Natural Aural Approach Explained
Natural Auralism draws on the innate ability of all children to learn language through listening to and experiencing language. The opportunities provided by early identification of hearing loss and optimal amplification and early support packages for deaf babies and children mean that they too can use this ability to learn the language of their home and schools and communicate and learn effectively.
It draws heavily on research about learning and on language acquisition in hearing and deaf children, such as
Bruner 1983 Child’s talk:Learning to use language
Jean S Moog 2000 Auditory-Oral Education: Teaching Deaf Children To Talk
Patrick Stone 1997 Educating Children Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing: Auditory-Oral
On the basis of this research the Natural Aural Approach central tenets are that:
- Deaf children’s first language or mother tongue is that of their parents
- Profound deafness does not stop children from becoming articulate, high achieving young people and adults and living full, successful and happy lives.
- Deaf children will follow the same sequence of language acquisition and learning as hearing children, providing the adults and children around them respond to their deafness and use language as they would have done with young hearing children
Principles of the Natural Aural Approach are:
● All deaf children are capable of learning spoken language, unless there are strong indications that would have precluded this if the child had not been deaf.
● Language is one part of the child’s broader development and all aspects of the child’s development and play should be monitored and provided for. However, language itself is a major facilitator of learning and thinking.
● Parental input is key.
● Close monitoring of all aspects of the child’s development so that input is ‘tailored effectively to need’.
● Reading and writing fluently derives from a basis of strong spoken language.
● No formal signs are used within a Natural Aural Approach.
