Curious Parents Education Resources

Founded in 1973, The Lewis School is among the earliest groups of educators in the country to innovate, develop and implement curriculum-wide multisensory education, science-based student assessments and neuroscience-based teacher training within a structured and nurturing traditional school environment.
The School’s philosophy is best described by its founder, Marsha Lewis, “Our students’ gifts and promise are as important to us as are their needs to repair scholastically. At The Lewis School, learning problems are understood, not as disabilities, but as differences: the expression of remarkable and diverse capacities of human thinking and perceptions. The purpose of a Lewis School education is to prepare students, who may struggle with dyslexia, ADD, auditory processing, receptive-expressive language or decoding/encoding in reading, writing, spelling, retention-memory and comprehension, to thrive academically, as they learn to restore the confidence and self-esteem they need to achieve their scholastic and creative best.”
For the past 35 years and long before multisensory methodology was accepted by mainstream educators, The Lewis School’s curriculum included the now ‘widely acclaimed’ teaching approaches of Orton-Gillingham, Slingerland, Childs and Wilson Reading. In the realization that no single teaching approach could address the many diverse needs of bright, unorthodox learners, despite how excellent that method might be, The Lewis School was among the first to integrate these approaches, one with the other.
With more than 150 students enrolled at The Lewis School, the daily curriculum is dynamic, challenging, competitive and completely multisensory. Whether the student is a first grader learning the basics of sound-symbol association, or a teenager ready to take on Advanced Calculus at a college preparatory level, The Lewis School curriculum is designed to meet the needs of each individual student. As Marsha Lewis described during an interview with The New York Times, “We don’t just teach our students compensation measures; we teach them working strategies. Our hands-on teaching approaches actively engage the many senses of the brain in the learning process, allowing students to automatize and internalize instruction, rather than reinforcing their inherent reliance on passive, rote memorization.”
The Lewis Clinic for Educational Therapy continues to serve as the foundation for instruction and learning. Having an organization that is rooted in the science of learning gives Lewis a unique perspective. The Lewis Clinic administers nationally- normed standardized tests and uses a comprehensive selection of diagnostic and perceptual instruments, which are administered without the influence of pre-determined biases or prior diagnostic opinions.
Students and parents are often relieved to find what they thought was a disability is actually a different way of learning that is unique to the child. At The Lewis Clinic families will find clearly defined, plainspoken, independent assessments that carefully examine their child’s learning strengths and weaknesses. This is helpful to teachers, parents and students alike because, according to Marsha Lewis, “Children need an education that is in touch with them the way they really are.”
The Lewis School and Clinic continues to stay on the cutting-edge of research, exploring the brains ability to learn and readily adapt and deliver new concepts directly to faculty and the classroom. Innovations, like the virtual chemistry labs adapted for the use of learning different students, is only one example of the programs being sponsored by The Lewis School and Clinic.

For more than thirty years, The Lewis School and Clinic for Educational Testing together have pioneered an educational resource that continues to develop, implement and expand a new vision and direction for education in the United States. The Lewis School’s unique educational system provides the advantages of comprehensive educational evaluations and proven Multisensory teaching approaches in all areas of academic study regardless of age.
The Lewis School offers students and their families a collaboration of educational perspectives, expertise, innovation, and support, all made available to them within the same integrated, nurturing educational setting. Marsha Gaynor Lewis, Founder and Director, says, “More than ever before, students need an education that is in touch with them as they really are. They need great teachers who understand and are prepared to respond. Children themselves need to learn to recognize and understand the values of their differences and the importance of their great possibilities.”

The full-time day school curriculum at Lewis is dynamic, challenging, competitive and completely multisensory. Whether the student is a first grader learning the basics of sound-symbol association and word blending of a teenager ready to take on Advanced Calculus at a college preparatory level, learning different students of average to above average intelligence, kindergarten through high school post-graduate study, are offered strong core curricula courses that reflect a traditional liberal-arts-based education in English, mathematics, the sciences and history. With an average teacher to student ratio of 8:1, students are not only afforded daily, small group instruction in the Multisensory Mechanics of Language, but also the experience of learning “how to take your place”, achieve and progress in classes as large as 12 to 15 students. “We see this as preparation for the ‘real world’ of education beyond The Lewis School,” reminds Lewis.

Fine Arts, Music, Theater, Drama and Dance are included as well. Children may choose to join The Poet’s Corner, a peer mentoring group, a writer’s lab, the yearbook staff or the student newspaper. Physical Education and after school athletics include aquatics, adaptive P.E., track and field, as well as Varsity Soccer and Basketball. And any student is welcome to try out for one of the cheerleading squads, regardless of aptitude. Lewis also offers multisensory, tutorial support, space providing, in its Afternoon Education Program. Tutorials in a number of disciplines such as the mechanics of language, study skills, analytical and technical writing for example, are open to area students by the program’s Coordinator, Sarah Stevens.

“An area that truly sets Lewis apart from other educational institutions in The Lewis Clinic,” states Mr. Young. “Parents seek the Clinic’s services for a range of purposes. Some are applying for admission to The Lewis School, for which a comprehensive educational evaluation is required. But in the majority, families are searching for clearly defined, plain-spoken, independent assessments that carefully examine their child’s learning strengths and weaknesses. They want to better understand the specific areas that are negatively affecting school performance.”

Young continues, “We utilize nationally-normed standardized tests including the Woodcock-Johnson, if appropriate. These in combination with a comprehensive selection of diagnostic perceptual instruments which are administered without the influence of pre-determined biases or prior diagnostic opinions.” As Mr. Young explains, “A label or classification rarely helps us to understand where or how to best direct instruction.”

Over a period of thirty years, The Lewis Clinic has also trained hundreds of teachers who serve in public and private schools in the greater Princeton area, across the country and abroad. It remains on the cutting edge of research exploring the brain’s ability to learn and can readily adapt and deliver appropriate new concepts directly to faculty and the classroom. Innovations such as virtual chemistry labs adapted for the use of dyslexic students and developed by upper school Science Instructor, Dr. Judith Prybola, is only one example of the programs sponsored by the Clinic.

Faculty, who come from mainstream schools or university level teaching, bring a rich, broad-based diversity of backgrounds to The Lewis School. In the majority, they hold New Jersey state certifications and advanced degrees, however they are required to satisfy a rigorous, step-by-step training at The Lewis Clinic. Anne O’Flanagan, the incoming Director of Educational Resources and Development is a former Executive Director of The International Dyslexia Association. After reviewing the functions of the Lewis Clinic and observing extensively in the classrooms of the Lewis School, she recently commented, “This is the most comprehensive student analysis program and teacher training I’ve encountered in my thirty years in education. One is completely clear about a child’s strengths, educational struggles and the appropriate intervention to take after a Lewis Clinic evaluation is completed. Faculty value the creative gifts and the many forms of intelligence the students exhibit and they know how to respond to each child’s different learning style.”

”We value the creative gifts and the many forms of intelligence our students exhibit. Who in the majority have gone on to distinguish themselves in higher education and in life.” Says Marsha Lewis. “Countless of our students have excelled after transitioning to public and private schools locally and across the country. I’m also proud to say Lewis School students have been accepted to colleges and universities as diverse as Brown, Fairleigh Dickenson, The Culinary Institute of America, Stanford, Loyola and Yale Law Schools. The Lewis School faculty and I look forward to serving the next generation of learners to come.”


For more information, visit The Lewis School’s website at www.lewisschool.org or call (609) 924-8120.

Member of the International Dyslexia Association since 1973.

FOUNDED IN 1973, A PRIVATE, NON-PROFIT, CO-EDUCATIONAL, TRADITIONAL DAY SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DIFFICULTIES RELATED TO DYSLEXIA, AUDITORY PROCESSING AND ATTENTION. ORTON-GILLINGHAM, WILSON READING AND RESEARCH-BASED MULTISENSORY SPEECH-LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION OFFERED CURRICULUM-WIDE. GRADES PRE-K—COLLEGE PREPARATORY. MEMBER OF THE INTERNATIONAL DYSLEXIA ASSOCIATION SINCE 1973.

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