The Wachovia/Wells Fargo Foundation has awarded a grant to CID - Central Institute for the Deaf to support the school's professional outreach activities.

CID offers curricula, assessment tools, continuing education workshops, consulting and in-services to assist teachers and other professionals in preparing children who are deaf and hard of hearing to function and succeed in the world. The Foundation's $10,000 grant will help support CID products and services designed to help these professionals understand the intensive specialized education required to teach children who are deaf and hard of hearing to listen and talk.

CID has been teaching children who are deaf and hard of hearing to talk without using sign language since 1914. As public schools increasingly try to provide listening and spoken language instruction to these children in their local districts, the need for professionals to obtain new skills and techniques is apparent.

Recently, CID collaborated with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Missouri School for the Deaf, other St. Louis auditory-oral schools and university training programs to develop "Did You Know..." documents for special education coordinators throughout the state. This is one of many ways CID helps professionals learn more about how hearing aids and cochlear implants work, understand techniques that distinguish auditory-oral deaf education from special education and access resources to improve their skill in serving deaf children learning to talk.

"For children who are deaf and hard of hearing, learning to talk without using sign language gives them the ability to interact and thrive in a predominately hearing world, CID executive director Robin M. Feder said. "We deeply appreciate The Wachovia/Wells Fargo Foundation's support of our efforts to give professionals the information and tools they need to teach deaf children to talk. The grant will make it possible for us to reach more professionals through CID workshops, consulting, in-services and publications."

"The Wachovia/Wells Fargo Foundation and CID share the goal of enabling individuals and families to be independent and to access quality health care. We are proud to support CID's efforts to achieve this goal through professional outreach that seeks to increase the capacity for public schools and professionals to better serve children with hearing loss," Erin Budde, the Foundation's vice president, community affairs manager, said.

CID teachers use the auditory-oral method to prepare deaf children to participate and succeed in mainstream educational settings. CID served more than 170 children and their families in the 2008-2009 academic year. CID students typically live in the St. Louis metropolitan area, southern Illinois and rural Missouri. Historically, CID school children have come from 48 U.S. states and 29 countries.

CID also offers a peer program that integrates hearing children into classes with preschoolers who are deaf and hard of hearing, a summer program for hearing preschoolers with language delays, in-service training, consulting and continuing education workshops for professionals, educational materials used throughout the world to help children who are deaf and hard of hearing and practicum experiences for local university graduate students in deaf education and audiology. CID teachers serve as faculty in the Washington University School of Medicine Program in Audiology and Communication Sciences (PACS), a program closely affiliated with but financially independent from CID. 

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Editor's notes: CID was founded in 1914. It is located at 825 South Taylor Avenue, at the southern end of the Washington University Medical Center/Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis (63110). Visit us at http://cid.edu/.

CID's mission is to teach children who are deaf and hard of hearing to listen, talk, read and succeed. We partner with families and collaborate with universities, educators and other professionals worldwide to help children communicate to achieve their fullest potential.

CID is a proud member of the United Way.

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FOR MORE INFORMATiON, CONTACT:
Kim Readmond
Communications Coordinator
CID - Central Institute for the Deaf
825 South Taylor Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63110
Phone: 314.977.0243 Fax: 314.977.0033
kreadmond@cid.edu

Visit http://www.cid.edu/