Overview

Being able to communicate effectively is the most important skill we develop in our lifetime.

The Hanen Centre, a Canadian charitable organization founded in 1975 by Ayala Hanen Manolson, is committed to helping young children communicate effectively by supporting their parents, teachers and caregivers. This applies to children who have language delays, who are at risk for language delays, as well as to those whose communication is developing as expected.

Our mission is to provide the important people in a young child's life with the knowledge and training they need to help the child develop the best possible language, social and literacy skills.

We do this by:

• creating training programs in which parents and other caregivers learn how best to promote children's communication and language development during everyday activities
• training speech-language pathologists/therapists to lead Hanen Programs for parents and teachers and to use the Hanen approach in their day-to-day clinical work
• training family support professionals to lead programs for parents of children at risk
• sharing information on promoting children’s communication and language development with all professionals who work with young children
• developing outstanding, user-friendly learning materials, grounded in research
• conducting leading-edge research in our field