Agency Details:

The Auditory-Verbal Center, Inc. (AVC) is a place where hard work and dedication bring life-changing results to children with a hearing impairment and their families. Our mission is to enable children who are deaf or hard of hearing to learn to listen and speak without the use of sign language or lip reading.

Description:
Different from other approaches to hearing loss, the Auditory-Verbal Approach emphasizes hearing, rather than vision. Thanks to amazing advances in medical technology, all children with a hearing impairment can receive significant levels of auditory input through powerful hearing aids or a cochlear implant. Once a young child can hear sound, AVC's Auditory-Verbal Program Specialists typically spend two to four years teaching the child how to interpret that sound and to develop spoken language. AVC helps the child acquire speech and language in the most natural way--through listening.

Not all families can afford the costs of weekly therapy. Most insurance companies pay very little for Auditory-Verbal therapy. This makes it nearly impossible for many families to continue services without the use of financial assistance. AVC has developed a scholarship fund in order to offer assistance to the families who need it. These volunteer opportunities will allow us to maintain scholarship funds for families.

History:
Auditory-Verbal was founded in 1977 and has provide auditory-verbal therapy to thousands of children. In addition, it has become renowned across the country for its outstanding Approach in working with all degrees of hearing loss. In addition, the Center is a recognized professional teaching site providing practicum and professional education for aspiring auditory-verbal therapists. Currently, there are only 290 certified auditory-verbal therapists in the world. The goal of the practicum site is to expand this number and develop trained professionals in the Auditory-Verbal Approach.

The Center is one of four centers in the U.S. that offer the Auditory-Verbal Approach as a highly successful and cost effective alternative to the traditional methods used in working with hearing impaired children. The average cost per child for 12 years of tuition in a deaf school is approximately $720,000. Through the Auditory-Verbal Center a child becomes an independent communictor after 2 to 5 years in the program and are then mainstreamed in our regular public school needing no additional help. The cost to attend AVC is roughly 11,000.00 per year for 2 to 5 years. WE do bill insurance as well as offer scholorships for our clients.

Contact person: Debbie Brilling, Executive Director, (phone), (email)

Address:

1901 Century Blvd. Suite 20 Atlanta, GA 30345 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.avchears.org

Directions:

From downtown Atlanta, take I-85 North to the Clairmont Blvd. exit; turn left at the light. Travel approximatel 1/2 mile, and turn right onto Century Blvd. The office will be in the 1st single story building on your right.

Additional Information

How did you hear about Volunteer Solutions?
	United Way (website, staff, etc.)
UWMA Impact Area Alignment:
	People At Risk

Last updated on August 4, 2009