About the Hear and Say Centre

Hear and Say is a Queensland wide charity teaching young children and babies, who are hearing impaired or deaf, to hear, listen and speak…to communicate with the hearing world using clear, natural speech.

This is achieved through the use of the modern technology of the cochlear implant and digital hearing aids combined with Auditory-Verbal Therapy (learning to listen and speak).

Receiving a cochlear implant does not give a deaf child instant speech! A child must be taught to understand the sound they hear in order to develop language.

Our therapists work to build a child’s listening and speaking skills from infancy, sound by sound, syllable by syllable, word by word, achieving remarkable speech and communication skills. The first 5 years of a child’s life are critical for language development.

Children attend from diagnosis until school entry age, when 94% of Hear and Say graduates enter mainstream education with their hearing peers. The remaining 6% have additional disabilities. This is a global benchmark compared to a 33% success rate in Europe.

Queensland wide… Hear and Say is based in Brisbane with regional centres in Cairns, Toowoomba and on the Sunshine and Gold Coast coasts, with a unique technology based Outreach Program for remote and rural children. Hear and Say aims for its children to achieve speech and language skills the same as their hearing peers by the time they reach school age so they will be able to attend mainstream schools, have equal opportunities for employment of their choice and full social integration with the hearing world!

Hear and Say is one of the leading charitable paediatric Auditory-Verbal and cochlear implant centres in the world.

Why We Need Your Help
Hear and Say's program is intensive and expensive costing Hear and Say an average $10,000 per year to provide it for each child although parents are only asked to assist by paying, if they are able, a minimum clinical levy equal to 10% of the service they receive. There are currently over 500 children in the program and there is always a waiting list.

Government funding accounts for 30% of the annual costs, enough to allow us to keep our doors open for only 15 weeks of the year. Parents contribute a minimal clinical levy and the remainder must be raised through the community and Hear and Say's fundraising events.

About Hearing Loss

2.5 children in every thousand are born with hearing loss in Australia and another 2 in every thousand develop hearing loss by the age of 5.
Hearing impairment is the most common disability in children.
Significant hearing loss has a potentially devastating impact on a child’s speech, language, cognitive, educational, social and emotional development.
If hearing loss is detected before 6 months of age and appropriate intervention provided, babies with hearing loss have the potential to achieve speech and language similar to their hearing peers within 1 – 5 years (Yoshinago-Itano et al.,1998).
Potential for a child identified at birth is normal growth of auditory brain areas, age appropriate spoken language, full educational integration, age appropriate reading ability and extensive career choices.

For more details visit www.hearandsaycentre.com.au

How your support helps!
Funds raised help provide the following:

$35	One playgroup session
$65	One resource pack for an Outreach child
$120	One therapy lesson for one child
$250	One week's therapy for one child
$510	Parent education and support for one family for one year
$850	One month's program for one child