Children, parents, and professionals in partnership |
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The AV Approach: The Roadmap to spoken language The auditory verbal road to spoken language by ‘growing the auditory brain' is a unique and carefully planned approach to childhood hearing impairment. Parents who are coached to run along this road quickly get to recognise the road signs. Here is an introduction to the map for those who have recently gone down that road and for those who are considering it.
 The Telephone Call The Initial Appointment The Next Appointment Assessment Information Session Parent Consultations Regular Sessions Qualifications Transition Programme
The Telephone Call [back to top] Typically parents phone us directly and we talk, often for half an hour or more about their current concerns. Sometimes the telephone conversation leads to a first consultation meeting. On occasion we might recommend you seek advice from another professional, such as a paediatric audiologist, before coming to AVUK. The Initial Appointment [back to top]
We ask parents to sign a privacy agreement, our child protection policy, and a range of consent forms. We video tape the session for you to take home. Parents tell us that this is very helpful because they can review the session and see things they had missed or forgotten. At the end of the session we identify with you the ‘take home messages' and answer any further questions. At this point you can make another appointment or leave to reflect on the experience and decide at a later date whether you would like to join the programme and attend regularly. The Next Appointment [back to top]
The approach we use depends on co-working with parents first and foremost. We aim to use the sessions to move towards the end goal of the project - age appropriate spoken language. Each session focuses on closing the gap between your child's chronological age and his ‘language age'. We know that young children learn language through everyday conversations with their parents and carers. We also know that when there is a gap between the child's age and the time that he first starts to hear well, communication problems happen. Our aim is to enable parents to have successful conversations with their child who has hearing impairment, although the child is still just a learner. By now it should be clear that parents play a very active, central role in the sessions.
At one of the first appointments we take a baseline measure of your child's understanding and use of spoken language. We use an assessment which is norm referenced on children with typical hearing. This allows us to give you a measure of your child's language when you first start working with us. We assess at six monthly intervals and expect to see at least six months of language progress made over six months of time. Information Session [back to top]  We invite all parents to an information session shortly after beginning to work with them. This session is provided free, usually on a Friday morning, between 11 and 12.30. At this session we ask that children are cared for elsewhere so that the adults can concentrate on the discussion. The purpose is to take time to reflect on the service we provide and to look at the Auditory Verbal Approach in some detail. We examine and discuss its underlying principles and aims in order to make sure you are clear about the approach and what it entails.
In addition, we make it clear what AVUK as a charity offers. We are working towards the situation where every family of a child with hearing impairment is able to access Auditory Verbal Therapy, free of charge and in their own locality. To do this we have to train qualified and experienced Speech and Language Therapists, Audiologists and Teachers of the Hearing Impaired to become Auditory Verbal Therapists. For families this means that the service package involves learning with therapists who are at different stages of their professional development. We ensure that a high standard of therapy is offered to families on all visits. Parent Consultations [back to top] These are individual sessions which take place about twice a year and are charged at the standard session rate. The parents of a child are invited to meet with the team for review and planning. These meetings typically take place early in the programme of sessions and then at other times such as during the special educational needs assessment period, before the transition into school, or before a change from hearing aids to a cochlear implant. It is an opportunity to step back and look at the bigger picture to ensure that everything is in place to achieve the desired outcome for that child. Typically a parent consultation lasts for an hour. Regular Sessions [back to top] It is important that we work together with the local support team if this can be arranged. We ask parents to inform their local team of our involvement, and, with parents' permission, we are keen to co-work in a variety of ways with local professionals.
Siblings are welcome to join the session. We are more than happy to accommodate them, grandparents, nannies, supportive friends and so on. Members of the local support team are sometimes invited by parents to attend one of their sessions here. We endeavour to make this beneficial for all concerned by making time for the visitor to ask questions and contribute, while making sure the family get sufficient new focus, energy and enthusiasm to last until the next meeting. Qualifications [back to top] Auditory verbal programmes can only be offered by trained professionals. There are currently two Cert AVT® therapists at AVUK. Each is an experienced speech and language therapist, an audiologist or a teacher of the hearing impaired, with further extensive training in auditory verbal therapy. A third SLT is currently training with us to certify in AVT. Visit the office to see the range of professional qualifications framed on the wall, or read more about us on our meet the team page. Transition Programme [back to top]
Usually, at the stage where the child has reached age appropriate spoken language we agree a transition plan with parents to ensure that the gains made within the AV programme carry over into the mainstream playgroup or nursery. This may involve an in-service training day for the mainstream staff, attendance at the IEP meeting, written report or a package of articles for staff to read. The frequency of sessions decreases in the months leading up to transition. Future sessions are arranged termly over the first year, although parents may request extra sessions. When parents reduce their attendance at the programme they know that we are available should they need to check in with us. Meanwhile, we wait to hear how their child is getting on paddling his own canoe as a communicator in home and school life. |
The initial consultation for you and your child usually lasts an hour and a half. Two of our three therapists are available for this meeting because we want to achieve many things in the time you are with us. First of all we check what you would most like to get from the session. We discuss this with you while we closely observe your child at play. You are likely to have lots of questions. We encourage you to ask them, and we answer them as well as we are able. Between us we have many many years experience working with families of children who do not hear well and we have a bank of knowledge to draw on. We ask you for background information to help us understand your current needs. This leads us to make a plan for the next part of the session, which takes place in one of our three therapy rooms.
Sessions usually run for an hour. Typically they are weekly or fortnightly. The frequency of visits is in part dependent on logistics, parents' learning style, cost, the child's stage of development, previous experience of AVT, and availability of local support, to name but a few factors.
Each session is an individual session with the parent and child. It is easier for a new listener to learn to communicate with supportive adults who will wait for him to take his turn in the conversation. The environment is quiet and the child is the centre of attention. This creates enjoyment and motivation and, in fact, parents report signs of glee from the child in the back of the car as they approach the centre. We do not offer group sessions although we encourage children to attend their local mother and toddler, or play groups, where they learn a lot about getting on with other children. Children with typical hearing provide excellent language models for the child with hearing impairment, who is learning to listen and speak.
Each session is an opportunity to share observation about the child's progress, and about any difficulties the child and family are experiencing. This means that the parents are completely aware of the child's rate of progress and the factors which influence it. We encourage parents to seek advice from professionals experienced in other fields of expertise and are keen to work with their recommendations. Occasionally, parents and the team here come to the conclusion that the needs of the child are better met in another programme. Then our goal is to help the family make the transition out of this programme and into the new one.