INNOVATION is in our hands
Language is in our hands
Language is the key to knowledge. Without language, children aren’t able to express emotion, explore the world around them, develop relationships, or build conceptual knowledge. At The Learning Center for the Deaf (TLC), we are experts in language development for children of all ages. ■ Eleanor and her parents participate in a playgroup as part of our Parent Infant Program.
Beginning with our Parent Infant Program, we are helping children and families learn to communicate using American Sign Language (ASL). We commit over $100,000 annually to supporting deaf children ages 0-3 and their families to ensure they have the tools they need to learn and grow. With 15 children in our program, that’s an average investment of more than $6,600 annually for each child and his/her family. Your support of the Annual Fund allows us to give children and families a visually accessible language – American Sign Language. Having the ability to develop language from the earliest ages is crucial to intellectual, social, and emotional development and gives children a strong foundation during their first three years. Your gifts allow us to provide students and families the tools they need to thrive.
Grace is doing great! She was delayed, and in the past year she’s just taken off. We did get her a cochlear implant, and she loves it. She has spoken English classes and ASL classes; now she’s flowing between the two. It’s great! Sandra Parent of a Pre-K Student
LANGUAGE is in our hands
Academic success is in our hands Here at The Learning Center, we have fun activities to help us learn in our first language. For example, in English Language Arts class we just put on a play about the Titanic using ASL. I got to wear a costume! It was fun! Kacey Elementary Student
The Learning Center for the Deaf was founded on the premise that deaf children deserve to learn and play in environments where American Sign Language is the primary language. With full access to the curriculum in their primary language, with the opportunity to develop friendships with peers who share the same language, and with access to deaf role models and other adults fluent in ASL…our students thrive. Our academic results are unparalleled. Students who enroll at The Learning Center for the Deaf are better equipped to achieve success than the average high school student in Massachusetts. 88% of students who enroll at TLC in Pre-K or Kindergarten and stay through graduation earn a high school diploma, having met all of the state requirements, including passing the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exam (compared to the state average of 83% among all public schools). Gifts to TLC allow us to fund all of our programs and services—from AP courses, to varsity athletics, to field trips, to state-of-the-art technology—that provide our students the best chance of success possible.
■ Gus reports his measurements for a science experiment.
ACADEMIC SUCCESS is in our hands
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Independence is in our hands
■ Students in the Green House welcome and serve guests at their cafe every Thursday.
When students have extraordinary needs, they deserve extraordinary learning environments. Whether facing the challenges of autism, developmental delays, or cognitive delays, our students benefit tremendously from the latest tablet technology. Our Intensive Needs Programs help students who are deaf (or who are not able to communicate verbally) and who also have other cognitive or physical disabilities to build academic and independent living skills. Meeting these needs requires a highly trained staff and state-of-the-art technology. Helping each student maximize their potential requires a team of highly trained staff—from teachers fluent in ASL and certified in Special Education, to occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech and language pathologists, social workers, counselors, and nurses. The Learning Center is committed to hiring and retaining highly qualified staff who can provide our students with the guidance and training they need. With the aid of an iPad, students can watch training videos as many times as needed, point to images which provide the ASL or spoken English vocabulary needed to express themselves, navigate for information on recipes they are preparing for class, or practice transitions during the school day. The latest tablet technology allows our students to take one step closer to independence. Gifts to TLC allow us to hire and train the best staff and allow us to equip classrooms with the technology needed to support our students who have intensive needs.
The Learning Center celebrates deafness. They call it Deaf with a capital D. It’s a culture. Right from day one, they didn’t see Andre as a syndrome. They saw Andre apart from his Tourette’s, and he felt that immediately. He went from dreading school to being really excited about coming. Two months into being here, we were sitting across from each other at the food court in the Natick Mall, and he said to me, ‘Mom, I think I can have a good life now.’ Donna Parent of an Elementary Student
INDEPENDENCE is in our hands
Healing is in our hands Since Jonathan started at Walden School, the time we spend with him is so much more enjoyable. When he is home, he’s helpful. He loves to cook - cutting cucumbers for the salad or measuring out the rice - family time cooking together is fun.The world has opened up to him since he has been here. Walden School has such gifted and talented staff. They really care.They accomplish more with him in a week than we could in a month.This has been life changing for Jonathan. Tammi and Brian Parents of a Walden School Student
Giving students the opportunity to receive therapeutic treatment in a safe, structured environment where clinicians are fluent in American Sign Language is essential for deaf students who have been abused, who struggle with mental illness, or who have organic dysfunction which requires care in a residential treatment program. One of only four highly specialized treatment programs serving deaf youth in the country (and the only one to earn COA accreditation), Walden School provides students and families with hope and healing. Gifts to The Learning Center enable us to better understand and serve Walden School students by funding: the highly specialized training in psychiatric disorders our faculty, staff, and clinicians need; opportunities and programs for parents to build healthy relationships with their children; a warm, beautiful, and safe campus; and birthday and holiday gifts, camping trips, tours, special field trips, and other activities designed to help our students grow, develop new skills, and, most importantly, feel valued by and connected to their community and their peers.
â– Kevin shows off his dorm room at Walden School.
HEALING is in our hands
The World is in our hands
■ Judith Vreeland, TLC President and Executive Director, established our relationship with the Bo’Ai School when she traveled to China in 2010.
The Learning Center is committed to expanding the horizons of our students through travel programs and by teaching our students adaptability and resilience. Study abroad programs provide students with the opportunity to leave their comfort zones, and grow in their understanding of what it means to live and work in a global society. Students in high schools across the country routinely have opportunities to experience the world and we are dedicated to giving our students those same opportunities—and more. This spring, The Learning Center will send a group of students and faculty on a two-week trip to China. The group will have an opportunity to visit the Great Wall, tour urban and rural areas within China, and visit our sister school, the Bo’Ai School for the Deaf, in JiuJiang. Research by the Institute for International Education of Students clearly indicates that study abroad programs increase self-confidence, enhance academic interest, expand interests in friendships from diverse groups of people, and ignite career aspirations. Gifts to The Learning Center make these life-changing opportunities available to our students by allowing us to provide safe and reliable transportation and lodging; to hire American Sign Language and Chinese Sign Language interpreters; and most importantly, to prepare students, through our curriculum and teaching, to better understand the world around them, and to be thoughtful global citizens.
All of my hard work, the teachers that were helping me sign in elementary school and middle school–everything’s been building to where I am right now. I’m really able to venture into the mainstream setting and succeed. I’ve been here since I was 3 or 4, and I really came here–to The Learning Center–to have that foundation and to succeed in the hearing world. Colin TLC Senior FHS Mainstreaming Program National Honor Society Member
THE WORLD is in our hands Art Illman/courtesy MetroWest Daily News
Our Future is in your hands! You can make a difference. We need your help. Your gift today to TLC’s Annual Fund will provide our students access to Language, Academic Success, Independence, Healing, and the World. Your support of The Learning Center for the Deaf allows us to serve more than 1,500 children and adults in 112 communities in Massachusetts and 15 other states. And, the ripple affect of your gift allows us to impact deaf children, families, and educators around the globe as our research and partnerships provide teachers of the deaf with greater understanding about deafness and language acquisition, more curriculum resources, and more sophisticated training and assessment tools for American Sign Language. When you make your annual gift to TLC, you are saying, “I believe that all children deserve to have… ■ A brighter future; ■ Faculty, staff, and classmates who can communicate directly with them; ■ Dreams that are just as attainable as their hearing peers; and ■ Resources that match their aspirations.” Thank you for being a part of education that matters. We can’t think of a better investment, or a better story to tell.
In the beginning it wasn’t the beauty of the language that drew me, although now I am often struck by its power and grace. Perhaps it was the realization that speech is not the only way to converse. Here were two people communicating easily having completely bypassed my way of doing it. There was freedom in that…my horizons widened. I wanted to learn more about those who had adapted to life without sound. The Learning Center for the Deaf is a place where a deaf child can find a language. There is no other place that provides what TLC provides. Suzanne TLC Friend and Donor
OUR FUTURE is in your hands!
So, who has the world now? You do. You have the world in your hands. Keith Nolan TLC Graduation Speaker Address to the Class of 2012
The Learning Center for the Deaf
Thank you!
Our Mission
The Learning Center for the Deaf’s mission is to ensure that deaf and hard of hearing students achieve their full potential in an educational environment where language and communication are keys to building competence, character and community.
Our Profile
Founded in 1970 and headquartered on a 14 acre campus in Framingham, Massachusetts, The Learning Center for the Deaf provides comprehensive education and support services to over 1,500 children and adults annually. A pioneer in bilingual-bicultural Deaf Education, our programs include: • Parent Infant Program, an Early Intervention service • Pre-K through 12th grade day and boarding school • Walden School, a therapeutic residential treatment program • The Outreach Partnership Program (TOPP) • American Sign Language Classes • Audiology Clinic • Wraparound Program
Our Accreditations
• New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) • Conference of Educational Administrators of Schools and Programs for the Deaf (CEASD) • Council on Accreditation (COA)
848 Central Street Framingham, MA 01701 P/TTY: 508-879-5110 VP: 774-999-0941 wwww.tlcdeaf.org