International evidence on outcomes

Research from the US and Australia shows that children in an Auditory Verbal therapy programme develop spoken language in line with their hearing peers[66],[67], [68],[69], and progress at the same rate for listening, spoken language[70], self-esteem, reading and mathematics as a matched group of children with normal hearing[71]. One specific study in 2021 found that good attendance at Auditory Verbal therapy sessions was a factor that led to better spoken language outcomes[72].

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Language Development

First Voice, a consortium of Australasian Early Intervention Centres (of which Auditory Verbal UK is an international member) collate and publish spoken language outcomes for graduates of Auditory Verbal programmes. The First Voice consortium has published the Sound Outcomes report for 2023 in which data was pooled over five Auditory Verbal programmes. Reporting on 219 children with hearing loss who graduated from First Voice centres in 2022, 82% of graduate children with hearing loss alone (i.e. without additional difficulties) achieved a standard score within or above the average range for typically hearing children[73]. The report also details a cost benefit analysis from 2019: the benefit to cost ratio for the community investment was approximately 4:1, a figure replicating Auditory Verbal UK’s own cost benefit analysis in 2016[74].

In Denmark, only 30%[75] of deaf children were achieving age-appropriate spoken language prior to a government funded pilot programme of Auditory Verbal therapy being implemented; in 2022, the Danish government announced that Auditory Verbal therapy would be included as part of the care pathway for all children up to five years of age with permanent hearing loss. Aiming for the goal of age-appropriate speech-language skills, the evaluation reported that 84% of the children achieved age-appropriate spoken language after three years of Auditory Verbal therapy. Furthermore, ‘among children with other difficulties, 75% achieved age-appropriate spoken language.’[75] In a second evaluation, children who received three years of Auditory Verbal therapy outperformed those receiving one year or no Auditory Verbal therapy when assessed on Core Language Scores and their Expressive Language Index[76].

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Literacy/Reading Development

Recent research (2018) investigating the early reading development of children with cochlear implants, who have followed an Auditory Verbal approach, has found that phonological awareness, the awareness of the sound structure of language, is a significant factor in reading development[77]. A 2020 study from the USA found that children with hearing loss aged from 5 to 9 years, who used a listening and spoken language approach, demonstrated reading skills within the average range for typically-hearing individuals through the use of hearing technology and appropriate intervention[78]. Regarding further chronological development of reading, research from Israel has shown that Auditory Verbal therapy graduates outperform adolescents and young people with hearing loss who were not rehabilitated via this approach, in Hebrew and Literature grades[79].

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Employment outcomes

In 2017 the First Voice network published a report on graduate outcomes – looking specifically at the outcomes of members that graduated between the 1993 to 2002 and therefore aged at the time of the report between 18 and 28 years. The results show that the respondents had achieved academic and employment rates equivalent to or better than those reported for the general Australian population.[80]

Lim et al (2018) conducted an international survey of deaf adults who had experienced Auditory Verbal therapy as a child, the results of 207 participants, across 16 countries, indicated that ‘the auditory-verbal graduates who completed their post-secondary education routinely moved on to a variety of employment opportunities and integrated into “mainstream” communities and society in general’.[81]

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Mental health, emotional and behavioural outcomes

The First Voice Network published research in 2011 stating that ‘there is a significant body of literature on the relationship between hearing loss, quality of life and disability…and that any intervention which improves hearing and enables more effective communication will indeed improve quality of life and/or reduce disability.’[82] In the 2017 cost-benefit analysis they were able to quantify a financial benefit of $8,402[83] per child per year on improved well-being for children enrolled on the First Voice Early Intervention Programme.

The Network’s report on graduate outcomes found that '84% of respondents have been involved at some stage in community activities or organisations. This result shows that a high percentage of respondents have chosen to participate in a range of social activities.’[84]

In the Danish evaluation of the 3-year AVT programme, ‘72%[75]  of parents reported that their child had developed their social skills’. A recent 2025 study in Denmark also found that children with hearing loss, that attended a hospital-based Auditory Verbal intervention for 3 years, demonstrated the same emotional and behaviour problems, and the same social strengths as their hearing peers[85].