Dr. Joanna Stith has been working with children with hearing impairments for over 13 years. Initially, Dr. Stith was a strong advocate for the use of sign language with all hearing impaired children and worked as a water front director for a deaf camp for a number of years and taught sign language courses in the community.

While working toward completing her Ph.D., she learned of the principles and theories of Auditory Verbal Therapy and what it offered hearing impaired children. She completed the necessary coursework and practicum over four years and became a certified auditory-verbal therapist. She served on the Medical University of South Carolina's Cochlear Implant team and provided auditory-verbal therapy to their implant recipients. Upon moving to Austin, she opened her private practice, Listening for Life.

Dr. Stith provides Auditory-Verbal Therapy to children and adults and their families . She also sees clients with cochlear implants for Austin Ear Clinic one day a week. Dr. Stith has provided numerous in-services and lectures focusing on Auditory-Verbal Therapy and has developed the parent packet you can find on this website. It is her goal to teach children, families, and professionals the benefits of Auditory-Verbal Therapy.