18th ANNUAL EARLY HEARING DETECTION & INTERVENTION MEETING
March 3-5, 2019 • Chicago, IL

Alexander Graham Bell Montessori School (AGBMS) and AEHI is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to empowering individuals who have language, hearing, and speech needs to achieve age-appropriate language, literacy, and overall academic skills through unique educational options.

• a challenging, mainstream Montessori curriculum
• individualized and small-group instruction
• unlimited opportunities for interaction with hearing peers
• an intense focus on oral communication skills
• Cued Speech as a supplement to English -- especially in difficult listening situations, in cases where new and/or complex information is being presented, and in cases where there are language delays that must be resolved in an accelerated fashion.

Our school provides special services for children from birth to fifteen years old. In addition to our regular staff of certified Montessori teachers, we employ a team of specialists, including certified teachers of the deaf, a speech/language pathologist, Early Interventionists, and a several certified Special Education teachers. These specialists collaborate with each other and the classroom teaching staff to provide on-site therapeutic and educational services in accordance with each child’s IEP or IFSP. AGBMS is approved by the Illinois State Board Education (ISBE) to provide services to Deaf and Hard of Hearing children as well as children with speech and language delays up to the age of 15.

AEHI is the outreach component of our program. AEHI provides outreach services including Cued Speech workshops, individualized parental training and support, educational consulting, professional development opportunities, and access to a wide variety of information on Cued Speech and its benefits. AEHI also supports a model Cued Speech inclusion program for the education of children who have language, hearing, and speech needs within AGBMS.

Participants would have the opportunity to tour the school and see how the program is designed to benefit both deaf and hearing children. The Director of Student Support Services will lead the tour and be able to provide information about how the school was founded and how it came to be where it is today. There will be a question and answer session as well as a brief introduction to Cued Speech and how it can support literacy.

Join us at Child's Voice and see the magic that happens in our programs every day! This tour will include a peek into the Audiology Center, the Early Intervention Program Toddler Group and speech sessions, and a visit to the School Program at Child's Voice. You will get to meet and talk to students in the Program and see the expert staff at Child's Voice at work.

Serving nearly 400 children last year from across the greater metropolitan Chicago area, Child's Voice serves families from over 80 different zip codes, representing 30+ school districts. Child's Voice is located in Wood Dale and has a second location in the City of Chicago's Roscoe Village neighborhood. We look forward to seeing you soon! www.ChildsVoice.org #SmileyCV

Participants will visit the UChicago Medicine Audiology Department to tour the facility.

At the UChicago Medicine, audiologists work closely alongside physicians, speech/language pathologists, and deaf/hearing-impaired educators as a team in order to provide comprehensive care of hearing and balance disorders to patients of all ages. As part of UChicago Medicine, the audiology program is committed to evidence-based practice. As such, the team of audiologists is heavily involved with on-going professional education to be certain that services provided reflect the latest proven techniques. This commitment also requires constant innovation and improvement of testing protocols and equipment based on the status of the ever-changing state of the art. Services provided include:

• Complex Hearing Evaluations
• Infant Hearing Screening and Pediatric Diagnostic Services
• Cochlear Implant Program
• Amplification (Hearing Aids)
• Implantable Hearing Devices
• Vestibular (Inner-Ear Balance) Testing

Participants will also learn about the Thirty Million Words (TMW) initiative, directed by Dr. Dana Suskind, which is an innovative, evidence-based intervention program designed to help narrow the language gap between children from lower-income families and those in wealthier households.

Site/Program Description
UChicago Medicine:
The University of Chicago Medicine, with a history dating to 1927, is a not-for-profit academic medical health system based on the campus of the University of Chicago in Hyde Park, and with hospitals, outpatient clinics, and physician practices throughout Chicago and its suburbs. UChicago Medicine unites five organizations to fulfill its tripartite mission of medical education, research, and patient care: Pritzker School of Medicine, Biological Sciences Division, Medical Center, Community Health and Hospital Division, and UChicago Medicine Physicians. Affiliated with and operated by the University of Chicago, it serves as the teaching hospital for students of the institution's Pritzker School of Medicine. In 2018, the University of Chicago Medicine received its 14th consecutive "A" grade in hospital safety from The Leapfrog Group, making it the only academic medical center in Chicago to consistently earn the top score from the prestigious industry watchdog.