Services for 1 year old

[Guest guest]

Hi Tawnya. I know how you feel about the AVT session as you described it.

started out with " regular " speech therapy in the home as part of our EI

services. We decided to give AV a try when we began to consider the CI. I

believe started with AV around 15 months. I remember thinking the same

thing... gosh, we just make sounds all session. was very active and didn't

want to sit in a high chair and be presented one toy at a time. We continued

with AV for several months. He got his CI at 20 months and we did AV after that

for six more months. Then we went back to the original therapist in the home.

I think it's different for every family and child. The ideas and therapies are

good for AV. Many people will tell you that it actually is mostly for the

family to learn how to work with the child. I had been doing these types of

exercises with since he was very young so it was nothing new to me when we

started AV. I felt like I wasn't learning anything new and after months of

doing the same thing over and over I decided it was time to change. The AVT

after working with your child for some time has the expertise to help determine

what sounds your child may or may not be hearing. She can suggest if it's a

detection issue or a production issue. She can make suggestions as to whether

things should be changed with the amplification or MAP. there are definately

advantages to having a professional who has the knowledge of working with

hearing impaired children. Many speech therapists don't have that understanding

and they don't realize they need to use different techniques than what they do

or expect from hearing children. But at the same time it's not necessary to

have a certified AVT. You will hear lots of success stories from many different

families took different routes. Just like many different communication methods

are successful so are different types of therapies. It is confusing in the

beginning I know.

Good luck! Stick with it for a while and don't be afraid to ask your therapist

questions about the sessions. She'll probably tell you that you're exactly

right... you can do those things on your own, but she'll be able to tell you

what else her services can do.

K

mom to , 4 years, CI 6/30/02