AV Therapy

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What is Auditory-Verbal Therapy?

Auditory-verbal therapy is an approach to teaching a deaf child to listen and speak. In this approach, a young child learns to attach meaning to sound and progress to learning words, phrases and sentences. By learning to listen the child learns to speak much like kids with normal hearing as long as they are expected to do so.  Sign language or Cued speech is not used at all in auditory-verbal therapy, and the child is taught to attend to what is heard and to respond appropriately.
    When a child gets hearing aids or a cochlear implant it is like suddenly hearing a lot of sound but not being able to understand what is said.  Imagine yourself in a foreign country where you can hear the language but understand none of it!!
Listening activities are developed through structured and natural listening activities using games, music and real life experiences. Using listening skills as the foundation, speech and language are developed in a natural conversational context. These skills are further integrated into social and academic skills as these children concurrently attend neighborhood nurseries, preschools and schools.

      Child

i)    Age appropriate receptive and expressive 
      verbal communication through listening

ii)   Intelligible spoken language

iii)  The ability to participate effectively in  
      regular education 

     Parents

i)   Acquire the knowledge, skills and information  
     to  provide appropriate auditory verbal 
     activities in their everyday life

ii)  Acquire the knowledge, skills and information
     to become effective advocates for their child

i)   Individual therapy
 
ii)  Co-ordination with other therapists who
     work with the child in a variety of settings
    
iii)  Audiological monitoring:  maintain contact
      with the audiologist regarding the child’s
      hearing status

iv)  Training other family members such as
      siblings, grandparents etc.

v)   Providing inservice training to other
      caregivers who are with the child

Parent Involvement                                                                       

Parents are required to sit in and participate during the entire session .   At the end of each session, parents receive an ‘assignment sheet’ for activities and skills to work on at home over the week.  The therapist  teaches the parent how to do these activities and discusses other ways to work on language in the home. 

 

The first few sessions are spent evaluating the child’s current skills as well as parent-child interaction. The therapist then develops individualized goals for parent and child.  Each child’s progress is monitored on an ongoing basis from session to session, and annually using standardized tests.  Caregivers, siblings, grandparents are also encouraged to attend sessions when possible.