small class of about 12 students. Often fewer in the afternoon, which I believe goes from 1 to 5. My son only attends in the morning, so I am not very familiar with the afternoon routine. Please email if you have any questions. My son has been very happy there. Laura
Nov 2008
Re: Looking for a Small Size, Structured Preschool
Just in case you're interested in potentially the best of ''both'' worlds, I want to mention Community Education Sunshine Preschool, based at the CEID West Berkeley Center. I did baby signing with my daughter when she was an infant and toddler. A family saw me signing to her in an airport last year and highly recommended this preschool that their hearing son attended. I looked into it a little, and they have separate classes for the hearing and the hearing impaired, but I think they all learn ASL (American Sign Language) and maybe have a little interaction--at least worth looking into! www.ceid.org All the Best finding the Best Preschool for your Child, Michelle
Sept 2008
Re: Any openings at your kid's great preschool?
In response to your question of any great precshools, I have a recommendation (if this is a request for full-time attendance). The Center for Early Intervention on Deafness (CEID) is located in Berkeley (on Grayson, at San Pablo). This is an excellent preschool for any child; hearing, hard-of-hearing, deaf or other individual child needs. My hearing daughter just graduated from CEID and is now attending kindergarden. She has learned a second language while attending CEID. The teachers are all very caring and skilled in attending to individual child needs. The children learn how to interact with each other - even if they cannot hear each other. The courtyard playground is the envy of any other school. To inquire, call 510 848-4800 x301.
Nov 2006
Hello there, If you have any experiences with the Sunshine Preschool that you'd like to share, I would sure appreciate hearing about them. We are considering sending our little guy (he'll be close to 3) there next year for preschool. Thanks for the help
grateful for the advice
Our son has been at Sunshine preschool for three months. Here's my list of Pros and Cons
1 - Small class size. There are up to 15 kids in the classroom at any given time. (many times a lot less) This is much better than many of the teacher/student ratios we saw at other preschools.
2 - In only three months he has already learned quite a bit of sign language. It's pretty incredible and will give him the same benefits of learning any second language
3 - We really like the inclusive environment. It's a really positive thing for kids this age (and any age) to learn how to get along/communicate with people that are different than them. It's amazing how quickly our son has adapted and how easily it seems he can communicate with the deaf/heard of hearing children and staff.
4 - They constantly have new and interesting activities... Just in the past few weeks they have gone on a nature walk, visited a pumpkin patch and made applesauce just to name a few.
5 - The classroom is warm and inviting and they have a great outside play area.
Cons
1 - In the three months our son has been at Sunshine two of the aids have gone on to persue other opportunities. While this is expected and understandable to some degree, two aids leaving within a few weeks of each other was tough. I'm hoping that there will be more stability with the new aids they bring in because it's really important for kids this age to have that stability.
Overall I'd say we're happy with Sunshine and feel our son is in a warm, stimulating, interesting environment where he is learning and growing by leaps and bounds.
Happy Sunshine Mom
My son was in the preK class there for one year. It was his first real school and it was a sweet experience. He was in the sunshine class. When I visited and observed they said they use sign language in addition to speaking. But after a year there, I rarely saw signing during drop off or pick up or when I visited for special events.
But I know the teachers are proficient at signing, and they did use it during circle time and more structured times. So if the sign language is a big draw for you, it might help to know that my son didn't get that much exposure to it. He ended up learning about 3 signs total (no, stop, good morning), going 3 mornings a week. But maybe he just wasn't paying attention!
However! The teachers were overall kind, patient, engaging and thoughtful. Lots of free play opportunities balanced with structured times. The student population and teaching staff are both ethnically and culturally diverse, and the diversity of abilities among the kids was a plus for us.
Especially when they had recess or did activities with the other 2 preschool classes for kids with hearing loss and other disabilities. In those classes they do use signs all the time. They had a rotating schedule where the kids from sunshine spent the morning with one of the other classrooms. My son loved going in ms. Kim's class and looked forward to it. They also did music and story time every week with them.
The only drawbacks were that the classroom is small and the outdoor space is small. But for a 2-3 year old that might not be that big of a concern. The outdoor space has a garden and they also took walks and visited the nearby playground sometimes.
One thing that was a little concerning to me was that the teachers were sometimes checking their cell phones during free play(not engrossed) or talking to each other a lot about personal topics. But the pros by far outweighed the cons for us. We stopped going because we traveled so much it made no sense to keep his spot. But it'sa special place for sure.