History

Established in 1987, the Expanding Children’s Hearing Opportunities (ECHO) Program at Carle Foundation Hospital brings together one of the nation’s finest teams for identifying and treating children with hearing loss. ECHO encompasses two programs: the Pediatric Hearing Center and Carle Auditory Oral School.

After a decade of caring for children with hearing loss, staff at ECHO realized there was a need for an auditory oral education site in downstate Illinois. This program would provide an intensive educational and therapeutic environment for children with hearing loss whose families wanted to develop their child's auditory oral skills.

In 1997, Carle teamed up with St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf in St. Louis to bring St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf at Carle (SJIC), an auditory oral program, to central Illinois. Since that time, the program has experienced consistent growth. In June 2008, Carle Foundation Hospital and The Carle Development Foundation broke ground on a new facility that houses all components of the ECHO program. At groundbreaking, the school name was changed to Carle Auditory Oral School to reflect the support of Carle and the community as a whole. The new building opened it’s doors in August of 2009.