The Endeavor Pre-School Program at Carriage House

History of the Endeavor Program

The Endeavor Program at Carriage House began as a collaboration between Carriage House Educational Services and FEAT of Louisville, Inc. Founded in 1969, Carriage House (then Louisville School for Autistic Children) was one of the first schools in the United States providing services to people with autism. Since 1983, Carriage House focused on serving not only children with special needs but providing exemplary preschool experiences to all children. Carriage House Preschool welcomed many children with autism in a "mainstream" environment offering traditional preschool curriculum. In 2003, Carriage House partnered with FEAT of Louisville, Inc to extend its traditional preschool program to provide a specialized program for children with autism and other developmental disabilities that is geared toward serving their unique educational needs.

Our Vision

Our vision for the Endeavor Program is to provide a cost-effective, comprehensive program for all young children with autism and other developmental disabilities in the Louisville area. Our goal is to prepare the children to the best of their ability to function in other school settings. We seek to strengthen our relationships with local agencies and school systems providing services to our children to ensure smooth transitions and continuation of effective programming for children entering other schools.

Program Description

The Endeavor Program is a year round, early educational program for children ages 2 - 6 years, who have been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and other developmental disabilities. The goal of Endeavor is to prepare children for future education in a public or private school setting.

Enrollment options include either half or full day classes. With up to six children and three to four trained staff per classroom, the Endeavor Program ensures the intense interactions and instructional guidance that children with autism require to learn in a group setting.

Initial assessments are completed shortly after enrollment using a variety of appropriate assessment tools. These assessments provide a wealth of information about current skills, needed goals/objectives, and skill acquisition and are used to complete an individualized plan for each child. Input from all service providers for each child is encouraged in the assessment process.

Children experience a therapeutic preschool environment where the strategies of a variety of well known intervention methods including ABA, VB, Floortime and TEACCH are imbedded into the natural learning environment. The Endeavor Classrooms are designed to provide a developmentally appropriate preschool environment into which each child's individual plan may be embedded. Our program centers on educating the whole child with special emphasis on social peer interactions.

Staff includes certified and master level teachers, behaviorists and assistants who have experience working with children with autism and other developmental disabilities.

For more information please call Mary Horvath or Jenny Ewen at (502) 253-1293.