Auditory verbal therapy Case studies Our impact: creating a sound future for deaf children (2022-2023) We are an award-winning charity that supports deaf children to have the same opportunities in life as their hearing peers. We support deaf babies and children to learn to listen and speak by providing Auditory Verbal therapy directly and provide internationally accredited training in Auditory Verbal practice for health and education professionals. In November 2022, we launched our strategy, Creating a sound future for deaf children, with the aim of training enough Auditory Verbal therapists within publicly funded services by 2032, while delivering direct support to the most vulnerable children and families. Early and effective support is vital whether families wish to use spoken language, sign language or both. We want to ensure the families of all deaf children under the age of 5 in the UK have the opportunity to access an Auditory Verbal programme close to where they live if they want their children to learn to listen and talk. Between November 2022 and October 2023, we have supported 158 families with deaf babies and children in the UK directly through our family programme and provided training in the Auditory Verbal approach to over 480 professionals working with deaf children in the UK and around the world. As we continue to work towards our aim and transform the landscape of Auditory Verbal provision in the UK, we urgently need support and investment from governments and funders to help address the current inequality of access to this specialist support and join us in creating a sound future for deaf children. Supporting deaf children and their families with our family programme We continue to deliver high-quality Auditory Verbal therapy and in the past year have supported 158 families through our family programme, initial enquiries, initial appointments and ad hoc sessions. In addition, 13 children have graduated from our family programme in the last year. As part of our strategic vision, we continue to work towards our long-term goal of supporting 120 families on our family programme at any one time. As well as our family programme, we provide a package of family support which supports the whole family and is responsive to their individual needs. This additional support enables them to feel confident in supporting their deaf child, for example delivering a parent buddy system; providing free online courses, including on emotional health and strengthening family relationships; supporting access to other relevant services; and navigating the Education, Health, and Care plan (EHCP) process. The cost-of-living crisis has negatively impacted families around the UK, and we are pleased that we have supported families to continue to attend their Auditory Verbal therapy programme with the support of generous supporters The number of families on our regular caseload receiving means-tested bursaries has increased by nearly a quarter to 75% (62 families). “AVUK has positively impacted our child’s outcomes in a significant way. As a family, we have felt hugely supported by AVUK through our child’s first few years, in terms of speech and language therapy, advice on audiology and optimising the hearing technology and how to best support and advocate for our child. The level of support given by AVUK has not been replicated in any other services which we access for our child.” Parent on the AVUK programme Grace's story “I have an older child, and I guess a mothers instinct led me to know pretty instantly that I thought Grace was deaf within a few days of her being born. It was a complete shock at first. She was unwell so there were other complications, but she wasn’t reacting to sounds, not flinching at loud noises...that kind of thing. Her language and speech development wasn’t progressing at it should, and that’s when we came to the hard decision that she should have cochlear implants. Without funding, we wouldn’t have been able to offer Auditory Verbal therapy to our daughter. We feel that the progress Grace has made, and her understanding of language, has greatly improved. And I feel this has been helped by receiving this service. Grace has started her first year of school and is now understanding her world around her because she now has that level of language development.” Rhian, mother of Grace who is 5 years old and from Cardiff. Nasir’s story Abdul and Shamaila, Nasir’s parents, found out their son was deaf just before he turned one. They were desperate for more support as they were unsure what the future would hold for Nasir. They found AVUK through their teacher of the deaf and decided to book an initial appointment. In their first session they learnt about how Nasir’s hearing aids were amplifying sound for him, and that support was needed for Nasir to learn to make sense of that sound and for him to develop spoken language. The family signed up for our Auditory Verbal therapy programme where Nasir learnt to listen and talk. Now, aged 17, Nasir is thriving, studying Business Studies at college. “We learned so much from AVUK. When we were most in need AVUK helped us get the financial support needed. Without this we may have had to stop Nasir’s therapy and that was the last thing we wanted to do. “Auditory Verbal therapy has given Nasir the ability to express himself amongst his family and peers. When we think back to those early days of anxiety and worry about Nasir’s future, we wish we could go back and tell ourselves that it was going to be alright.” Maci's Story Maci, from Shetland, was diagnosed with profound hearing loss shortly after she was born. Mum Nicole said: "Maci received hearing aids at three-months and then cochlear implants in March 2022 at 14 months old." “I first heard about Auditory Verbal UK on an online forum for parents with newly diagnosed deaf babies organised by the NDCS. One of the other mums was talking about it so both myself and our teacher of the deaf found out more and it sounded perfect for us. We met Noel [Auditory Verbal Therapist] at an online Meet an AVT sessions organised by the charity and I just knew this was the way we should go and we have never looked back.” Living in Shetland the family have opted for telepractice sessions conducted online and couldn’t be happier. “I love them. They are so convenient, especially living in Shetland. It is just like Mariavittoria [Auditory Verbal Therapist] is in the room with is. She hands Maci things and for us it is no different to face-to-face." “And we are absolutely over the moon with how AVUK and the therapy has supported Maci and us as a family. It makes so much sense and everything we learn we use every day with Maci as well as sharing the details with family and Maci’s nursery so they can support too. Maci has only been on the programme for four months and has already smashed her six-month goals. For anyone thinking about Auditory Verbal therapy I would recommend it 110% and for us in a small community in Shetland AVUK has given us a link to a deaf community which we might not have had otherwise. Maci loves nursery and can now make herself understood. She is sociable and outgoing and quite headstrong! We can’t wait to see her carry on developing her speech and her personality and we will continue to find out more about being deaf and the d/Deaf community, but we know with the support we’ve had it will not stop her being who she wants to be and doing what she wants to do.” Outcomes The benefits and outcomes of Auditory Verbal therapy are clear. As the results from our 2018 study show below, deaf children are equipped with listening and spoken language skills, as well as social skills and confidence to succeed. . Thriving at school and beyond Deaf children who have been supported by our programme of Auditory Verbal therapy continue to thrive at school and beyond. We continue to hear from families about how their children are excelling at school thanks to the early support they received at AVUK. Charlie’s story Charlie Denton performed well in his GCSE results this summer with 7's and 8's. He also travelled to Greece to represent Team Great Britain at the World Deaf Tennis Championships 2023. These successes come on top of being shortlisted for the Young Deaf Sports Personality of the Year Award earlier in the year. Charlie attended our specialist Auditory Verbal therapy programme from the age of 3 where he learnt to listen and speak. He graduated a couple of years later with spoken language on a par with his hearing peers and attended a mainstream school. Noli's story Noli (Right) contracted meningitis at 18 months old and after recovering from the infection, her Mum, Angela, found that it had affected her hearing – she was diagnosed as deaf just before her second birthday. Angela found out about Auditory Verbal therapy from the specialist speech and language nursery she was attending, having taken the decision that they wanted Noli to use spoken language. They joined our specialist family programme and at just two and a half Noli’s speaking skills exceeded those of hearing children her age. Noli said: “The support my family and I had from AVUK to help me learn to listen and speak has always been central to the determination I have and belief that I can achieve anything I want to and do everything my hearing friends can." Noli, now 19, is now studying Archaeology and Ancient Civilisations at Durham University. She also developed a passion for music attending Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and performing with the Chineke Junior Orchestra in London. As a deaf ambassador, Noli has met international activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai at a global summit in May 2023 and in October went to the Houses of Parliament where she met MPs and asked them to increase access to Auditory Verbal therapy through publicly funded services so more deaf children, like her, can access the specialist support. Increasing the number of Auditory Verbal therapists in the UK There are now 30 Auditory Verbal therapists in the UK, up from 26 this time last year (November 2022). We have supported more than 480 professionals through our foundation courses, advanced courses, mentoring and online short courses. We are also pleased to have presented at conferences including the European Association of Cochlear Implant Users Conference, British Association Teacher of the Deaf (BATOD) Conference, Alexander Graham Bell (AG Bell) Conference and National Sensory Impairment Partnership (NATSIP) Conference, reaching over 1,000 professionals. Through our internally accredited training programme, we are training a small proportion of the existing public sector workforce of speech and language therapists, audiologists, and teachers of the deaf in the UK in the Auditory Verbal approach to ensure more deaf children can access Auditory Verbal therapy. We continue to work toward our goal of having 300 certified Auditory Verbal therapists in the UK by 2032, so the 7,200 deaf children under the age of 5 have the opportunity to access this specialist support through publicly funded services. Meet three of the newly qualified Auditory Verbal Therapists Larissa McColgan, Scotland Larissa (pictured on left) is a teacher of the deaf, based in Ayrshire, Scotland, and recently completed AVUK’s advanced course to become a qualified Auditory Verbal therapist in September 2023. Larissa, who has been a teacher of the deaf for 12 years, said: “I was amazed by how much the child was able to do through listening. The parents felt empowered because they were given strategies that they could use every day to help their little girl understand what they were saying and get her own message across to them using spoken language. I could see the difference it was making to their life." Emma Poynter-Smith and Alison Langshaw, Oxford Emma (right) and Alison (middle) are specialist speech and language therapists and work for the Oxford Auditory Implant Programme. In September 2023, they both qualified as certified Listening and Spoken Language Specialist (LSLS) Auditory Verbal therapists after completing our foundation course and advanced course. Talking about the impact of their training, they said; “it has given us the confidence to strive for the best outcomes for all deaf children we work with. We have learnt how to work diagnostically each session starting always with the child’s level of hearing and optimising this. The sessions are now fun and functional, the parent coaching skills we have learned have helped us develop a family centred approach, it is so rewarding to see how far both the families and children develop through family coaching.” Fundraising As a not-for-profit organisation, we fundraise to cover the costs of providing support to families with deaf children and we receive no funding from central government. Our fundraising team has successfully secured sufficient funding to allow us to maintain our existing services, while building for the future by securing new supporters. We are grateful to all our funders, both new and old, for allowing us to continue operating at this economically difficult time. Figures represent financial year of August 2022 to July 2023 Our BBC Radio 4 appeal, launched in January 2023 and presented by Waterstone’s Children’s Laureate, Joseph Coelho, raised more than £30,000. The appeal told Khush’s story of being diagnosed with hearing loss as a baby and learning to listen and speak with Auditory Verbal therapy, on our family programme. Khush is now a chatty 11-year-old who loves to read, write and tell stories and wants to become a writer, a cricketer or possibly an accountant. Supporters of AVUK gathered at British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) in central London in September 2023 for the Wonder of Sound event, to raise vital funds. Inspired by Grace, supporters pledged to raise expectations and outcomes for deaf children as well as funding so we can continue to support deaf babies and children across the UK. The event saw British pop rock band, Fine Young Cannibals, perform for attendees, including BBC Strictly Head Judge, Shirley Ballas. Raising awareness and challenging expectations We continue to raise expectations and outcomes for deaf children, and work to increase awareness, understanding and access to Auditory Verbal therapy. In May 2023, we released new research which showed that 2 in 5 (41%) UK adults believe a child born profoundly deaf can learn to speak as well as a child without hearing loss*. This is slightly higher than last year (2022), where research found only 38% of UK adults believed it was possible, showing that perceptions are changing. However, there is still much more to be done to challenge expectations and raise awareness of what deaf children can achieve. Hear Us Now Our Hear Us Now campaign, which is calling on governments to invest in and increase access to Auditory Verbal therapy, has continued to gain support this year. We have engaged with MPs, peers, MSPs, MSs, local authorities and councillors, NHS Trusts and Integrated Care Boards, as well as many organisations, representative bodies and charities across the UK and worldwide, with our mission of ensuring all families who want their deaf child to learn to listen and talk have the opportunity to access Auditory Verbal therapy through publicly funded services. Highlights include: Nine-year-old Orson Grimer went to Number 10 Downing Street in April 2023 to deliver a letter, signed by hundreds of supporters, asking the Prime Minister and the Government to urgently invest in early and effective support for all deaf children, including Auditory Verbal therapy which helped him to learn to listen and speak. More than 35 MPs and peers backed our Hear Us Now campaign as part of an event in Parliament marking Loud Shirt Day – an international awareness raising day – in October 2023. MPs including Sally-Ann Hart, Rosie Duffield MP, Rt Hon Penny Mordaunt, and Helen Hayes, Shadow Minister for Children & Early Years, met Louis, aged 11, and Noli, 19, who are deaf and learnt to listen and talk with Auditory Verbal therapy, who shared their stories of how Auditory Verbal therapy has supported them to thrive at school and in life. Increasing awareness and understanding In May 2023, we welcomed inspirational deaf young people from across the world to our London centre for the start of Cochlear’s Achieve Anything Summit calling on world leaders to address hearing loss and prioritise better access to hearing healthcare and support for millions of children around the globe. As part of the summit, the young ambassadors met Malala Yousafzai, activist, UN Messenger of Peace, and the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Ava, the UK ambassador, was supported to learn to listen and speak as a child on our Auditory Verbal therapy programme. Now aged 15-years-old, she is urging leaders both in the UK and internationally to prioritise better access to hearing healthcare and early support for deaf children. Our work was featured in Rose Ayling-Ellis’s BBC documentary, Signs for Change, which gripped the public’s attention in June 2023 as it explores what it is like to be deaf in the UK. The documentary features AVUK’s Senior Auditory Verbal Therapist, Noel Kenely, explaining what Auditory Verbal therapy is and how it works, along with AVUK graduate, Harrison who shared his story of having Auditory Verbal therapy when younger, and of now thriving aged 26. The documentary helped to increase awareness of what deaf children can achieve with early and effective support and led surge of interest and enquiries about Auditory Verbal therapy. We are proud to have worked with many organisations and representative bodies to raise expectations and support deaf children both in the UK and around the world, including as part of the SEND in The Specialists coalition; with colleagues at Cochlear Implant International Community of Action (CIICA) and Cochlear Implanted Children’s Support Group (CICS), as well as with the First Voice network. . Building sustainable services for the future that are inclusive and enable equality of opportunity We continued to review and challenge our processes and culture to become a more diverse and inclusive organisation, both for staff and those who use our services. In the past year we have: Engaged under-represented groups with information on our family programme and shared stories of families from a range of backgrounds and cultures to further reflect the diversity of the children we support. We ran lived experience sessions for staff to explore the rich diversity of deafness as well as exploring important topics, including anti racism, LGBTQ+, neurodiversity, menopause and invisible conditions. Established an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) working group, which is supported by an EDI steering group that meets regularly, with the involvement of the CEO, to review progress with our EDI programme and action plan. We have updated the resources we use in our services to ensure that they provide a wider representation of different ethnicities, abilities, religions, and sexual orientation. Improved our recruitment approach by implementing blind recruitment processes and continue the use of a wide range of websites and agencies to ensure the widest possible reach for role adverts. We made significant progress on ensuring that we can collect and review data regarding protected characteristics, doing so in a manner reflective of our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion values. “I am of African-Caribbean/Mixed heritage and I truly feel very comfortable during the sessions. I do not have to mask my accent at any time. I feel as though I am just accepted as another human being.” Family survey response, 2023 In addition, we have: Continued to prioritise staff wellbeing, particularly in the context of hybrid working. There is a weekly breakfast club which enables team members to socialise and discuss their work, as well as a staff wellbeing group, which brings together members of different teams to identify opportunities to better support staff. Continued to roll-out CRM to embed the system across the organisation. We are also aiming to obtain cyber-security accreditation by the end of 2023. “AVUK continues to be a remarkably supportive and collegiate culture to work in. For me personally this is hugely important for motivation and I’m very grateful.” Staff Survey response, 2023 Take action Through our 10-year strategy, we are working to transform the landscape of Auditory Verbal therapy provision in the UK and create a sound future for deaf children. Although we have made great strides towards this goal over the last year, there are still many families of deaf babies and young children who cannot access Auditory Verbal therapy. This must change and we still need your support to ensure that every family who wants their child to learn to listen and talk will be able to access an Auditory Verbal programme through publicly funded services in their local area. Write to your MP and ask them to help increase access to and investment in Auditory Verbal therapy. Fundraise for us so we can support more deaf children directly. Find out more about our family programme for deaf children and their families. Train with us on our professional training programme. What's Next As we look ahead to the next 12 months, we continue our mission of transforming the landscape of Auditory Verbal provision in the UK by training more professionals to become certified Auditory Verbal therapists and engaging decisions makers to address the current inequality of access. We continue to support deaf children and their families directly by providing our Auditory Verbal therapy programme, whilst continuing to learn, adapt and grow to be the best organisation we can. “We would like to thank everyone who has supported us in the past 12 months to help create a sound future for deaf children. Our work to support families and train professionals in the UK and around the world would not have been possible without your generosity. We are proud of what we have achieved this year and delighted to be working together with organisations and charities to raise expectations and outcomes for deaf children. We believe that all deaf babies and children should have access to early and effective support whether their families wish for them to use sign language, spoken language or both. By ensuring deaf children have access to support during those vital early years we can significantly reduce the current disadvantage and transform outcomes for deaf children across the UK.” Anita Grover, CEO of AVUK Manage Cookie Preferences