Like Ohio University, the oldest institution of higher education in the Northwest Territory (1804), the School of Hearing, Speech and Language Sciences (HSLS) has a long, rich tradition. Its origins date to 1937, when it was part of the School of Dramatic Art and Speech in the College of Fine Arts. Students majored in correction and interpretation, preparing to work with children and adults with communication disorders. The first fall conference of the Ohio Speech and Hearing Association was held in Athens in 1946. The School has been educating graduate students since 1950, and in 1957 became the second doctoral program established at Ohio University.
The Ohio University Hearing, Speech and Language Clinic, also established in 1937, was first located in Wilson Hall on the historic College Green. The clinic and School of Dramatic Art and Speech both moved to the Speech Building in 1951, which was built specifically to house them. One of the members of the School was Claude Kantner, a scholar in cleft palate and phonetics, was an author of one of the more-used phonetics texts of its time. In 1972, the Speech Building was renamed Kantner Hall, acknowledging his role as the "Father of Communication" at Ohio University.
The second floor of Kantner Hall was designed as classrooms and clinic space for the Department of Speech Pathology. When an audiology major was added, the space in Kantner was supplemented with space in the adjoining Jacobs House.
Around 1966, the School of Hearing and Speech Sciences moved to Ewing Hall, which was originally built to provide an assembly auditorium for the University. Originally, the School's clinics and offices were located in the basement of Ewing Hall, and classes were held in other buildings. There were few classrooms in Ewing. When it became apparent that the building was fated for razing due to high maintenance costs, departments and schools began moving to other locations. The School of Hearing and Speech Sciences was the last to vacate before the building's 1974 demolition, so the School had gradually expanded its domain to upper floors and additional rooms. The Ewing Hall site remains vacant, and a commemorative plaque is located at its site just north of the Scripps Hall amphitheater.
The School of Hearing and Speech Sciences then moved into newly renovated Lindley Hall. Built in the 1920s, Lindley had served most of years as a women's dormitory. The School occupied space on the ground and second floors. The ground floor that had previously served as a kitchen, dining facilities and student lounges was redesigned into the Speech and Hearing Clinic, research facilities, technology shop, and classrooms.
In 1979, the School Hearing and Speech Sciences joined the newly created College of Health and Human Services. During the summer of 2001, the School of moved into newly renovated Grover Center along with the five other schools of the College of Health and Human Services. The School also changed its name to add "Language." The Hearing, Speech and Language Clinic continues to provide hearing, speech and language services to the region and offers clinical education to better prepare students to work on multidisciplinary teams.