Auditory rehabilitation based on auditory verbal therapy approach on children with bilateral sensory-neural hearing loss

Abstract

Background and Aim: Auditory rehabilitation is an essential step after hearing aid fitting for children with hearing loss. The aim of this study was to evaluate the auditory rehabilitation results based on auditory verbal therapy approach in children with severe to profound sensory-neural hearing loss. Auditory verbal therapy is a popular approach for rehabilitation children with hearing loss.
 Methods: This is a retrospective study that eva­luates the results of auditory rehabilitation of 19 children with severe to profound hearing loss. Most children were about three years old at the beginning of the rehabilitation process. They were received bilateral hearing aid and auditory rehabilitation based on auditory verbal therapy (AVT) approach. Each case progress was meas­ured by Newsha developmental scale.
 Results: All of the children showed progress during the AVT program (p < 0.05). The Newsha developmental scale showed that hearing and receptive language categories had more progress. The progress was similar between male and female participants and there was no difference in all of categories (p > 0.05).
 Conclusion: The AVT approach is beneficial for rehabilitation of older children with bilateral sev­ere to profound sensory-neural hearing loss. The progress was observed in all categories of Newsha developmental scale.
 Keywords: Auditory rehabilitation; auditory verbal therapy approach; hearing-impaired