Auditory-verbal therapy. Science, research, and practice: book review

Abstract

Auditory-Verbal Therapy. Science, Research, and Practice [1], written by expert practitioners in the field of Auditory-Verbal Therapy (AVT), is a complex and accurate manual for everyone who is interested in deepening auditory rehabilitation. The manual is made up of 27 chapters, divided into five sections: (a) fundamentals of AVT, (b) importance of auditory access and hearing technology, (c) development across essential domains in AVT, (d) implementation, and (e) AVT for diverse populations. Any clinician interested in the latest clinical and academic trends in AVT should consult this resource. Indeed, Auditory-Verbal therapy is constantly developing and improving along with advances in newborn hearing screening, early interventions, hearing technologies, and scientific research. The manual is supposed to be an update of the previously published Auditory Verbal Therapy for Young Children with Hearing Loss and Their Families, and the practitioners who guide them (Pural Publishing, [2]). The majority of deaf or hard of hearing children (92–97%) are born into normally hearing families. Approximately 95% of parents of children with hearing loss are hearing themselves [3] and trends indicate that many parents are choosing spoken language as the primary mode to communicate to their children with hearing loss. Moreover, studies report that deaf and hard-of-hearing children with hearing parents can reliably develop chronological age-expected vocabulary skills given the right language learning environment. For this reason it is necessary to guide and coach them to make them facilitators of their children’s development. Auditory-Verbal Therapy. Science, Research, and Practice is a valuable resource not only for speech and language therapists, but also for parents, teachers and other caregivers, who would like to support the development of deaf and hard-of-hearing children. The book includes interesting elements such as deepening sections, case examples, conversational scenarios, examples of dialogues between children and practitioners (called ‘snapshot’ in the text), and analysis of each developmental stage. Of peculiar interest is chapter 10 that deepened the development of three-dimensional conversations and auditory-verbal therapy. According to AVT findings the rate of parent–child conversational turns in early childhood impacts brain development and is predictive of the level of language acquisition in later years. The three-dimensionality of the conversation makes this learning process extremely natural and it also favours overhearing, which the literature defines as the key principle of incidental learning. Indeed, as [4] suggest children with hearing loss (in particular those wearing Cochlear Implants) may not be able to capitalise on ‘overhearing’ for learning vocabulary, at least to the extent that their normal hearing peers are able to. In the manual tables about communication and hearing developmental stages are included, as well as those about music and language milestones of normal hearing children. Those are interesting and easy to read instruments to better understand the path to harmonious development of competences that clinicians and caregivers need to know to better guide a child with hearing impairment. Indeed, for the practice of AVT, of great importance is the positive impact that is demonstrated when parents and practitioners use focussed input and responses that are tailored to the speech and language targets selected for a particular child. AVT remains one of the few structured and published therapies in the field of speech and language rehabilitation of hearing-impaired children. This book provides practitioners with operational tools and it presents an excellent analysis of the crucial aspects needed to manage these patients.