Our Story

In December, 1982, Developmental Child Care was founded in the heart of the "Dogtown" neighborhood. As an early childhood education specialist and mother to four young adult daughters, the director turned her early childhood background into self-interest. "Would I put my grandchild here?" became the operable question as she considered each aspect of the Center. She engaged Dr. Anita Olds, a developmental psychologist who specialized in play environments for young children, in the design of the Center. The Center incorporated in February, 1983, and opened in September.

In March, 1984, a mutual friend recommended that Barbara Stewart, an expert in education of children with special needs, contact her to include her children with special needs into the child care population. She presented the idea to her parent population which included a woman who was blind and a father in a travel chair. Recognizing that we are all temporarily able bodied and all of differing abilities, the group was willing to try. In July 1984, the collaboration with the Belle Center began and continued for twelve years to the benefit of all populations - children, parents, and staff.

In the spring of 1987, the director became a consultant to PROJECT CONSTRUCT, a curriculum and assessment framework developed under the auspices of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Center for Educational Assessment. The theoretical framework is constructivism, based upon the theories of Jean Piaget. The constructivist theory assumes that learning is determined neither by nature nor by environment alone, but that knowledge is constructed by the individual through interactions with people and the physical environment. Developmental Child Care became a pilot site during the school year of 1988-89

In 2018, the founder retired and a small group of parents volunteered to form a Board of Directors. DCC hired a new director and the center continued to thrive, including a name change…Discovery Children’s Center.

In 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began, like many childcare centers, DCC was greatly impacted and unfortunately was forced to close its doors permanently in March 2020. However, unwilling to let the center and its amazing community cease to exist, parents and staff banded together to form a new board and opened the center three months later in the summer of 2020. The new board hired an amazing executive director and assistant director, who together have over 50 years combined childcare experience. Navigating through the pandemic, DCC has become an inspirational success story as its center has grown immensely over the last two years.