Our Story
At Desert Voices, our mission is to teach deaf and hard of hearing children two things…how to listen and how to speak. Through the use of cochlear implants and hearing aids, our students have access to sound. We teach them what those sounds are and to understand the language attached to those sounds. There are a lot of components that go into making
this possible, but the most important is teaching them more
than just the words.
At Desert Voices, we focus on teaching deaf and hard of hearing children language. We want to prepare them for a lifetime of learning through the use of spoken language and, in order to be successful using this mode of communicating; they need to understand not only the words, but the meaning behind those words. There are a lot of subtle nuances that comprise spoken language and a child who has normal hearing will often pick those up through everyday conversational language. For a child who has a hearing loss, the learning is a bit different. Targeted speech therapy and language instruction in a very individualized and small group environment allows us to give our students the opportunity to be successful in a mainstream environment, along side of their hearing peers.
At Desert Voices, we believe that every eligible child should receive services and have never turned an eligible child away because of financial reasons. We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and rely heavily on private donations to fulfill our mission. We do not receive funding from state or federal entities.
Our Mission
Desert Voices’ mission is to teach deaf and hard of hearing children the oral language skills needed to speak and to understand when others speak to them. We ultimately want to prepare them to enter a traditional school setting with age appropriate speech and language skills and at the academic level of their hearing peers. We seek to help them become independent, successful individuals who can fully participate with the world-at-large through the use of spoken language.
Our History
In 1996, a group of parents, all of which had at least one child with a hearing loss, decided that Arizona needed more options when it came to teaching deaf children. All of these families had been searching for options for their children and found that a true auditory oral educational program didn’t exist in the state. As a result, Desert Voices was created and based upon the nationally recognized Moog Curriculum, deaf children in Arizona now had the opportunity to learn spoken language.
1997 marked our first school year and we opened our doors with a staff of 6 and an enrollment of 13. Word quickly spread and within two years, we quickly realized that we needed more space to accommodate the demand. We also realized that with Universal Newborn Screening gaining a foothold in birthing hospitals, children were being identified much earlier and our average referral age quickly dropped to toddlers, then infants. In order to continue to expand our services, we moved into our new building in 2001 and added our Early Intervention Program, which specifically targeted infants and toddlers to 3 years of age.
But our growth didn’t stop, resulting in our need for additional space and staff. In 2007, we embarked on yet another expansion by renovating a house adjacent to our current facility. The Thunderbirds Charities House at Desert Voices proudly provides services to the families and children in our Early Intervention Program. The additional space has offered the program the ability to more than double in size, as well as allowing for future expansion into possibly providing services full day. Each year, we continue to grow as more families opt for an auditory oral mode of communication.
As of June 2009, we are pleased to count 167 children as alumnae of Desert Voices. We celebrate each and every child who has graced our hallways, we honor every person who has helped us become who we are today and we look forward to serving all our future children and families.