Photo by Leah Ingram Eagle.
A teacher shows ocean items to her students in an exercise in their classroom. WISE (Woolley-Institute for Spoken Language Education) offers comprehensive therapy and educational programs are designed to provide opportunities for deaf and hard of hearing children to learn to listen, speak, read, and integrate fully into the hearing society.
After a decade of working out of temporary locations, The Woolley Institute for Spoken-Language Education finally has a permanent home.
Director Nancy Gregg said that for more than 10 years, WISE operated out of Canterbury United Methodist and Shades Valley United Methodist Church, both in Mountain Brook.
“After many years of borrowing space from churches, we are excited to have our own home in the Meadowbrook area,” Gregg said. “We just became too big and needed a space of our own. Through some generous donors, we were able to finally purchase a space that will allow us to grow and serve more children.”
The grand opening for its new campus on Corporate Parkway in Meadowbrook was May 3. The location was a former daycare and offers 9,000 square feet of space. The interior was completely renovated, and modifications were made to fit what WISE needed.
WISE is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides therapy services to children who have communication delays and to children who are deaf and hard of hearing.
A statewide, family-focused program, WISE works in collaboration with Alabama’s Early Intervention System, local school systems, and private and public entities that advance the education of deaf children who use listening and spoken language. Its mission is to prepare students to attend mainstream schools.
WISE became an early intervention provider in October 2019 and provides therapy for children ages birth to 3 from across Alabama and is the only organization of its kind in the state that provides for the least restrictive, most progressive option for infants and children who are deaf/hard of hearing.
The program is named after Dr. Audie Woolley, a pediatric otolaryngologist at Children’s of Alabama who directs the hospital’s cochlear implant program. Woolley helped start the school with fellow ear, nose and throat doctor, Robert Baldwin, and serves as WISE president.
In addition to multiple rooms for therapy sessions, the new location will have preschool classrooms for all ages, a parent resource room dedicated to educating families, a library, waiting area and conference room.
“I think it allows us to reach more families,” Gregg said. “The size of the classrooms will allow us to add more typical hearing peers who can benefit from the language-rich environment, and the ones deaf and hard of hearing can benefit from having typical speaking peers.”
The class sizes are small at WISE, with the 2- and 3-year-old classes having no more than five participants and the 4- and 5-year-old classes having around eight. Gregg said they would like to add an additional class in the fall for typically hearing children.
“Because we feel like all children benefit from being in a language-rich environment, focusing on skills in a small group setting allows children to learn how to be empathetic about different learning styles,” she said. “I feel like it's a great environment for all kids. They learn to appreciate the feelings of others, and it fosters an acceptance of those who are different and teaches compassion for other kids. For kids who are deaf and hard of hearing, they see there are others there like them.”
The WISE office has 14 employees that include speech-language pathologists, LSL-certified auditory-verbal therapists, LSL-certified auditory-verbal educators, audiologists, a teacher of the deaf and hearing, an early childhood special education teacher, a music therapist, an early intervention service coordinator and an early intervention developmental specialist.
Gregg said WISE provides speech language therapy for kids of all ages who are not enrolled in the preschool program. It also offers a school outreach program.
“Kids who have graduated from our program still need assistance in our public schools, and we send therapists to work with them,” she said.
A summer program will be available, and there are openings for the preschool program for fall 2022. For more information, visit wise4al.org.
