The Learning Through Language Initiative is essential to the future of our agency and will have immense benefits to the community and to the children and families we serve. Through this capital, program and endowment campaign, we will invest in children, build healthy families and provide future funding to support the sustainability of the agency. A Family Preschool classroom, a Speech Language Preschool classroom, a Literacy Lab and permanent Endowment Fund will ensure that children get the communication and educational foundation they need to be successful in school and in life.

A respected and innovative nonprofit agency, the Hearing, Speech & Deafness Center (HSDC) has been serving people with hearing loss, speech, language and learning challenges since 1937. In 2002, the Center successfully completed a capital campaign to create a 30,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility, the Artz Communication Center. As a result, HSDC has been able to provide quality services to more people than ever.

Celebrating our 70th year anniversary, HSDC is ready to take the next step and prepare the Center for future growth and stability. HSDC is seeking to increase our services and programs to ensure a successful school experience for children with special needs.

Responding to an increased demand for early childhood learning opportunities, and with a long-term focus on children with disabilities, HSDC is expanding its services to include a Family Preschool and Speech Language Preschool for children ages three to five and a Literacy Lab for online and interactive learning. Additionally, the Center seeks to make facility improvements to ensure maximum utility and create a permanent endowment to fund uncompensated care for generations to come. Programs slated to begin in the fall of 2007.

The preschools will serve young children ages three to five years, with the Family Preschool serving children who are Deaf, Deaf-Blind and hard of hearing, and the Speech Language Preschool, an oral based classroom, serving children with speech and language delays, cochlear implants and communication and cognitive challenges, including autism. The preschools are strategically geared to build a bridge between PIP and HSDC’s Speech Services (clinical sessions and home visits that provide support in the child’s natural environment) and a successful transition to kindergarten/ school.

Specific goals for these preschools are to: ensure that every child reaches their fullest communication potential; stimulate the development of language, cognitive, social/emotional, and motor skills necessary for school readiness and successful kindergarten transitions for each child AND their family.

Whether diagnosed with autism, cognitive disorders, speech and language delays, or other learning disabilities, students will benefit from a new computer lab using clinical software that develops literacy. With the Literacy Lab, HSDC will be the only organization in Washington State providing this level of comprehensive services in one place.

The Literacy Lab will offer software designed to build fundamental cognitive skills of memory, attention, processing and sequencing, including listening accuracy, phonological awareness and language structures.

By adding the preschool and literacy lab, HSDC will be able to provide a full service continuum enabling children with special needs to succeed in school and beyond.

With the expansion of HSDC’s PIP program, the Family and Speech Language Preschools will be the only King County programs providing comprehensive early education and clinical services specialized for school success in birth-to-five children facing communication challenges, along with parent education and support, and sibling groups.

Provide a continuum of services to better prepare students with special needs for school. Giving children tools to be effective communicators early in life empowers them to be successful in their lives. By providing two specialized preschools and a literacy lab, children will have access to interactive and quality services without disruption to their learning development.

Increase accessibility to our services. By building out space to grow and refining the facility to better serve and communicate with our clients, HSDC will be able to serve an additional 3,000 individuals over the next 10 years.

Permanently allow HSDC to provide care to families regardless of their ability to pay. An endowment will provide a permanent funding source for HSDC to ensure services for generations to come.