When we started our hearing journey, we were told that we needed to pick an approach to teaching Lily to talk and listen, immediately. We soon learned that this was a hotly debated subject, with lots of people having lots of differing opinions. For us, it came down to three approaches: Auditory Oral, Auditory Verbal or Total Communication. There are other options, but these three seemed liked the top contenders for a kid who would have bilateral CIs at 10-months old and has no other complicating factors.
We quickly learned In our town and really state, most of the families and the school system were using the Total Communication method. This means speaking and signing together. The Auditory Verbal approach was not even an option, because in Nebraska, there are no certified AV Therapists (AVTs). In fact, there is not an AVT for hundreds of miles and most professionals have very little experience with the approach.
However, as luck would have it, we finally connected with the Auditory Oral approach through the Omaha Hearing School. And that is what has been perfect for us. After extensive research, we knew wanted an Oral Approach, but at the time (16 months ago) we had no idea how we were going to make that happen or figure out what an ORAL APPROACH actually meant.
Over the past year, even our public school has moved to a much stronger auditory approach and will hopefully continue to move in that direction. To me the AO approach seems very close to the AV approach, just some minor differences in where therapy is done and how strict you enforce the looking for other clues as to what was said like lipreading. Even this seems to depend on the AVT.
What is missing in all of this are lots of experienced professionals with training and certifications in AO and AVT. We need more. And this doesn't begin to address the huge need of of highly qualified SLPs with experience working with kids with hearing impairments and specifically cochlear implants. Come to Nebraska. It is a land of unmet need and lots of opportunity to work with world-class programs and world-class kids like Lily.
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