Helping to learn a child to hear with his or her new hearing aid or cochlear implant can be achieved through auditory verbal therapy. This allows for normal development and the ability to attend an ordinary school just like any other child. Later in life, the subject is able to pursue a career and achieve a normal, independent lifestyle.
The parent is the key player
In AVT, parents are taught how to help their children to listen and communicate using an audio-verbal approach. The parent attends therapy sessions with the child in order to learn how AVT can be applied at home.
The child remains within the mainstream
Parents of children undergoing AVT are encouraged to seek opportunities for their child to interact with peers that do not suffer any hearing impairment as this motivates the child to learn proper communication skills that will be invaluable throughout their lives.
Its all about learning through fun
AVT is all about play. Thats the best way for any child to learn without even realizing it! You will be taught how to engage in play-based activities with your child, guiding him or her unconsciously towards a style of communication that will make a normal life possible.
Some of the Techniques that are applied
- Wait for a child to process and respond to a verbal cue rather than repeating it.
- Proved the child with correct language models through parental example.
- Use acoustic highlighting to help children with understanding and using language.
- Although the use of visual cues is discouraged, hand signals can be used to indicate when it is time for the child to listen and when it is time to speak.
- Unnecessary auditory clutter is avoided. Thus only one person speaks at a time.
- Identification and use of the side where the hearing is strongest.
AVT techniques support the development of listening and conversational skills as well as cognitive ability. Toys and games are used to achieve correct interpretation of auditory cues. For example, you may begin a game by asking for a single item: Bring me the ball and progress to references that include two or more objects as the childs listening skills improve.
AVT continues throughout the normal daily activities of the family. The child can be involved in activities like selecting products from supermarket shelves Give me the tomato sauce or during the preparation of meals. The parent is taught to progress from simple instructions to more complex instructions that include a number of objects or actions.
As children build their language ability, they are able to add more information to existing phrases which they have come to understand. For example, you may progress from Crawl to Crawl to the kitchen or from Jump to Jump on one leg and then the other.
In order to learn these techniques, the assistance of a therapist is essential. Parents are taught how to incorporate AVT into everyday fun activities that make it easy for their child to learn language use and enjoy a normal life.