The Center for Communication Enhancement (CCE) — part of Boston Children's Hospital, ranked among the best children's hospitals by U.S. News & World Report — provides expert care for children with a variety of communication differences.
Patients and families come to us for problems affecting hearing, balance, speech production, language processing, voice quality, feeding, swallowing, and more. Through our specialty programs and services, we offer diagnostic assessments, recommendations, and care plans for the full range of communication issues.
Our team of audiologists, speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, and psychologists work closely with families to find manageable and effective solutions for their child’s communication concerns. Our goal with every patient is to provide the care and services that will help them reach their full potential.
To this end, the Center for Communication Enhancement is made up of the following specialty programs:
- Audiology Program
- Augmentative Communication Program
- Autism Language Program
- Balance and Vestibular Program
- Bone-Anchored Hearing System Program
- Cochlear Implant Program
- Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Program
- Feeding and Swallowing Program
- Hearing Aid Program
- Speech-Language Pathology Program
- Voice and Resonance Program
Why choose the Center for Communication Enhancement?
Families travel from across New England and around the world to receive their care from our expert providers. We are on the cutting edge of management of hearing loss, speech and language disorders, and other problems affecting communication, balance, and swallowing. We specialize in treating children with common to complex communication difficulties and the technologies that can improve a child’s capacity to communicate. We work with the following communication and speech disorders:
- children with syndromes affecting hearing, motor control, or intellect
- children who require picture boards or tablet computers to communicate
- children who have difficulty with balance following a concussion
- children who communicate with sign language and have social or psychological problems
- children who avoid eating foods because they don’t like the texture or taste
- children with autism spectrum disorder who struggle to communicate effectively
- children who are not able to produce speech clearly
- children who cannot tolerate certain sounds, such as chewing or breathing
Research and innovations
Our specialists and researchers are actively engaged in investigating ways to improve care for a wide range of communication disorders. For instance, our audiology team is currently investigating the challenges created by deafness in one ear and pioneering assessment and treatment for children with single-sided deafness. Please visit our program pages for more examples of our current research.