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Since 1991, the Thorne School has offered the Language Enrichment Preschool Program (LEPP), designed for children with identified speech and language difficulties.

The program is designed for children who often attend a traditional morning preschool but with their identified speech and language needs they benefit from the added experience of a language based afternoon curriculum to address and strengthen their receptive and expressive language abilities as well as support their social language, play and early literacy skills.

The program is staffed by a head teacher, an assistant teacher/speech therapist, a speech language pathologist, and an undergraduate assistant. To meet the children’s special language needs, the student-teacher ratio is about 3:1.

Directed by Bev McDonell, the LEPP meets from 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m., with 3-year-olds attending Wednesday and Friday afternoons, and 4-year-olds attending Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday afternoons.

"I can't say enough wonderful things about the Language Enrichment Preschool Program at Phebe Anna Thorne. My son began in this program in September, and his speech has grown by leaps and bounds ever since. The small student:teacher ratio means that my son receives the kind of individualized attention that he needs to communicate more effectively. All of the teachers in the program are incredibly skilled at working with young children and clearly love what they do. Because of the positive, nurturing environment at Phebe Anna Thorne, my son looks forward to going to school each day." —K¾±°ù²õ³Ù¾±²Ô

"Thorne school met the kids where they were, rather than expecting them to be somewhere else developmentally." —Preschool Parent

Hours and Fees for 2024-25 LEPP

Parents interested in the Language Enrichment Preschool Program should contact Bev McDonell by email (bmcdonell@brynmawr.edu) or at 610-526-7633

Teachers

Stacy Collins is the teacher/speech-language pathologist in the Language Enrichment Preschool Program. She has her M.S. in speech pathology from Eastern Illinois University. Stacy has worked with young children for more than 20 years, focusing on speech and language development. scollins2@brynmawr.edu â€¢ 610-526-7633

Bev McDonell has been the speech language pathologist in LEPP for the past 25 years and is also the current director of the program. She has a M.A. in speech language pathology from Western Washington University and B.A. from Penn State University. bmcdonell@brynmawr.eduʉۢ 610-526-7633

Jennifer Schlegel is the lead teacher in the Language Enrichment preschool class. She has a B.S. in Early Childhood Education from Shippensburg University, and an M.S.Ed./Special Education Certification from Cabrini College. Jennifer brings 13 years of early childhood teaching experience in both classroom and special education settings. jschlegel@brynmawr.eduʉۢ 610-526-7633

Language Enrichment Summer Camp

The Thorne Language Enrichment Summer Camp is designed for children 3-5 years old, who qualify for speech therapy, but are looking for a camp experience which embeds the therapy into a fun, multi-sensory camp curriculum. Priority is given to children already enrolled or new to the school-year Language Enrichment Preschool Program.

Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m.-12 p.m. 

Parents interested in the Speech-Language Enrichment Camp should contact Bev McDonell  bmcdonell@brynmawr.edu  610-526-7633.