Our Mission

"Giving Our Children a Voice "

SLCD's motto "Giving Our Children a Voice " reflects our goal to meet the needs of preschool and school age children with severe language and autism spectrum disorders.  We believe that students with autism spectrum disorders have underlying language disorders.

"70% of all children with emotional behavioral problems have language disorders.  We believe that as children's language abilities improve, their social, emotional and behavioral skills follow ... teach language first - behavior second."

At SLCD, our mission is to identify children with language and autism spectrum disorders early to provide educational programs which will prepare them for a world filled with words, sentences, stories and messages.  Language is a symbol system; it provides the means to reach out to the world.  It is the most important skill that a child must learn early in life.  Language provides the foundation for socializing, reading, questioning, writing and thinking. 

"Children who cannot talk ... What do they think? What do they feel?"

SLCD uses the Tiegerman Language Method (TLM) which is designed to stimulate and challenge children's language development. We believe that "language is everything and everywhere," so our children need to be immersed in language activities to learn.  We teach children to talk in order to reach the person inside. We have followed our students over the years and they are extremely successful: Jonathan Davis, Amanda Draghi, Nicole Draghi, William Alpert.

"Language frames our thoughts, connects us to one another, communicates our needs, opens up the world..."

SLCD is also committed to increasing public awareness about the unique needs of these children, since they are often misdiagnosed and misplaced in educational programs. Is a child language disordered because he has mental retardation or does he have mental retardation because he is language disordered?

"We specialize with children who have language disorders.  Each child is a special lock, who needs a special key."

 

Follow the link to read the mission statement of SLCD.

"Our children can't talk to their Teddy Bears"