The Hearing House - enabling deaf children to speak

Parent ParticipationHao is profoundly deaf and regularly attends The Hearing House for Auditory-Verbal Therapy with her parents and her baby brother, who is also deaf. The therapist will teach the parents strategies to implement in day-to-day activities so Hao is always learning to listen and speak. This way her language development is accelerated.
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Parent Participation



Parent participation is vital to the success of Auditory-Verbal Therapy for two reasons: parents are the natural teachers of their child’s language and the parents are the main teacher for their child so can constantly encourage language development.

Parent participation refers to parents taking the lead role in teaching their child to listen and speak. The parents must attend Auditory-Verbal Therapy sessions with their child each time and learn the different skills required to work with their child at home.

Parental participation is a huge part of Auditory-Verbal Therapy for two reasons. Firstly, Auditory-Verbal Therapy focuses on emphasizing the natural way a child would develop language to achieve natural language. As the parent/s are the natural models of their child’s language, it follows that their participation is highly important.

Secondly, when the parent/s take on the primary teaching role, the child benefits from constantly learning and developing language in order to become age appropriate faster. It is often noted by parents who attend The Hearing House Auditory-Verbal Programme that their lives are like a “running commentary” as they “pour language” into their child. Every day activities are turned into language-learning opportunities as the parents incorporate listening and speaking into all aspects of their life.

At The Hearing House, we require the parents to fully commit to the Auditory-Verbal Therapy Programme. This means regularly attending Auditory-Verbal Therapy sessions, adapting every day communication styles to fit the Auditory-Verbal Therapy strategy; and constantly working with their child to encourage language development.

Research supports the Auditory-Verbal principle of parent participation and says that infants, toddlers and children learn language most effectively through consistent and continual meaningful interactions in a supportive environment with significant caretakers (Kretschmer & Kretschmer, 1978; Lennenberg, 1967; Leonard, 1991; Ling, 1989; MacDonald & Gillette, 1989; Menyuk, 1977; Ross, 1990).

See also Tips from a parent to parents or Why does the parent have to participate in the auditory-verbal therapy session?