About TLC Learning CEnter
Overview:
TLC Learning Center is an early childhood education center for infants, toddlers, and preschool children with an on-site pediatric therapy center located in Longmont, Colorado. Founded as The Tiny Tim Center in 1956 by local families, TLC has grown to serve the community with the highest quality infant care, toddler care, preschool, and pediatric therapies. Our classrooms prepare every child for kindergarten through positive social-emotional development and a multi-sensory approach to learning, creating a holistic learning environment that focuses on the whole child. In addition to cognitive and social-emotional development, TLC preschool students participate in YogaKids and Young Athletes which encourage motor development, self-regulation skills, and interacting in small groups.
TLC serves children in a fully inclusive, deliberately diverse environment to foster compassion and critical thinking in all of our students. To fulfill our mission – to provide comprehensive early childhood education and therapeutic services to assist each child in reaching his or her highest potential – we are a Level Four Colorado Shines rated center.
Our infant nursery, toddler classrooms, and preschool classrooms are open year-round to best serve busy families. TLC's infant nursery serves children as young as six weeks old. Our toddler rooms serve children up to 36 months. Our preschool program overlaps with our toddler program and serves children from 2.5 years of age until they are ready for kindergarten. All of our classrooms serve children with neurotypical development (no identified special needs or developmental delays), as well as neurodiverse children with therapeutic needs. Diverse classrooms are part of our fully inclusive learning model.
TLC provides therapeutic services (occupational, physical, and speech pediatric therapies) to children from birth to age 12 in a variety of settings including on-site, natural environments such as the home, and in our early learning classrooms on campus. This allows TLC staff to identify therapy needs in children as soon as possible and provide early interventions for improved long-term success. Because of the integral role they play in the classroom, therapists work collaboratively with classroom teachers to improve social-emotional skills and development outcomes. TLC students are diverse, and we are proud of our fully-inclusive classrooms where all kids learn best side-by-side with their peers. Inclusive classrooms foster compassion, empathy, and leadership skills in all children, and benefit both those with typical abilities and therapeutic needs.
Take a tour of our facility, learn about our early childhood education programs, our pediatric therapy programs, read our blog, read our latest newsletter, browse our Annual Report, or contact us for more information and to schedule a tour. We're glad you're here!
Our Mission:
TLC has nurtured and supported the cognitive, physical, and social-emotional development of children for over 65 years. We provide high-quality, accredited infant and toddler care, preschool and pediatric therapy services to accomplish our mission: to provide, in a fiscally responsible manner, comprehensive early childhood education and therapeutic services to assist each child in reaching their highest potential. To fulfill our mission, we are Level Four Colorado Shines infant, toddler, and preschool program that serves children with typical development, special needs, and from high-risk backgrounds, combined with on and off site therapeutic services that complement our educational curriculum, while being tailored to the needs of each individual child.
Our Commitment to Equity and Inclusion:
We honor and celebrate the diverse makeup of our community through an intentionally inclusive program that provides equitable learning opportunities and encourages the exploration, understanding, and appreciation of individual differences, perspectives, and cultures. TLC strives to provide a safe and inclusive learning environment for all members of our community so that every member feels welcomed, valued, honored, and respected, regardless of ability, race, religion, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, or age. We believe that embracing and celebrating our differences and commonalities is an integral part of the cognitive and social-emotional growth of each member of our community and is as important now as it was when our Center was founded in 1956.
Who We Serve:
TLC's classrooms serve children of all developmental abilities and backgrounds from six weeks until kindergarten-ready with half and full-day programs in a year-round, fully-inclusive program.
Our pediatric therapy program works with children from birth to 12 in pediatric speech, occupational, and physical therapies. Therapists can see children both on-site at TLC, and throughout the community in hospitals and family homes.
Our Programs:
Preschool for children two and a half to five years old. Our inclusive preschool is located in Longmont, Colorado, but serves children from the surrounding cities and counties as well.
Infant care for children starting at eight weeks old. Our large infant room includes rocking chairs, clean floor space, a sleeping area, and a kitchen. TLC is able to store breast milk, and mothers are welcome to come and breast or bottle feed their babies at TLC during the day either in the nursery or in a private breast feeding room.
Toddler care serves children who are developmentally in-between the infant room and beginning preschool. Our early childcare program has two dedicated classrooms and an age-appropriate playground space to best serve our littelest walkers and wobblers.
Pediatric physical, occupational, and speech therapies for children birth to 12 is offered throughout Longmont, Boulder County, and the surrounding communities. TLC accepts most insurance plans, including Medicaid.
View our program brochure in PDF format.
Why an Inclusive Model?
Children with a wide variety of needs are part of our early learning community. Our inclusive classrooms educate children with various learning styles and abilities, and our teachers' strong knowledge of child development helps them to successfully teach young children with all talents, interests, and abilities. In effective inclusive programs, teachers adapt activities to include all students, even though the individual learning goals of each child may be different for the activity.
Children may have a developmental disability that delays some developmental milestones, or they may have an accelerated development pace, making acquisition of kindergarten-readiness concepts easy for a child. All needs are recognized and adapted for in TLC classrooms.
In high quality early childhood programs, inclusion is simply an example of the regular practice of meeting the individual needs of each child and family. No two learners are alike, whether they have a disability or not, and inclusive schools like TLC place great importance on creating opportunities for students to learn and be assessed in a variety of ways. TLC teachers consider a wide range of learning styles in designing instruction and utilize nationally recognized research-based curriculum that meet K-12 Common Core State Standards and prepare each TLC student for success.
The TLC Advantage:
Other strategies used in TLC classrooms to ensure individualized attention include:
A low teacher to student ratio and small class sizes that enable our teachers to provide individualized support, whether a child needs more attention to master a skill or more activities to challenge themselves.
Highly educated and experienced teachers, most with master's degrees, who know how to individualize instruction based on each child’s needs and interests.
TLC uses the Pyramid Plus approach to promote positive behavior development.
TLC is a Level Four Colorado Shines program.
Our inclusive model enhances the way in which all of our students are accepted, assessed, and moved forward through our levels of programming.
At TLC, each child is prepared to reach their highest potential.
