Dr. Michael Oberschneider, the director of Ashburn Psychological and Psychiatric Services, visited with the directors of the Open Door Learning Center and the Aurora School at the Margaret Paxton Memorial Learning and Resource Campus in Leesburg, VA.  The Open Door Learning Center is a new preschool in Leesburg that teaches children with developmental delays and neurotypical children from 2 to 6 years of age.  The Open Door Learning Center program is impressive, as their staff is comprised of occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, and Board Certified Behavioral Analysts (BCBA’s), as well as credentialed teachers in various areas of instruction.  They provide hands-on learning, individual lesson plans, inclusive classrooms, a small student to teacher ratio (5 to 1), certified teachers, muti-cultural themes, art, movement and communcation groups, as well as math and science enrichment.  Dr. Oberschneider was impressed with the high caliber of the staff, the setting and the all inclusive classrooms.  The dedication of the team and the care to lesson planning and teaching children was also apparent.

The Margaret Paxton Memorial Learning and Resource Campus also houses the Aurora School and the Arc of Loudoun County.  The Aurora School serves students between the ageas of 2 and 22 years with developmental delays, autism, mental retardation, speech and language impairment, taumatic brain injury and other disablites.  Aurora successfully educates students who were unable to reach their potential in the public school environment and system.  The Aurora School is a private non-profit organization.  Aurora is a CSA provider licensed to operate by the Virginia Department of Education.

The Arc of Loudoun County, also housed on the campus, adovactes for persons with disabilities by promoting individual support and equitable participation with their non-disabled peers in all aspects of community life, including education, residence, vocation and healthcare.  Their goal is to secure the full range of human and civil rights for children and adults with disabilities.

The team at Ashburn Psychological and Psychiatric Services is commited to developing a stronger relatiosnhip with the Arc of Loudoun County, the Open Door Learning Center and the Aurora School in supporting our families in need in Loudoun County.

For futher information on the Open Door Learning Center, the Aurora School or the Arc of Loudoun County, please call (703) 777-1939 or visit the following Webpages:  http://www.thearcofloudoun.org/index.html and http://www.opendoorlearningcenter.org/index.html