Hawaii Hears was founded in 2017 to advocacy and awareness for more deaf education services in Hawaii.
In 2023, we are starting a private group practice to provide speech, language, and counseling services to families of children with a hearing loss.
Fill out the form to get on the wait list for tele-health services.
Hawaii Hears envisions a community where all children, including those who are deaf or hard of hearing, have access to language and opportunities to help them be successful in academics and in life.
The mission of Hawaii Hears is to support families and their children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) through awareness, education, advocacy, services, and resources.
Hawaii Hears delivers education to providers, professionals, and families on the following:
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importance of quality language exposure for children who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH)
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advocacy for the ideal educational setting/situation for a DHH child
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services for children birth to 18
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and resources to help support a DHH child learn language, communicate, and progress in academics.
Founder
Christy Chadwick, M.S.D.E., M.A. MFT
The founder of Hawaii Hears, Christy Chadwick, is a Teacher of the Deaf with a Master's in Deaf Education (M.S.D.E.) from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
She graduated from the Program of Audiology and Communication Sciences in 2016 and moved to Hawaii in June 2016.
In 2021, she completed her masters in Marriage and Family Therapy. Learn more about Christy on her website.
Speech Language Pathologist
Makiko Ogawa, CCC-SLP
Makiko is a licensed speech-language pathologist, bilingual in English and Japanese. She received bachelor’s degree in Communication Science and Disorders from Case Western Reserve University and earned Master’s degree in Communication Disorders from Adelphi University.
Since receiving her professional license in 2000, she has been working passionately in the field of speech-language pathology; she is known to be a creative therapist who work collaboratively with the family members and other professionals, to seek for the best for each of her patients.
Makiko has rich clinical experiences with both adult and pediatric population in a various clinical setting in the states of Texas as well as Hawaii, including Easterseals Hawaii Kailua Early intervention program, acute hospitals such as Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital HEB and Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center Fort Worth, rehabilitation hospitals, private and public schools, home health and the Head Start programs.
She is a mentee of Listen To Me! Hawaii which is a research-based training program on how to maximize listening and spoken language outcomes for children with cochlear implants. Currently, she has been working toward attaining the LSL certification in auditory verbal therapy (LSLS cert. AVT).
Makiko is the founder/owner of Seabird Clinic for Speaking and Hearing, the unique private speech-language therapy clinic in Oahu, Hawaii, which was created to provide in-depth speech and language evaluations and therapy services mainly to the infants, toddlers and school-aged children with hearing differences.