Page 22 - SEN116 January-February 2022

Hearing impairment
All about Auditory
Verbal Therapy
Frances Clark discusses the Auditory Verbal approach, a method of learning to speak through listening.
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What is Auditory Verbal Therapy?
90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents, many of whom will be unfamiliar with the options available to their children in terms of learning language.
Auditory Verbal Therapy is a specialist therapy for children who are deaf. It focuses on early intervention through coaching parents to use techniques and strategies to support the development of their child’s language through listening.
In order for deaf children to listen, they require optimum technology such as hearing aids or cochlear implants. They also need the technology to stimulate the listening part of the brain, the auditory cortex. Owing to neuroplasticity, the auditory cortex requires stimulation early in a child’s life, ideally before the age of three and a half, otherwise this part of the brain may be used for other senses. Then it can become difficult for a child to rely on their listening alone, without the need for additional input such as lip-reading, sign, gesture or pictures. Auditory Verbal therapists work to ensure optimum technology is provided and that parents are given strategies to stimulate listening and therefore the listening brain. As a result,
“The auditory cortex requires stimulation early in a child’s life”
children with hearing loss are better able to develop listening and spoken language skills, with the aim of giving them the same opportunities and an equal start in life as hearing children.
A typical Auditory Verbal Therapy session looks and feels like play! The child is engaged in an age-appropriate activity such as bathing a doll, making cupcakes or designing a dinosaur park in small world play. Parents are taught how to integrate techniques into their everyday lives which is where the real learning happens. Auditory Verbal Therapy enables parents to help their child make the best possible use of their hearing technology (hearing aids or cochlear implants) by equipping them to check and troubleshoot in collaboration with their
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