Savannah Speech and Hearing Center, a nonprofit organization serving the speech pathology and audiology needs of the Coastal Empire, was pleased to accept a SMART Board from Choate Construction. The new SMART Board was recently installed in the Sound Start classroom, an auditory and oral school for the deaf and hard-of-hearing serving children ages two to six years old.

The interactive SMART Board enriches the students’ learning experience in several ways by providing a hands-on collaboration between teachers and students; access to engaging forms of media; and a unique platform for students to demonstrate their grasp of the subject through touching, drawing, and writing.

“We were extremely grateful for the opportunity to help and I cannot imagine a better home for the SMART Board,” said Kirk Gilbert, director of operations at Choate Construction. “We are so appreciative of the work Savannah Speech and Hearing Center does for our community and are looking forward to finding future opportunities to help support their mission.”

In August 2007, the Board of Directors of Savannah Speech and Hearing Center approved the Sound Start program, a never-before-available service in this area. With the help of dedicated staff and community support as well as a coordinated effort with Calvary Day School in Savannah, Sound Start opened its doors to the hearing impaired children of Savannah and the surrounding communities in Georgia and South Carolina. Thus far, the program has been an overwhelming success.

“We at Sound Start are so thankful to Choate Construction for their generous gift,” said Tracy Edenfield, lead teacher at Sound Start. “The SMART Board interactive learning tool is clearly making a huge impact in Sound Start’s early learning environment by introducing our young students to critical skills needed in math, reading, vocabulary, and language. We’ve found many SMART Board programs can encourage listening skills and articulation, which are practiced daily within our unique educational setting.”