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Groundbreaking work receives TELUS Award

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

 Children’s Hearing and Speech Centre of BC awarded for innovation; 1 in 300 babies born with hearing loss; group “teaches them to listen”

Vancouver, BC - TELUS Vancouver Celebration of Giving was held on Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at the TELUS House Vancouver on Robson Street where Children’s Hearing and Speech Centre of BC (CHSC) was presented with the TELUS Innovation Award for Vancouver, which recognizes “lasting and sustainable impact on the local community.”

CHSC’s Stepping Out program was recognized with a $5,000 grant for providing deaf and hard of hearing children in remote communities of BC the same opportunities to learn to talk as those in the Lower Mainland. “This honour shows that the work we’ve been pioneering to help deaf and hard of hearing children learn to listen and talk is making a difference,” says CHSC principal and executive director, Janet Weil.

About one in 300 babies is born with hearing loss in one or both ears. The BC Provincial Government implemented an early hearing program in 2008 which tests newborns before they leave hospital. As a result, children are given the opportunity to learn to listen and talk at the same developmental pace as their hearing peers. With appropriate listening devices and the support of hearing professionals, children are given the tools they need to acquire effective spoken language.

Established in 1963, CHSC is one of just three schools in Canada that works exclusively with auditory-oral education as a means to help deaf and hard of hearing children to listen and talk. To learn more about the Children’s Hearing and Speech Centre of BC click on www.childrenshearing.ca

Left to right: TELUS Vancouver Community Board chair Nini Baird; CHSC principal and executive director, Janet Weil; CHSC Development Director Shawn Leclair; TELUS President & CEO Darren Entwistle. Photo by TELUS team member Karen Mackenrot.


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