How Therapeutic Child Care came to be

In 1977 Patrick Gogerty started a model Therapeutic Child Care Program to determine whether a child care center was the appropriate place to provide care and treatment for abused/neglected children. Read the full story.

Giving children the building blocks for learning

Developmental therapy is aimed at helping children with developmental delays catch up to their peers. Learn more.

Creative therapy heals little artists

“Children often don’t know what’s bothering them. Creativity releases and relaxes them and gives them ‘a voice.’ That’s when the healing starts.” Read more about creative therapy at Childhaven.

Daily Therapeutic Child Care

Childhaven treats over 400 infants and preschool children each year who are referred by Children's Administration (Child Protective and Child Welfare Services), Public Health and Economic Services Administration.

Therapeutic childcare is provided daily to these abused, neglected and at-risk children ages one month through five at four King County branches located in Seattle (First Hill and Lake City), Auburn and Burien. Predictable, nurturing and developmentally-appropriate experiences are provided, including:

Individually-focused care
Daily door-to-door van transportation
Low child/teacher ratios: 3:1 for children up to 2 years of age and 5:1 for children 2-5 years of age
Medical supervision by staff nurses, plus health screenings and individual health plans for each child
Daily monitoring of the home
Monthly home visitation
Two balanced meals plus snack, meeting all daily nutrition needs
Developmental screening for speech, gross and fine motor skills as well as social-emotional status within 30 days
For qualifying children, individual therapy including special education, speech therapy, physical and/or occupational therapy
Creative therapies, such as play, music and art on as-needed basis
Drug-Affected Infant Program: Therapeutic and developmental child care is provided for infants and preschoolers to overcome residual effects of parents’ prior substance abuse either in-utero or environmentally. Learn more.
Parenting programs: In-class Applied Parenting Instruction, Parent-Child Interaction Training (PCIT), and Promoting First Relationships
Highly trained staff: Program Directors and Case Managers are Licensed Mental Health Counselors or Licensed Social Workers. Therapeutic Child Care Workers (our teachers) have degrees in Early Childhood Education (BA/BS or AA), plus years of experience.

For more information about our program, please e-mail Vicki Nino Osby, Senior VP, Program Operations, or call 206.624.6477.