Centro Oaxaqueño de Rehabilitación de Audición y Lenguaje, A.C. (CORAL) began when Dr. Nancy Press and Dr. Richard Carroll, during a visit to Mexico in 1988, were confronted with the large number of children living in severe poverty in Oaxaca. In particular, they noticed the high rate of disabled children in poor communities struggling to survive without the benefit of rehabilitative equipment and programs. Motivated to help alleviate the suffering of these children, Dr. Press and Dr. Carroll partnered with a local audiologist to bring hearing aids and related supplies from the U.S. to donate to those most in need in Oaxaca. From this flagship program, Dr. Press and Dr. Carroll incorporated Child Aid (formerly Sound Aid) as a US-based, 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization to serve disadvantaged children in Latin America.

From these simple beginnings, CORAL expanded to meet the community's needs by developing a formal hearing clinic and rural social work and outreach program. Because giving a child a hearing aid is only one part of the rehabilitative process, CORAL instituted an oral education school in 1999 to help deaf children communicate and thus integrate with the greater community. Child Aid again facilitated top-notch training for the CORAL teachers with education professionals from the United States and Mexico. In particular, Katherine Sussman, director of the Jean Weingarten Peninsula Oral School for the Deaf, has committed to CORAL and oral deaf rehabilitation throughout Latin America.