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About Us
The Artz Center for Developmental Health & Audiology is the result of the merger between the Hearing & Speech Institute and the Northwest Early Childhood Institute. The Hearing & Speech Institute was a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, founded in 1927 as the Portland Lip Reading Club by two noted teachers of the deaf, with a mission of “empowering people of all ages to achieve their full communication potential.”
The expansion and development of the Hearing & Speech Institute over the years brought it into contact with the Northwest Early Childhood Institute, formed in 1999, which advocated for children’s health care reform and broad policy changes to support children’s development. As these two organizations merged the new Artz Center for Developmental Health & Audiology emerged, with a dual focus: to create innovative, coordinated clinical approaches that support each child in reaching their developmental potential, and to raise the standard of children’s developmental health care so that all children can thrive.
At the Artz Center for Developmental Health & Audiology, our three primary areas of work are:
- Services for Children and Families: We provide specialized, team-based developmental care to help children realize their full potential.
- Community Change: We act as a catalyst in the community to raise the standard of developmental health for all children.
- Hearing Health Services: We provide professional, compassionate audiologic care to enhance communication ability, strengthen interpersonal relationships, and enrich quality of life for people of all ages. Through these services we envision a community in which no person suffers the loss of personal relationships or emotional connections due to hearing loss.