The rationale for change

The case for investment in Auditory Verbal therapy in the UK

The national and international evidence in this Research Paper demonstrates that deaf children and their families, in the UK, could benefit greatly from an investment into making Auditory Verbal therapy more widely available in the critical first few years of a child’s life. Yet the UK currently lags behind many other countries in providing investment in, and access to, Auditory Verbal therapy and there is a lack of awareness of what deaf children can achieve, with only 33%[90] adults believing a child born profoundly deaf can learn to speak as well as a child without hearing loss.[91] 

There are currently over 1,000 certified Auditory Verbal therapists worldwide, with this form of early intervention being government-funded in Australia, New Zealand and Denmark. It is also a mainstream approach in North America for enabling deaf children to listen, speak, and to achieve long term social and educational outcomes[59]. In 2022, following the successful government-funded pilot programme, Auditory Verbal therapy became part of the standard healthcare system in Denmark.

Sadly, in the UK over 90% of deaf children who could benefit from Auditory Verbal therapy are currently unable to access it. This is because there are currently only 35 Auditory Verbal therapists in the UK as of April 2025. Eleven of these therapists work for AVUK with others based in the National Health Service (NHS), public services, local authorities and in private practice. With full caseloads, these UK-based therapists can only provide therapy for less than 10% of the deaf children under 5 years old in the UK.

To increase access to specialist support, there needs to be more practitioners trained in Auditory Verbal practice working in public services who support deaf children across the UK.

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The investment needed

Auditory Verbal therapy has been shown to be a cost-effective approach, for every £1 invested into this early intervention programme, there is a £4[92] return on that child’s future.

Economic analysis shows that an investment of just over £2 million a year for the next 10 years, to train a small proportion of the current public sector workforce and embed at least 300 specialist therapists within the NHS and local services, while delivering direct support to the most vulnerable children and families, could transform services for deaf children. This investment will unlock £152 million of economic benefit, rising to £11.7 billion within the next 50 years, through improved quality of life, employment prospects, lower costs of schooling and avoided injuries[93].

We can and should raise the expectations of deaf children and unlock significant educational, social and economic benefits for the UK.