Pediatric Hearing Loss and Auditory Verbal

Children with hearing loss demonstrate a disorder in the auditory system. This category of disorders includes children with mild to profound hearing losses in one or both ears. These children may wear hearing aids, cochlear implants, or a combination of both.

Hearing loss affects a child’s ability to perceive and develop spoken language. 

Absolutely! We live in an exciting time for technology and modern day hearing aids and cochlear implants make it possible for children even with profound hearing losses learn to listen, speak and be mainstreamed in public school.

As the parent of a child with hearing loss (Hard of Hearing, Deaf, or deaf) , you are the person who gets to make choices about using sign language vs. spoken language. Many times parents who choose a sign language route in the schools would still like their child to develop some listening and spoken language skills outside of school. At Envision Hope Therapy, we are here to support you in your communication choices for your child. Whether you are pursuing a Listening and Spoken Language outcome or would like to support your signing child in their language development, we can help you. 

Listening and Spoken Language/Auditory Verbal Therapy is an extremely specialized area of Speech Pathology that relies on the use of appropriate hearing technology to develop spoken language skills through the listening modality. Because of the specialized nature of this type of therapy, there are only a few Certified Auditory-Verbal Therapists working in private practice in the Dallas area. Auditory Verbal is a parent centered approach and involves parents in therapy sessions as the primary language partner of their child. 

1. Promote early diagnosis of hearing loss in newborns, infants, toddlers, and young children, followed by immediate audiologic 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 listening and spoken language.

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. Guide and coach parents to 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 schools with peers who have typical hearing and with appropriate services from early childhood onwards.

If you think that your child would benefit for an Auditory-Verbal approach, call our office at (214).494.4677 to schedule a free consultation with our Certified Auditory-Verbal Therapist.