A collaboration between MSc Speech and Language Therapy students and Auditory Verbal Therapy that took place in 2020 has received fantastic feedback and is now set to take place with a new group of MSc SLT students.
Auditory Verbal Therapy is a highly specialist early intervention programme which equips parents and carers with the skills to maximise their deaf child’s speech and language development. The Auditory Verbal approach stimulates auditory brain development and enables deaf children with hearing aids and cochlear implants to make sense of the sound relayed by their devices. As a result, children with hearing loss are better able to develop listening and spoken language skills, with the aim of giving them the same opportunities and an equal start in life as hearing children.
Through play-based therapy sessions, parents and carers are given the tools – Auditory Verbal techniques and strategies – to develop their child’s listening and spoken language. Auditory Verbal Therapy enables parents to help their child to make the best possible use of his or her hearing technology and equips parents to check and troubleshoot it in collaboration with their audiology team. This will maximise a child’s access to sound so that listening and spoken language skills can be developed to the fullest extent possible.
Over the past year, Auditory Verbal UK has been delivering regular online and interactive workshops on hearing loss and Auditory Verbal Therapy to a cohort of MSc Speech and Language Therapy students.
Auditory Verbal Therapist (AVT), Emma Burton, will now greet a new cohort of 21 MSc SLT students, who began their course in January 2021. The first session will be on Functional Listening, and will take place in March 2021. In addition, all students will have the opportunity to extend and enhance their practical skills through clinical placement opportunities in April 2021.
Emma Burton, AVUK Auditory Verbal therapist, comments “Although we were not able to meet in person, I am thrilled this collaboration was able to go ahead virtually last year. The energy and the engagement of the students has been incredible and it has been a joy to facilitate their ongoing learning and professional development in the field of hearing loss.”
To commemorate the completion of this first year of collaboration, Melanie Packer, Placement Lead and Senior Lecturer, had this to say:
“We have greatly appreciated the significant contribution that that Auditory Verbal UK has brought to the MSc Speech and Language Therapy here at Birmingham City University (BCU). Working with partners within the health sector is essential to student learning.
“In all cases the students have benefited from the very high standard of teaching that has been provided. These opportunities have given students invaluable insight into the specialist approach and techniques used by the team”.
The feedback from students themselves was equally as positive:
“It made me want to find out more about AV strategies and have a go at practising them” “it helps to see how the methods work in reality”
“Learning about the wide range of auditory-verbal strategies used in sessions with children who have hearing loss was really useful”.
“Thank you, for your passion, your interactive-ness, and for encouraging lots of people to speak!”
Birmingham City University is excited to continue this professional and educational relationship with AVUK through the 2021 cohort and beyond.
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