The Atlanta Speech School is composed of four schools: The Katherine Hamm Center, the Anne & Jim Kenan Preschool, Stepping Stones Preschool and the Wardlaw School for bright, elementary-aged children with dyslexia. We share a common mission, to help each person develop their full potential through language and literacy.  Each school follows the Science of Reading to meet this mission, with the understanding that only through literacy can we become who we are meant to be, and make the most difference in the lives of others.

Katherine Hamm Center

For children age 18 months through pre-k who are deaf or hard of hearing, at the Hamm Center Preschool, intentional pre-literacy instruction builds upon a foundation of Listening and Spoken Language. Every child deserves to have a voice, to feel the joy of learning, and to experience the pride of mastery. The Katherine Hamm Center understands this and helps each child discover theirs by promoting the deep relationship between spoken language, reading and all other learning. Children in the Hamm Center learn beside hearing peers.

Kenan Preschool

Anne & Jim Kenan Preschool, for typically-developing children age two through kindergarten, serves bright, curious students in playful, engaging daily activities that reinforce expressive-language within a highly-intentional pre-literacy curriculum. Students are regularly exposed to the building blocks of reading, including phonological awareness, word work, alphabetic principles, and concepts of print. Students learn cooperative play and develop self-awareness and self-regulation within a small, loving, resource-rich classroom experience. Students also have art, music, and O/T gym, and benefit from regular input of Atlanta Speech School staff specialists.

Stepping Stones

Stepping Stones Preschool and Kindergarten is for bright children who have a diagnosed speech articulation delay or language delay, serving students age three to kindergarten. Individual goals and language skills are woven through all instruction, outdoor play and daily routines. Stepping Stones is the only multi-disciplinary program of its kind in Georgia, focused entirely on maximizing the brain development of 3 to 5 year old students with mild to moderate speech and language delays. In Stepping Stones, Masters-level clinicians and teachers use the most current brain science while individualizing instruction for each child in their care.

Wardlaw School

The Wardlaw School is a K-6 elementary school serving bright children with dyslexia through individualized instruction within an academically challenging language and literacy setting.  The Wardlaw program is designed to be fast-paced and short-term.  The use of multi-discipline professionals who deliver instruction through our unique Integrated Service Delivery Model allows students to return to regular mainstream education after approximately 3 years.

Atlanta Speech School programs all have access to individual remediation specialists, speech-language pathologists, reading specialists, occupational therapists and learning specialists and school psychologists. Programs are not designed for children on the autism spectrum, those who have social-pragmatic language disorders, or significant attention/behavioral regulation weaknesses that may prevent the child from accessing the curriculum.