Central Institute for the Deaf

Since its founding in 1914, CID - Central Institute for the Deaf has demonstrated that regardless of how severe their hearing impairment, children can learn to speak and to understand the speech of others when early and appropriate education is provided. Today, cochlear implants and powerful digital hearing aids, combined with educational techniques developed at CID, are enabling more children to learn to listen, talk, read and succeed socially and academically. CID teachers and audiologists are experts at helping children who are deaf and hard of hearing gain the best possible benefit from today's rapidly changing technologies. We offer a language-rich, assessment-based educational program individualized to help every child achieve success.

CID's staff strategic planning committee approved the following vision statement, which still needs

Goal One: Goal 1: Implement new technology and use data to inform our programs for children and families, influence the field and create efficiencies.

Goal Two: Goal 2: Maintain robust enrollment and strong programs for children and families.

Goal Three: Goal 3: Grow Emerson Center for Professional Development

CID has a mentor program for newer teaching staff, a tuition reimbursement program and an endowment to help fund expenses related to continuing education opportunities such as attending and presenting at national conferences. Two years ago, all CID supervisors attended a four-month training program on Cognitive Coaching. The goal of this training was to give supervisors a sophisticated set of techniques to coach their staff in a way that encourages autonomy, interdependence and high achievement among all staff members. CID looks for growth opportunities for all level of staff within our organization. For example, six CID staff members took part in United Way transition meetings, which enabled us to ensure key staff attended for topics relevant to their position.

CID is a member of OPTION Schools, a consortium of 37 listening and spoken language schools. CID staff serve on the Council for Exceptional Children and the Regional Disability Transportation Resource Network. Each year, CID serves as a practicum site for graduate students from Washington University School of Medicine. Our audiologists collaborate with referring physicians and/or hospital surgical teams to discuss children for whom we both provide services. Also, our audiologists provide written reports for each IFSP (Individualized Family Service Plan) appointment that takes place through state early intervention programs. Our Family Center staff also attend IFSP meetings, where they coordinate our work with other early intervention service providers. CID staff also collaborate with home school districts when a child is transitioning out of CID’s program and into their home district. Nationally, CID staff also collaborate with university researchers on topics of joint interest.

Without a doubt, our greatest challenge this past year has been the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the children and families we serve. In March 2020, CID moved all its programming to virtual/online learning. While we are proud of our innovative and nimble staff who made this transition quickly, we also began working diligently to define a comprehensive and safe set of protocols to enable us to return to on-site audiology and school programming as quickly as possible. We were able to do this by the fall of 2020. Our parent educators visits with families typically take place in the home, although during the pandemic they are provided virtually. We are continuing with this modality and have found that some parents engage with their children at a higher level in this format.