History

Dear Friends,

We are delighted to have this opportunity to acquaint you with The Lewis School and Diagnostic Clinic. While we, like all good schools, are best understood and appreciated through a personal visit, we know that you will benefit from as much background information as possible before you visit.

We are a small non-profit school for students with learning differences. Our structure, mission and history have led us to the understanding that, just as students have learning differences, we have teaching differences. It is through our sequential, multisensory approach that we have seen dramatic strides made by our students. For these reasons, we have not found it necessary to seek certification from the State of New Jersey. We maintain a highly structured school with instruction that parallels the New Jersey State Core Curriculum Standards.

Our teachers come to us with a variety of certifications: Elementary Education, Teacher of the Handicapped, LDTC. We take them under our supervision and train them in our specific classroom instruction. It is through this mentor/apprentice process, that The Lewis School has maintained its integrity through the years. Our teachers take great pride in their work and hold high expectations for their peers.

Among our student and alumni population are countless success stories. We are proud of the hundreds of Lewis School students who have overcome learning differences to find their true potentials as scholars, professionals, and artists, and as human beings. These success stories are the reason The Lewis School exists nearly thirty years after we first opened our doors in 1973.

The attached page provides you with an overview of our admissions process. This process is designed to provide our faculty and educational administrators with the detailed information necessary for our staff to meet the needs of each Lewis School student.

Please feel free to contact me (either through e-mail or by phone) with your questions or to schedule a School visit and interview.

Sincerely,

Marsha Gaynor Lewis

Founder and Director

History

The Lewis School and Clinic for Educational Therapy was founded in 1973 as a small tutorial school and educational diagnostic facility at a time when many educators flatly denied the existence of Dyslexia or failed to recognize the potential among bright students whose diverse learning styles were unlike those of the majority of their peers. The Lewis School was created to retrieve and develop the potential of the student who has creative and academic promise, but who has been underserved in his/her routine mainstream education.

The Lewis School, our education component, provides pre-school through high-school/college-preparatory education. Its staff of professionals works toward the vision of preparing capable students of all ages for higher achievement and productive lives. The Lewis Clinic functions as the diagnostic, language and learning performance unit of the facility. Educational evaluations are provided on a fee-for-service basis by trained Test Administrators as well as independent consultants who serve the Clinic’s needs.

The Lewis School and Clinic have developed an advanced, integrated system of education that replaces rote learning, memorization, and the teaching of "scatter skills" with individualized, multisensory processes and strategies that engage the many capacities and senses of the brain in the learning experience.

Educational approaches and supporting teaching materials developed by The Lewis School has become the model for educators who need to help learning-different students. The school has been consulted by clinicians from such notable facilities as Jefferson Memorial Hospital Clinic and The University of Pennsylvania in the areas of multi-sensory instruction and language based learning differences. The Lewis School and Clinic is committed to the education, advocacy, and advancement of learning-diverse persons.

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