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NONPROFIT AWARD
NONPROFIT Award Memphis Oral School for the Deaf
Inside a classroom at Memphis Oral School for the Deaf (MOSD), a two-year-old child diagnosed as profoundly deaf is steadily building oral communication skills. With a cochlear implant that helps her process sounds and support from highly trained staff, she practices sound discrimination and speech imitation exercises. Focus on learning to listen and speak prepares her for a lifetime of communicating without barriers. At age five, she can join a mainstream kindergarten classroom without special education support. And from that point, she can pursue her dreams with equal opportunity to succeed. MOSD’s success as a school with an auditory oral approach to learning has brought recognition and a loyal alumni following. The school serves children birth to age five with the Sound Beginnings, Sound Transitions and Preschool programs. Since opening in 1959, the school has grown substantially and impacted many lives. Further validation is winning the 2021 Nonprofit of the Year Award sponsored by Fidelity Investments. MOSD is one of only 36 oral option programs worldwide and the community’s only specialized program for children under age two. “The greatest benefit to receiving this award is increasing awareness of childhood hearing loss and helping the community to know that MOSD is here to serve children with all types and degrees of hearing loss from throughout the Mid-South,” says Development Director Lindsay Larson. “With improvements in newborn hearing screenings and advances in technology, we’re reaching children much younger. So our programs continue to grow, and speech and language outcomes are improving,” she says.
Listening and Speech Therapy
MOSD provides listening therapy, speech therapy and daily audiological support. The goal is for each child to have 12 to 18 months of language growth each school year, a level of growth that helps students catch up to hearing peers and overcome learning gaps. In coaching sessions with speech therapists, parents learn how to turn their homes into good listening environments. “We let parents know when they have done something that has supported us and that we’re successful because we’re in this together,” says Educational Services Director Shelly Crais. “We help parents be advocates so that when their children leave our school, they can be successful.” MOSD is a participating provider and an Early Intervention Resource Agency for the Tennessee Early Intervention System. The school’s work is supported by fundraising, grants and individual contributions with tuition charged on a sliding-scale. “We’re proud to say that we have never had to turn a family away for financial reasons,” says Larson. When parents tour, they may feel stressed by medical appointments and trying to determine what is best for their child. “Parents can see here how medical advances are put into action with teachers who know how to teach deaf students, and they see kids communicating and answering questions,” says Crais. Hope grows through these relationships, and many alumni return to volunteer, passing along their enthusiasm for the mission.
Nonprofit of the Year is sponsored by

