Auditory Verbal Therapy

AG Bell have some family stories available of their website from both a parent perspective and a child perspective.

In order to become a certified AV practitioner you must the meet the requirements set out by the Alexander Graham Bell Academy.  Download the Certification Handbook for further information and eligibility requirements in order to become a Certified Auditory Verbal practitioner.

The ear is the ‘doorway to the brain’ for sound (Cole & Flexer, 2016)¹⁴.  Hearing loss obstructs the ‘doorway’ in various ways and to varying degrees, preventing auditory input from reaching the brain.  The purpose of hearing technology is to get auditory information through the ‘doorway’ to the brain (Flexer & Rhoades, 2016)¹⁵.

Dr Carol Flexer discusses Auditory Brain Development.

1. Promote early diagnosis of hearing loss in newborns, infants, toddlers, and young children, followed by immediate audiological management and, should their families choose, 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 parents to help their child use hearing as the primary sensory modality in developing listening and spoken language.

In the late 1930s, three pioneering practitioners (Helen H. Beebe, Ciwa Griffiths and Doreen Pollack) began providing services that were the pre-cursors to AV therapy.  Their services were strongly influenced by Max Goldstein (American Otologist) who proposed an acoustic method so children with hearing loss could learn through the auditory sense (Rhoades & Duncan, 2010)⁴.

You can read stories written by families:

• attending AV therapy at the charity AVUK 

Additionally, you can read stories written by families of children with additional needs here:

• Henry’s story
• Kurran’s story
• Mia’s story 

Auditory Verbal therapy sessions are typically one hour and are attended weekly or fortnightly.  They include the primary caregivers, the child and the practitioner.  Every session is play based and highly functional in order to be integrated into your family's everyday routine.  The aim for each session is for the child to have fun whilst caregivers learn strategies to maximise their child’s language skills in everyday activities.  Sessions can be delivered face to face or via telepractice.  

In the UK there has been substantial investment in the Newborn Hearing Screening Programme (NHSP).  The NHSP was introduced first in England from 2001, extending to Scotland in 2003, Wales in 2004 and Northern Ireland in 2005.  This roll out was based on the premise that outcomes for deaf children could be improved by early identification of hearing loss and effective, early intervention (Yoshinaga-Itano, Sedey, Coulter, & Mehl, 1998¹³; Davis et al., 1997⁶).

The number of children with permanent hearing loss in the UK under the age of five years has been estimated to be 7,2001,2 and around 90% of deaf* children are born to hearing parents^3,4. Without early intervention, many deaf children could be left without access to a rich language environment, whether spoken or signed (British Sign Language (BSL) or signed English).

Auditory Verbal (AV) therapy is the practice of developing spoken language through listening for children who are deaf.