The Learning Center

Almaden Country Day School offers the first and only Orton-Gillingham-based integrated learning program in the South Bay Area for children with language-based learning differences. Students are ACDS students who attend the TLC program within our school.

TLC students take their core classes (English, math and social studies) in The Learning Center, and then spend the other 40% of their school day with general education students in enrichment and elective classes and at lunch and recess.

TLC students are ACDS students who are fully integrated into the activities and culture of the school. They are not made to feel different from their general education peers at ACDS; they are instead integrated with other students into the life of the school.

ACDS Mission Statement

The Mission of Almaden Country Day School is to discover the gifts in every child.

TLC Statement of Philosophy

All children deserve to learn to read, including the neuro-diverse, because reading is freedom to think, to do, to become. In TLC, students embrace this freedom.

Empowering Children: The Learning Center

The Mission of Almaden Country Day School is to discover the gifts in every child, and The Learning Center (TLC) was conceived in 2017 as a way to extend our mission and serve children with language-based learning differences. The Learning Center offers a full-day educational program tailored to facilitate learning and to help children develop strategies to thrive in a general education classroom setting.

TLC’s veteran staff are highly-trained specialists, certified by the Orton-Gillingham Academy to teach Orton-Gillingham literacy and multi-sensory math methods that support children struggling with reading, writing, and/or math. Many of TLC's staff are themselves parents of children with dyslexia. Featuring a 4:1 student-to-teacher ratio, instruction in TLC is highly individualized as it is designed to the specific needs of each child.

The Learning Center Highlights 

Proven Orton-Gillingham and multisensory math approaches
Highly personalized and intensive 4:1 student-to-teacher ratio
An integrated, complete social and educational experience
Children spend approximately 60% of their school day in TLC and engage in general education classes for the remainder of the day

Apply for 2025-2026 School Year

any text here

The TLC Difference

The Learning Center features the South Bay Area’s only integrated Orton-Gillingham learning program for children with dyslexia. This means that TLC students are integrated with general education children for most of the school day. In The Learning Center, children receive the specialized learning support they need, while also partaking in the rich, stimulating educational programs enjoyed by general education students at Almaden Country Day School.

TLC students focus on their core subjects—reading, writing, and math—within the Learning Center. For the rest of the day, they join their general education peers in a variety of enrichment classes. In elementary grades, this includes hands-on science, art, music, theater, and physical education. In middle school, students can choose from more than 50 exciting elective classes.

TLC students also spend time with peers from general education homeroom classes at lunch and recess and participating together in overnight field trip adventures, in our competitive speech and debate program, in no-cut after-school athletic teams, at middle school socials, and in school clubs. Alongside all the ACDS students in their grade levels, TLC students socialize, make friends within and outside The Learning Center, and participate in our festive all-school family events like Food Truck Friday, Pumpkin Carving and the Thanksgiving Feast.

Our integrated learning program means that TLC students are ACDS Cougars first, and TLC students second. This is one of numerous ways we minimize the stigma children sometimes feel about receiving specialized instruction.

We are proud of this innovative integrated model and in the South Bay Area, it is currently only available at Almaden Country Day School.

A Day in TLC Life

The Learning Center’s program is highly structured to meet the specific needs of children with language-based learning challenges, and there are plenty of opportunities during the school day for TLC students to go outside to run, jump, play, build, rest, explore and discover alongside their general education peers in a wide range of engaging classes and activities.

Here is a sample schedule for elementary and middle school TLC students, noting that the schedule can vary according to the needs of the students, special events or activities, and more.

Sample daily TLC schedule:

Time	Activity
8 - 8:10 am	Opening/Community Building (whole group advisory/morning meeting)
8:15 - 9:45 am	Language Arts (reading, spelling, comprehension), Writing Workshop, Literature Study
9:45 - 10 am	Recess (with whole school)
10 - 11:15am	Multi-Sensory Mathematics
11:15 - 11:40 am	Social Emotional Learning/Maker Space
11:40 am	Lunch (with whole school)
12 - 1:15 pm 1:15 - 3:10 pm	Social Studies Elective/Enrichment Classes in Middle School with whole school (science, art, music, P.E., and theater arts)
3:10 pm	School Day Over
3:10 - 5:30 pm*	The Orchard: Extended Day Program (registration required)

Note: If students attend enrichment classes (science, art, music, library, P.E., and theater arts) in the morning, time in TLC will be made up in the afternoon.

*Optional The Orchard: Extended Day Program until 5:30 pm, or activities such as sports clinics, Robotics, Chess Club, Math Club, and more. For Middle School grades: optional The Orchard: Extended Day Program after-care until 5:30 pm, or activities like no-cut team sports, Competitive Speech & Debate, Chess Club, and more.

Transitioning from TLC

The Learning Center’s primary function is to prepare children with strategies, skills, and confidence that will help them thrive in a general education classroom setting, either at Almaden Country Day School or in their home schools.

When a child is academically at grade level, can self advocate and has age-appropriate organizational skills, the teachers, student and parents will discuss the timing of a transition to general education.

To support middle school students who transition out of The Learning Center into the ACDS general education program, we offer a Success elective four times per week to monitor their academic progress, provide assistance and communicate with their general education teachers as needed.

TLC Admissions

The Learning Center (TLC) provides a highly individualized instructional program for students with language-based learning differences: dyslexia (reading), dysgraphia (writing), and dyscalculia (math). Children who qualify for TLC demonstrate difficulty in reading, spelling, mathematics, handwriting, organization of written language, or any combination of these areas.

The Learning Center serves students in grades one through eight.

The Learning Center is dedicated to supporting students with language-based learning difficulties; we are not trained to serve children with other diagnoses, including emotional or behavioral disorders, Tourette’s, Asperger’s, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Developmental Delay, Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Nonverbal Learning Disorders, etc., and consequently we cannot admit them. Please see “Eligibility for Admission,” below.

Apply for 2025-2026 School Year

Eligibility for Admission

Admission to The Learning Center is determined based on:

(1) Successful application to Almaden Country Day School (Please check The Learning Center as the program you are applying too on the application)

(2) Results of a required psycho-educational assessment administered by a licensed educational psychologist within the past 3 years.

Please Note: The only diagnoses served by The Learning Center are language-based learning differences. However, we understand that 30% of those with dyslexia have a secondary diagnosis of ADHD. The TLC serves children whose primary diagnosis is a language-based learning difference.

TLC Application Process

Arrange for your child to receive a psycho-educational assessment administered by a licensed educational psychologist. We will accept assessments administered within the past 3 years prior to your application to ACDS.
Submit application to Almaden Country Day School.
Review shadow student information and schedule shadow visit.
Complete tuition support process - if appropriate.
Complete all checklist items on the application timeline.

TLC Admissions Timeline

Admission to The Learning Center is on a space-available basis and may occur at any time during the school year, once all application requirements have been met.

Tuition Support

Tuition Support is available for applicants who qualify. See our Tuition Support guidelines for more information and to start the process.

Possible Tax Deductibility of TLC Tuition Payments

Parents should confer with their tax lawyer or accountant about the rulings and regulations of the Internal Revenue Code, along with other applicable laws, to inquire about possible tax deductibility of TLC tuition payments.

Resources for Parents

Dyslexia Basics
Spelling Difficulties
Math Challenges: Understanding Dyscalculia
Identifying and Teaching Gifted Dyslexic Students
ADHD and Dyslexia Fact Sheet
Testing and Evaluation for Dyslexia
Recommended Reading
- Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading Problems at Any Level, by Dr. Sally Shaywitz
- The Dyslexic Advantage: Unlocking the Hidden Potential of the Dyslexic Brain, by Dr. Brock L. Eide

any text here

Children with language-based learning differences including dyslexia (reading), dysgraphia (writing), and dyscalculia (math) are intelligent, creative, expressive, and driven. Because students with dyslexia learn differently than neurotypical students, they often encounter tremendous obstacles in a general education classroom. As a result, these otherwise bright and academically-capable children experience failures in school that mask their true potential and hinder the expression of their talents.

The Learning Center at Almaden Country Day School was created to support these children in the way they learn best and help them discover their gifts.

Download the full article "Dyslexia Explained" (PDF)

About Language-Based Learning Differences

In the early 2000’s, critical research findings helped us better understand children who struggle in school, particularly those with language-based learning differences. Their differences (and often, their extraordinary gifts) are often rooted in their neurobiology – the nature of their brains.

Many people show great gifts through their creative, expressive, or athletic talents. However, when the same individuals are placed in situations where they are required to process language or decipher mathematical expressions, these people often experience difficulties that can betray their abilities and talents.

Children and adults struggling in this way may be diagnosed with a language-based learning difference, which may include dyslexia, dysgraphia, and/or dyscalculia. Children with language-based learning differences face significant obstacles in schools, where instruction is often delivered in larger groups by teachers who lack specialized training to support their learning needs.

Intensive Intervention Works

In order for children with language processing challenges to learn, they require a specialized, highly structured, intensive educational program that is delivered in a small group setting using simultaneous multisensory practices which literally builds new pathways in their brains over time. Functional MRI’s are now able to show this change in brain structure resulting from deliberate, sequential reading instruction.

With the assistance of a number of learning strategies, young people who once were among the most severe drop-out risks are able to transition to and prosper in general education and even honors-level coursework. In fact, because of their creative and intellectual gifts, children who develop strategies to manage their learning differences frequently emerge from effective learning support programs to become top students in high school and college.

The Learning Center Goals

Overarching Goal

TLC students will understand themselves and appreciate their many strengths. They will understand their personal learning needs and will develop strategies that allow them to close the gap between their academic performance and their intellectual ability. They will be inquisitive, eager students and will have a growth mindset. They will also benefit from the core values – Childhood, Learning, Belonging, Balance – of the Almaden Country Day School experience.

Goal #1: Self-knowledge

TLC students will understand and appreciate their learning profile. They will articulate their learning strengths and weaknesses and will develop strategies to manage their weaknesses. They will self-advocate, articulate their needs, and know what they need in terms of a successful learning experience. They will develop a personal, strengths-based approach to learning.

Goal #2: Academics

Using the Orton-Gillingham Approach, students build accurate reading, spelling, and writing skills; these will help close the gap and ensure students perform effectively in the general education classroom. Explicit, systematic, and diagnostic instruction will provide access to grade-level content that builds from the simple to complex in all content areas. Students will effectively communicate, both orally and in writing. They will analyze and think deeply about the written word. Students will also learn to edit their own written work and check for understanding.

Mathematics is taught using a multisensory approach. Students are familiar with the math practices, mindsets that extend across grade levels. We teach math as conceptual ideas, rather than as procedures and formulas. Students are taught to think flexibly, to understand that depth is more important than speed, and to develop multiple methods to solve problems. Additionally, we rely on the instructional practices that focus on conceptual understanding (without the use of “tricks”); developing number sense; teaching the language of math; and teaching grade-level content using “friendly numbers.” Our students learn that everyone is a “math person.”

Goal #3: Executive Functions and Study Skills

Executive functions and study skills are critical to success in school and beyond. Therefore, our TLC students learn and extend these skills in deliberate and systematic ways. Students will understand how executive functions are brain processes that help us carry out goal-oriented behaviors, including initiating, sustaining, monitoring, and adapting our actions. Students will identify the functions of attention, memory, emotion, motivation, and effort; they will know which are personal strengths and which are struggles. Additionally, they will learn strategies for organizing time, materials, and information; they will practice these daily. Students will understand how study skills, when used effectively, are able to support executive functions. They will appreciate how important both are to achieving academic proficiency.

Goal #4: Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

Our students have a “can-do” attitude. Appreciating their many strengths helps them maintain their perspective when they face challenges. They are open to taking risks, and they know that making mistakes is part of learning. “Yet” is a common reference - “I don’t know how, yet.” Having a growth mindset is part of our daily language and the students are able to speak to its benefits.

The Learning Center Targets

To close the gap between a child’s academic potential and academic performance;
To provide structured, multisensory instruction that will build new neural pathways to help children learn academic skills, including reading, writing, spelling, and math;
To teach students the strategies to become independent, thoughtful learners;
To enable students to experience success in a safe, supportive environment;
To support and educate families of TLC students;
To empower students with skills, confidence, and strategies to thrive in their transition to the general education classroom.

Contact: Mrs. Cecilia Robb, Head of The Learning Center, (408)997-0424 x226

The Learning Center is a proud member of the International Dyslexia Association.