Carle's Expanding Children's Hearing Opportunities (ECHO) program

The New ECHO Building

Bringing two programs dedicated to children with hearing loss under one roof.

Thanks to Carle Foundation's Expanding Children's Hearing Opportunities (ECHO) program and the Carle Auditory Oral School (CAOS), hundreds of children with hearing loss in our region have received the gift of sound and language-and the chance to succeed.

For nearly 25 years, Carle's ECHO team has been working to maximize children's hearing through hearing aids and cochlear implants. Carle remains one of only a handful of hospitals in the Midwest to have such a program. At CAOS, children with hearing loss learn to listen and talk. The focus becomes helping these children enter neighborhood schools where they can learn and compete with normally hearing peers.

Together, ECHO and CAOS are poised to become the model of care for children with hearing loss in the Midwest. In August 2009, these two programs will be housed under the same roof for the first time in a facility devoted to serving even more children with hearing loss.

To see how the ECHO program and CAOS are helping children with hearing loss find success, watch our video. Then, use our secure online donation form to make a gift in support of the new ECHO Building.