Educational Philosphy

The premise of LPS's Elementary, Middle, 8th Grade and High School Programs is that most language-challenged students do not learn incidentally from the environment as do non-impaired students. Language-impaired students demonstrate deficits in the acquisition of language as well as in their ability to access the competencies they have acquired. In addition, their ability to understand the social and non-literal meaning of language is often impaired. To address these problems, LPS provides language-impaired students with specially designed instructional programs within a safe, secure and highly structured classroom setting.

LPS students are taught in classes of 5-8 students with similar functional language levels, similar compensatory needs and similar academic skills. In each class, students work on the same subject, on the same level, simultaneously. Students and teachers work cooperatively and interact throughout the entire lesson. In this way, language is constantly stimulated and structured. Teachers use multi-sensory (i.e., visual, auditory and kinesthetic) teaching modalities to reinforce learning and to accommodate a variety of learning styles.

Teachers tailor instructional materials for all subjects to the reading levels of each student group. In all classes students work on their reading, writing and communication skills while they learn the basic content of a particular subject. This fosters the development of a student's responsibility for his or her own learning. Instruction ranges along a continuum from direct and teacher-controlled to independent activities, whether the class is Reading or Career Education. The program actively engages the student in the learning process. This includes teaching students to reflect on their ability to learn, to recognize their styles of learning, to recognize success and progress and to advocate for themselves. In addition, the faculty helps students access their prior knowledge in all learning situations and guides them to generalize, integrate and transfer new content and skills in a variety of contexts.