Growing Up With Hearing Loss
Read this page to learn what it is, and if it's right for your child.
What the auditory-oral method is
- The word auditory (AU-di-tor-ee) refers to the ears and hearing.
The word oral (O-ral) refers to the mouth and speaking.
- The auditory-oral method teaches children to do these things:
- Use their hearing as much as they can.
- Read lips.
- Use other clues to understand what people are saying.
- The auditory-oral method of communication is also called oralism (O-ral-is-um).
That's because it teaches children to talk and to read lips.
How learning the auditory-oral method (oralism) affects children's lives
- Children will either have hearing aids or cochlear implants (COKE-lee-er).
These are important in oralism.
That's because they help children hear as much as possible.
- Children who are oral may go to public schools.
- They may also go to schools for the deaf that use oralism. Eventually, they may go to mainstream schools.