The Cora Barclay Centre was formed in the mid 1940s by a group of South Australian parents who had children who were deaf or hard of hearing, mostly as a result of the severe Rubella (German measles) epidemic in 1944. These parents preferred an oral education for their children rather than sign language which was the only form of education for the deaf available in Adelaide at that time. It was known as the South Australian Oral School to stress the oral approach. It catered for children and their families from diagnosis of deafness to 7+ years old. Initially the school was solely for hard of hearing children, but from the mid 1970s children with normal hearing participated in the playgroups and kindergarten at the Gilberton Centre. In 1989, as a consequence of the development of new technologies and changes in philosophy in therapy practices, the Centre ceased to be a school and became a therapy centre with a focus on training parents to teach their children to listen and speak using the auditory approach. The kindergarten and playgroups continued as before until the Centre moved to more appropriate, home-like, facilities in North Adelaide.
Cora Barclay
Mrs. Cora Barclay was appointed to the staff in 1947 and became the Principal in 1950, a position she held until her retirement in 1989. The school was re-named the Cora Barclay Centre in her honour.
Centre of Excellence - International Reputation.
The Centre has kept pace with advances in hearing aid and other amplification technology. In 1999 it won the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf Program Award - the only Australian Centre to have won this prestigious award. In 2000 the Cora Barclay Centre joined the Australasian Six Centre Alliance which promotes oral options for children who are deaf or hard of hearing.
In addition to the above, the Centre employs a leading Australian authority on classroom acoustics and supplies sound field systems to schools to maximise the ability of students with hearing impairment to hear in the classroom setting. Our resident audiologist is an internationally trained cochlear implant specialist and is able to program and MAP devices at the Centre.
