Education & Training
The National Center for Hearing Innovation (NCHI) is dedicated to transforming outcomes for children with hearing loss through education, training, and support. By uniting schools, clinics, researchers, and families, NCHI serves as a hub for advancing best practices in inclusive education and ensuring that innovation translates directly into impact. Our initiatives span classroom demonstration, professional training, and family engagement, creating a comprehensive model that can be shared and scaled nationally.
Educational Model
At the heart of NCHI’s work is The River School, an independent school in Washington, DC, that has pioneered an inclusive approach for children with hearing loss. River’s small class sizes, co-teaching model which pairs master’s-level educators with speech-language pathologists, and transdisciplinary team of specialists ensure that every child, including those with cochlear implants or hearing aids and their hearing peers, learns side by side. The school demonstrates daily how inclusion, when thoughtfully designed, raises the bar for all learners.
Teacher & Clinician training Institute
To extend these practices nationwide, NCHI will establish a Teacher and Clinician Training Institute. The Institute will share proven strategies with educators, audiologists, and speech-language pathologists through immersive classroom residencies, in-person workshops, and ongoing professional development. By equipping professionals with both practical tools and research-based insights, the Institute ensures that inclusive education is not limited to one school, but can flourish in communities everywhere.
Parent Support and Education
NCHI also recognizes that parents are children’s first teachers. Building on our longstanding commitment to families and caregivers, NCHI's partners offer programs, workshops, and training sessions that empower caregivers to support language and literacy development from the very beginning. These initiatives help reduce barriers for underserved families and ensure that parents have the knowledge and confidence to help their children thrive.