Center helps children with disabilities The Listening...

Center helps children with disabilities

The Listening Center, which specializes in helping children deal

with and overcome speech, language and learning problems, is opening

its first Southern California location tonight in Costa Mesa.

The center offers therapeutic listening as a treatment for

problems associated with attention deficit and hyperactive disorders,

sensory integration and depression, officials said. The non-chemical,

non-invasive Tomatis method, which is popular in Europe and Canada,

is designed to treat ailments that are too often misdiagnosed and

treated with drugs.

The center is celebrating its grand opening today from 5 to 7 p.m.

at 285 Mesa Verde Drive. Costa Mesa Mayor Gary Monahan -- the father

of an autistic son who was instrumental in bringing the center to the

Newport-Mesa area -- will be on hand for the festivities.

CenterLine open house set for today

The Orange County Transportation Authority is hosting a countywide

open house this afternoon to provide the public with updated

information and to answer questions about the progress of the

CenterLine light rail project.

The public open house is part of ongoing efforts to communicate

with community members during the preliminary engineering phase of

the planned 8.5-mile CenterLine route from downtown Santa Ana through

the South Coast Plaza area to John Wayne Airport.

The preliminary engineering phase provides information for route

alignment, station locations and vehicle technology, and develops a

detailed financial plan for the project. This phase is scheduled to

be completed early next year.

The authority’s board of directors voted 9 to 2 in July to proceed

with an initial operating segment of CenterLine between the depot at

Santa Ana and John Wayne Airport.

Those attending the open house will have an opportunity to learn

about light rail; planned route and stations; current project

timelines toward completion of the project in 2009; how community

members can provide comments this fall on CenterLine’s environmental

reports; and the Bristol Street widening and improvement project.

The open house will be at the authority’s administrative

headquarters at 600 S. Main St. in Orange from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. The

headquarters is served by OCTA bus routes 53, 56, 147 and 453.