A partner with parents and educators to help children be their best selves

Hanna Perkins Center for Child Development is a non-profit partner with parents, educators and mental health professionals to help children understand and manage their emotions for success in school and life.

Founded in 1951, our work is based on understanding that a child’s behavior is a form of communication.

Feelings are as powerful in children as they are in adults – but the abilities to connect a feeling to its source, manage it and communicate it are learned skills. Hanna Perkins exists to support the understanding and nurturing of these skills as essentials to a child’s developing personality and outlook.

Our services include:

  • Hanna Perkins School: State-chartered kindergarten, preschool, and parent/toddler program with autism integration offered in every classroom.
  • Hadden Clinic for Children & Families: Mental health assessment, counseling and therapy from birth to 18, and for new moms struggling with postpartum depression.
  • Consultation and training with other schools and early learning centers.
  • Continuing education for early learning educators, child care workers, social workers, mental health professionals and others who work with children on a daily basis.
  • Child psychoanalytic training: An official training program of the American Psychoanalytic Association, conducted in cooperation with the Cleveland Psychoanalytic Center.

Hanna Perkins Center is recognized world-wide as a unique and indispensable contributor to the healthy emotional development of children and families in the Cleveland area and beyond.

We focus on early childhood because it’s a short period that sets the foundation for all later abilities to learn, work, form healthy relationships and enjoy life. Our focus is relationship-based because the trust and respect for feelings that are part of a caring relationship are central to all other learning.