FAQ

What are the causes of deafness?
Deafness can range from mild to profound and has many different causes including injury, disease and genetic defects.

What is Auditory-Verbal therapy?
This form of therapy promotes listening and speaking as a way of life for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. The goal of the Auditory-Verbal approach is for children who are deaf or hard of hearing to grow up in regular classrooms and living environments and to become independent, participating citizens in mainstream society.

How does Auditory-Verbal therapy work?
The Auditory-Verbal approach is based upon a logical and critical set of guiding principles which enable children who are deaf or hard of hearing to learn to use even minimal amounts of amplified residual hearing or hearing through electrical stimulation (cochlear implants) to listen, to process verbal language, and to speak.

The Principles of Auditory-Verbal Practice are:

1. Promote early diagnosis of hearing impairment in newborns, infants, toddlers, and children, followed by immediate audiological 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 parents to help their child use hearing as the primary sensory modality in developing spoken language without the use of sign language or emphasis on lip-reading.
4. Guide and coach parents to become the primary facilitators of their child’s listening and spoken language development through active consistent participation in individualized Auditory-Verbal therapy.
5. Create environments that support listening for the acquisition of spoken language throughout the child’s daily activities.
6. Guide and coach parents to help their child integrate listening and spoken language into all aspects of the child’s life.
7. Guide and coach parents to use natural developmental patterns of audition, speech, language, cognition, and communication.
8. Guide and coach parents 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 classrooms with typical hearing peers and with appropriate support services from early childhood onwards.

Why is it important to screen a baby for hearing loss?
50% of children found to have a hearing loss have no significant risk factors (such as prematurity or a family history of hearing loss). Late diagnosis of hearing impairment often results in major delays in every area of a child’s development including speech and language. Early diagnosis is the key to successful early intervention which means parents can be given support and information as soon as possible.

How can technology help hearing-impaired children?
Some deaf children rely on technology such as hearing aids to assist in their communication. Hearing aids amplify sounds but do not “cure” deafness. Thanks to the technology of cochlear implants, a new world of meaningful sound and communication has opened up for many profoundly deaf children and their families.