Lucy Brock Child Development Center

Lucy Brock Child Development Center is a laboratory program operated by the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences which is a unit in the College of Fine and Applied Arts at Appalachian State University. 

Mission

The mission of the Lucy Brock Child Development Center is to provide opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students to observe children from infancy to kindergarten and to participate with those children in their everyday activities in a natural setting.

As a university lab intended to provide the highest quality education and care for children, the center staff model currently accepted best practices in the field of early childhood education and apply innovative approaches that eventually will contribute to new definitions of best practices. 

This laboratory is used primarily by students and faculty in the child development and birth through kindergarten academic programs.  Lab use may consist soley of students observing from the booth or may include in-class participant-observation. Faculty and students from other academic programs (i.e. art education, music education, human development, special education, speech and language disorders) utilize the laboratory periodically. 

Children and families participating in the center benefit from, as well as contribute toward, this mission.  The center staff provide a caring, secure, and accepting environment and endeavor to meet the full range of needs for every child in accordance with chronological age and developmental level.