The goal of the Auditory-Verbal practice is that children with hearing impairment can grow up in a regular learning and living environment that enables them to become independent, participating, and contributing citizens in mainstream society (Auditory-Verbal International, Inc., 1991). Auditory-Verbal therapy teaches parents how to create an auditory learning environment for their child to develop spoken language through listening during everyday natural and meaningful communication.
Auditory-Verbal Therapy is designed for the parents to participate in the child’s education. Therapy is diagnostic, with each session being an ongoing evaluation of the child’s and parent’s progress. The children learn to use their amplified hearing or their cochlear implant to listen to their own voices, the voices of others, and the sounds of their environment in order to understand spoken language. There is no set curricula per se, rather, Auditory-Verbal Therapy encourages and follows natural language and speech development. The parents and therapist encourage the child to integrate hearing, language and spontaneous speech into the child’s personality (Pollack, 1985; Estabrooks & Samson, 1992; Estabrooks, 2001). While certain language curricula might be employed, these materials are designed for children with normal hearing abilities.
The Auditory-Verbal Approach differs from the auditory-oral approach and traditional aural habilitation in that families who choose the AV approach follow a set of guiding principles to enable their child who is deaf to learn to listen and process spoken language (see principles below). Although families who participate in oral education programs or auditory-oral programs may utilize strategies and techniques of the AV approach in their practice, an Auditory-Verbal intervention program embraces all the guiding principles. The salient differences may be that traditional aural habilitation programs and auditory-oral programs may rely on therapists and teachers as models and children who are deaf and hard-of-hearing may receive instruction or therapy in groups. There are no “Auditory-Verbal” schools, in that the purpose of integration is to educate the child in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) with the highest expectations, and the mainstream classroom serves as the LRE for children who are deaf/hard-of-hearing.
Doreen Pollack, one of the original founders of the Auditory-Verbal approach, stated that the goal of the approach is that children who are deaf and hard-of-hearing are integrated into their community, and a typical living and learning environment is retained. She believed that everyone in this environment must believe that the child can hear, expect the child to respond appropriately, and show him or her how to communicate through spoken interactions. When an all-day listening atmosphere is created for the child, surrounded by meaningful contexts of daily activities, with children who have normal hearing and language abilities, communication becomes relevant.
