It was wonderful to see the Associated press article about the New Gloucester “hear ME now!” oral-deaf school in the Feb. 17 edition of the Bangor Daily News.

The advances in hearing aid and cochlear implant technology have brought the ability to understand sound to many who would otherwise have remained in a silent world. As the article mentioned, even the Baxter School for the Deaf in Falmouth offers a “Sound and Sign” class as part of its preschool education program, though its focus remains on teaching with American Sign Language. (As a matter of fact, it offers such a class as an outreach in Bangor, which is currently held on the Husson College campus.)

However, readers may be interested in knowing that a similar program, Maine’s first auditory-oral program, “Voices to be Heard,” has been going strong at The Warren Center for Communication & Learning on Union Street. for several years now.

The “Voices to be Heard” program uses the assistance of a specially trained speech-language pathologist to teach deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals – both children and adults – how to listen and speak. This program is often closely linked with the services of an audiologist, who assists in making the most of residual hearing in those with hearing loss.

Like other auditory/oral programs, “Voices to be Heard” offers those who are hard of hearing a life of full interaction and communication with the hearing world. Besides hosting the only such program in central, eastern or northern Maine, the Warren Center is also the only facility for cochlear implant programming (also called mapping) in the area as well.

Any people who are interested in the topic of auditory-oral education or the “Voices to be Heard” program are welcome to visit www.warrencenter.org/voices.html or e-mail info@warrencenter.org with “Voices” in the subject line.

We at the Warren Center celebrate the many ways that people of varying abilities choose to communicate, be it with American Sign Language or with speech and sound. Our community should know that programs are available, not just in southern Maine, but here in our region, allowing all people to communicate to the best of their abilities.

Monique Gibouleau is public relations manager for The Warren Center for Communication & Learning in Bangor.