Teacher Named Voice From the Heart Honoree

Child’s Voice, which serves children with hearing loss from birth through age eight, kicked off a year-long 25th Birthday celebration in February with an online party that featured a tribute to our Voice from the Heart honoree, teacher Elsa Auerbach.

Child’s Voice, based in Wood Dale and the Roscoe Village neighborhood in Chicago, helps children with hearing loss learn to listen and to speak. Students wear hearing aids and/or cochlear implants, and programs use a child-focused, research-based curriculum, with the end goal of transitioning graduates back to their neighborhood schools. The Child’s Voice program serves nearly 400 children and their families each year.

In 1996, a group of families wanted more for their children with hearing loss -- they wanted their children to learn to listen and verbally communicate. Child’s Voice started in a church in Elmhurst and grew into a building of its own in Wood Dale. Since then Child’s Voice has added Early Intervention services for babies, a satellite office in Chicago to serve more families, and an Audiology clinic that provides testing and serves students on-site.

Elsa Auerbach has been a listening and spoken language teacher for children with hearing loss since 1963. Auerbach studied at the Central Institute for the Deaf in Saint Louis. She worked as the head teacher at Northwest Suburban Special Education Organization; taught adult lip reading at the Chicago Hearing Society; and had a private tutoring practice for 35 years. Auerbach began teaching at Child’s Voice one month before the school opened in 1996.

“Elsa shares the vision and goal for Child’s Voice to empower children and their families. She believes all children at Child’s Voice can learn to listen and speak…Elsa shares her passion with friends, colleagues, and family,” said Child’s Voice Executive Director Dr. Michele Wilkins during the event.

“The wonderful graduates will come back and say, ‘Are you still here?’ and I say yes, this is my life. This is what I love,” Auerbach said while accepting the Voice From the Heart.

The party included video messages to Auerbach from staff, alumni, and families, along with current and former students singing “Happy Birthday” to Child’s Voice, a look back at the organization’s first 25 years, and musical guests.

You can view the 25 Excellent Years Virtual Birthday Party on our YouTube channel, ChildsVoice1996. Learn more about Elsa Auerbach by reading the transcript of our All Ears At Child’s Voice podcast interview with her or by listening to the podcast.

Visit us and find more information at www.childsvoice.org. Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @Childs_Voice, on Instagram @Childs_Voice, and on LinkedIn and YouTube, and please use #SmileyCV.