The Listening and Spoken Language approach seeks to maximize learning through listening. It requires children to have the best possible access to sound through the use of hearing technology, such as hearing aids, bone conduction devices, or cochlear implants. The focus of this option is to use auditory information to acquire speech and spoken language. It is based on the assumption that most children with hearing differences can be taught to listen and speak with early intervention and consistent training to develop their hearing potential. While manual forms of communication, such as ASL are not encouraged with this approach, natural gestures, body language, and speech reading are accepted. Speech reading is the ability to understand speech by carefully watching the lip patterns, movement of the tongue, and face of the person speaking. While only 30% to 40% of speech sounds can be lip-read even under the best conditions, it can provide extra information to assist in understanding spoken language.
Auditory Verbal Therapy (AVT) is a type of early intervention therapy for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. The goal of AVT for deaf and hard or hearing children to learn, listen and have the same ability to speak like children who have typical hearing.