CASTLE

CASTLE is funded through a private/public partnership and is an expansion of the W. Paul Biggers, MD Carolina Children's Communicative Disorders Program (CCCDP). The CCCDP is funded by the state of North Carolina and offers financial assistance to families for hearing aids, FM systems and cochlear implant technology. CASTLE, as part of the CCCDP, works through the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, to provide comprehensive services to children who are deaf or hard of hearing. The CCCDP/CASTLE office is conveniently located in the Woodcroft Professional Complex.

We would like to announce the opening of CASTLE Wilmington, a program for children who are deaf and hard of hearing in Wilmington, NC. Services include an auditory oral preschool for ages 3+, auditory verbal therapy for ages birth-18 months, and a toddler language group for ages 10 months - 3 years.

Mission Statement

The mission of the Center for Acquisition of Spoken language Through Listening Enrichment (CASTLE) is two-fold. CASTLE is dedicated to providing quality auditory-oral early intervention and preschool services to children who are deaf or hard of hearing and their families. CASTLE teaches, encourages, empowers, and supports the parents as the primary teachers of their young children, in order to promote healthy parent/caregiver bonding and to maximize the amount of time a child spends in a language-rich environment.

CASTLE provides this model program in order offer educational opportunities to professionals and university students in the form of workshops and inservices as well as practicum experience on-site in the field of oral deaf education.

History

As is the case in other areas of the country and around the world, the need for qualified, trained professionals in the area of auditory-oral education of children who are deaf and hard of hearing in the state of North Carolina is growing. CASTLE is the fulfillment of Carolyn J. Brown's dream, a speech-language pathologist and audiologist, to establish a model preschool and early intervention program for the purpose of providing hands-on training opportunities for professionals and university students in the state.

Ms. Brown came to NC in 1993 to direct a new UNC Program, The W. Paul Biggers, MD Carolina Children's Communicative Disorders Program (CCCDP) which included the Cochlear Implant Program. The CCCDP provides financial assistance and services to children who are deaf and hard of hearing in the state of North Carolina. Since that time, this program has implanted more than 500 children and currently follows close to 600 children who have been implanted there and elsewhere. Carolyn quickly recognized the vast need for educational and re-educational opportunities for this state, which had offered only a manual option. CASTLE is one of the many contributions UNC has made to the growth of auditory-oral education opportunities for children who are deaf or hard of hearing in North Carolina. Carolyn began seeking funds to provide a model auditory-oral program in 1999 and the first employee was hired in May of 2001.

2008-2009 School Calendar