History
We began in 1960, through the efforts of the Junior Woman's Club, in a donated, small, two-room frame house. During the first year, the unpaid staff served 60 children. In 1967, the Center built a 2,500 square foot building on East Bella Vista Street. During these early years, we began our partnership with United Way of Central Florida, which allowed us the opportunity to provide services to patients who otherwise could not afford them. In 1985, we added the Jeanette Chiles Ruthven Memorial Therapy Wing to provide additional space for speech and language services and a pre-school classroom. In 2000, through a gift from Reva P. McClurg, we purchased and refurbished the building next door. After five decades the Center moved into a new state-of-the-art facility in the Highlands Plaza on Lakeland Highlands Road. The building opened for business on Monday, March 5th 2012.
Specialties
Central Florida Speech and Hearing Center is a beacon for those struggling to communicate.The Center is the region's leading provider of world-class, compassionate care in the identification, diagnosis and treatment of articulation delay, speech disorder, language delay, language disorder, dysfluency, stroke rehabilitation, social skills of language, verbal apraxia, and autism spectrum disorders. The Center provides a full range of hearing diagnostic tests, hearing aids, hearing aid fittings, programming and repairs, as well as industrial onsite testing for OSHA compliance. In addition, the Center is a regional distribution center for Florida Telecommunications Relay, Inc. (FTRI), providing free amplified telephones to those with a documented hearing loss.