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Speaking Deaf Babies.

Training in Listening and Spoken Language (LSL) Skills

Training the baby (whether with hearing aids or cochlear implants) to learn how to listen, speak and develop language skills is an important process of making a child with hearing loss listen and speak. The aim is to make the child acquire language skills on par with a typical hearing child of the same age.

The training may be Auditory-Oral Therapy or Auditory-Verbal Therapy and involves the extensive participation of the parents and family members. The following rules need to be incorporated for an highly effective and productive training.

i. The baby has to wear the hearing device all through the waking hours.

ii. The parents need to give speech input by talking about every activity that is carried out at home or park or beach or shop ie., wherever the family visits with the child.

iii. Help from trained professionals at Early Intervention Cum Pre-schools should be taken for proper guidance.

Auditory-Oral Therapy aims at training the baby to use its residual hearing via amplification by the hearing aid(s). The baby is trained to listen and speak. Babies are also trained to lip-read. Some institutes allow natural gestures as well.

Auditory-Verbal Therapy also aims at training the baby to listen using the hearing aid or cochlear implant and to speak. The emphasis is on listening. Lip-reading and gestures are not allowed in this training.