Auditory Verbal therapy is a family-centred approach to developing spoken language through listening for deaf children. It supports pre-school deaf children, from birth to five years of age, learn how to make sense of the sound they receive through their hearing technology, like cochlear implants and hearing aids, and develop spoken language so they can learn to talk like their hearing friends.   

In order for deaf children to listen, they require optimum technology such as hearing aids or cochlear implants. Hearing technology is needed to stimulate the listening parts of the brain, the auditory cortex. Owing to neuroplasticity, the auditory cortex requires stimulation early in a child’s life, ideally before three and a half years. Part of the Auditory Verbal programme is to support parents and caregivers to ensure that their child’s hearing technology is always working optimally. This is done to make sure their child has the best-possible listening experience to be able to develop listening and spoken language.

Through play-based therapy sessions, parents and caregivers are supported with the tools – Auditory Verbal techniques and strategies – to develop their child’s listening and spoken language. The strategies used help to maximise the child’s auditory attention so that they can listen and understand spoken language and develop a listening attitude so that paying attention to the sound around them becomes automatic.

Find out more about the evidence base and research on Auditory Verbal therapy here.

What are the communication options for deaf children?

All deaf babies and children should have access to early and effective support whether they use sign language, spoken language or both. 

There are a number of different options for the parents or caregivers of a deaf child or baby, including sign language, bilingualism, Cued Speech, Total Communication, oral speech & language therapy and Auditory Verbal therapy. Auditory Verbal therapy (AV therapy) is just one of these, and the approach that is most focused on the child learning spoken language through audition.

What is the difference between Auditory Verbal therapy and other approaches? 

Auditory Verbal therapy is one approach for families of deaf children for developing spoken language. It differs from other spoken language approaches in how it is delivered and who it is delivered by. Below are some of the key features that are distinctive (but not necessarily exclusive) to AV therapy: 

• Listen and understand sound and speech, and then develop speech and spoken language
• It works in a family centred way where parents and caregivers are supported and coached through regular sessions in strategies to stimulate their child’s listening and to develop spoken language throughout their everyday lives
• It is diagnostic in its approach meaning it is continually tailored to the family based on formal and informal assessments that allow for progress to be monitored and evaluated in a way that is meaningful for the family
• It is delivered by a qualified teacher of the deaf, speech and language therapist or audiologist who has undergone specialist post-graduate training to become a certified Listening and Spoken Language Specialist Auditory Verbal therapist or educator (LSLS Cert AVT or LSLS Cert AVEd)

What are the outcomes?

Our most recent study shows that 80% of children who attended our programme for at least two years achieve age-appropriate language skills, and 97% of children without additional needs who attended our programme for at least two years achieve age-appropriate language skills.

1 in 2 children with additional and often complex needs reached age-appropriate language after attending the programme for at least two years, and all children with additional needs double their rate of language on the programme.

Most children attend mainstream school and our 2022 report, Stepping Stones to Literacy, shows that deaf children on our early intervention programme are attaining educational outcomes on a par with hearing children.

 

How can my family access Auditory Verbal therapy?

Unfortunately, in the UK, we lag behind other countries in providing access to Auditory Verbal programmes and currently over 90% of deaf children under the age of 5 do not have the option to access an Auditory Verbal programme as it is not widely available for families through publicly funded services in the UK. We are working to change that.  

At Auditory Verbal UK, we provide Auditory Verbal therapy directly to families, as well as training professionals working with deaf children in the Auditory Verbal approach. We have a clear mission to transform the landscape of Auditory Verbal provision in the UK, so 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. 

Find out more about our family programme

Are you a professional working with deaf children?

Train in the Auditory Verbal approach and become a certified Auditory Verbal therapist through our in-depth online training package, internationally accredited by the Alexander Graham Bell Academy. Find out more about our training programme.

The biggest impact of the training is hard to define – it has massively affected and completely changed my thinking about what I do and how I do it as I try to improve my professional performance. I actively listen to and coach parents so that we, collaboratively, journey together to work towards the outcomes we all aim for: a happy and fulfilled child who listens and talks. I love the way Auditory Verbal therapy aims to create active listening and this then facilitates spoken language and cognition.  So I aim to encourage listening, thinking and language skills to develop using various very simple techniques and as I aim for this, I coach and guide parents to be able to continue it in their everyday life.

Rosie Gardner, Teacher of the Deaf and certified Auditory Verbal Therapist  

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