Louise Honck Cert. MRCSLT, PG. Dip. AVT, LSLS Cert. AVT
Susannah Burden Cert. MRCSLT, Pg. Dip. AVT, LSLS Cert. AVT
This presentation focused on parents’ journey from initial identification of their child’s hearing loss to acceptance and advocacy.
Jacqueline Stokes was a Cert. AVT who founded AVUK in England. She identified six stages of parents’ journeys:
The presenters emphasized that an AV session is really the meeting of two experts: the parent is an expert in his/her child and the therapist is the expert in listening and spoken language. In the beginning, parents need professionals to help demystify hearing technology so parents can help their children use it confidently, monitor and troubleshoot any problems, and optimize their child’s ability to hear with the device(s). It is important to help families integrate listening and language into everyday life because you don’t get more hours in the day when you have a child with hearing loss — you have less time! Burden emphasized that while many parents focus on that precious first spoken word, it’s not all about the output. What the child is thinking because of how he is listening builds a very important foundation. The words will come. Jacqueline Stokes encouraged therapists to “Shine the light of brilliance on the child” by working within his Zone of Proximal Development (more on that here: The Just Right Challenge).
All recaps are from my notes, memory, and/or presentation materials made available by the presenters. Any errors or omissions are my own.
Elizabeth A. Rosenzweig 