What is Auditory Verbal
Therapy?
As a parent, you want to be sure the A-V therapist for your child
is a Certified Auditory-Verbal Therapist. Jim and Lea Watson became
certified in the first class of certified Auditory-Verbal Therapists
in 1994. Certification assures that the professional has the
knowledge, skills, and abilities required to teach listening and
spoken language in the most efficient way.
Auditory-Verbal Therapy enables those who are deaf or hard of
hearing to use their hearing to listen, process verbal language, and
speak. Through Auditory-Verbal Parent Guidance Therapy, families
make listening and speaking a natural part of daily life. Since
1980, parents choosing Auditory-Verbal Therapy for their children
come to AVCC for support and direction. Following a logical set of
guiding principles, parents become the primary teachers for their
child’s listening and speaking skills. Listening then becomes an
integral part of the child’s personality.
Newborn Hearing Screening allows infants in the early days of
their lives to begin this process. Auditory-Verbal Therapy is a
highly effective method using technology for developing the maximum
use of hearing. This approach brings meaningful sound to the brain
naturally. Clear speech, natural spoken language and strong literacy
skills are results of Auditory- Verbal Therapy. Auditory-Verbal
“graduates” can communicate with anyone, using spoken language
throughout their lives. Adults who receive a cochlear implant choose
Auditory-Verbal Therapy for the same reasons.
AVCC follows Principles
of Auditory- Verbal Therapy. We use Auditory-Verbal techniques, but
the most important aspect of Auditory-Verbal Therapy is when parents
understand and live the philosophy that people who are deaf or hard
of hearing can learn to listen and speak. As the child develops,
AVCC supports the parents as part of the educational team. We
collaborate with audiologists, early intervention programs, cochlear
implant centers, and school systems. Auditory-Verbal Therapy expects
children to be included in mainstream education starting at
preschool.
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Principles of
LSLS Auditory-Verbal Therapy
1. Promote early diagnosis of
hearing loss in newborns, infants,
toddlers, and young children,
followed by immediate audiologic
management and Auditory-Verbal
therapy.
2. Recommend immediate assessment
and use of appropriate,
state-of-the-art hearing technology
to obtain maximum benefits of
auditory stimulation.
3. Guide and coach parentsą to help
their child use hearing as the
primary sensory modality in
developing spoken language without
the use of sign language or emphasis
on lipreading.
4. Guide and coach parentsą to
become the primary facilitators of
their child's listening and spoken
language development through active
consistent participation in
individualized Auditory-Verbal
therapy.
5. Guide and coach parentsą to
create environments that support
listening for the acquisition of
spoken language throughout the
child's daily activities.
6. Guide and coach parentsą to help
their child integrate listening and
spoken language into all aspects of
the child's life.
7. Guide and coach parentsą to use
natural developmental patterns of
audition, speech, language,
cognition, and communication.
8. Guide and coach parentsą to help
their child self-monitor spoken
language through listening.
9. Administer ongoing formal and
informal diagnostic assessments to
develop individualized
Auditory-Verbal treatment plans, to
monitor progress and to evaluate the
effectiveness of the plans for the
child and family.
10. Promote education in regular
schools with peers who have typical
hearing and with appropriate
services from early childhood
onwards.
*An Auditory-Verbal Practice
requires all 10 principles.
ąThe term "parents" also includes
grandparents, relatives, guardians,
and any caregivers who interact with
the child.
(Adapted from the Principles
originally developed by Doreen
Pollack, 1970)
Adopted by the AG Bell Academy for
Listening and Spoken Language®,
July 26, 2007. Posted on the AGBell
website. |
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Visit:http://www.agbellacademy.org/AuditoryVerbalTherapy.htm
AVCC provides a Professional Mentoring Program using the
Standardized Curriculum first established by AVI, Inc® with updates
from the AGBell Academy for Listening and Spoken Language. Since
1994 the Watons have assisted many professionals with the A-V
certification process. Lea Watson received the 2007 Helen Beebe
Award for Mentors from the AGBell Association. She served as a
subject matter expert in the writing of the 2008 international exam
for Certification as a Listening and Spoken Language Specialist.
Many professionals seek to be trained and certified, due to the success of
Auditory-Verbal Therapy.
Philosophy
The Auditory-Verbal Approach is based on proven theory that most
children who are deaf or hard of hearing have some residual hearing
ability which can be utilized. With hearing aids this hearing can be
sufficiently stimulated early on in life so that speech, language,
and listening can be naturally developed. This also applies to
children who listen with cochlear implants. The key is to detect
hearing loss as early as possible and begin the therapy process
immediately. With the passage of the Newborn Screening Bill, hearing
impairment is detected at an earlier age and more infants have the
opportunity to learn to listen using Auditory-Verbal Therapy Parent
Guidance Therapy.
Studies show that Auditory-Verbal Parent Guidance therapy works
well for families who have children with all levels of hearing loss:
mild, moderate, severe, and profound. The brain is naturally wired
for learning language through hearing.
The Auditory-Verbal Therapist guides the parents to emphasize
hearing as the primary means for their child to acquire the natural
ability to speak. The brain is naturally tuned to process spoken
language through the sense of hearing. This occurs with consistent
hearing aid and/or cochlear implant use along with intensive
experience in listening. Parents and Auditory-Verbal Therapists may
spend several years working together, developing language skills,
social skills, and refining the speech of the child through lessons
and activities performed at the center and at home. Therapy at the
Auditory Verbal Communication Center is diagnostic and
demonstrative. Parents are active participants in the sessions and
are required to do “homework” in between each session. Parents are
encouraged to record the weekly goals and the daily progress towards
that goal. Parents and therapists keep an “Experience Book” for the
child to review important language used at home and in therapy.
Natural language emerges from the child without the use of
instruction in lip reading and/or sign language. Auditory-Verbal
professionals agree that sign language and lip reading at an early
age inhibit the child’s dependence on LISTENING to acquire language.
The goal is to teach children that sounds have meaning, to lock
hearing into a child’s personality. Children progress through
inclusion in regular neighborhood schools from early childhood
onwards. The Auditory- Verbal Therapist may continue as part of the
child’s educational team.
Because parents are active participants throughout the therapy
process, they become the primary teachers for their children. With
support and direction from the Auditory-Verbal Therapist, parents
become effective advocates who understand their children’s needs. |
