Mission

Auditory Verbal UK (AVUK) is an award-winning UK charity that supports deaf babies and children to learn to listen and speak, transforming their lives and ensuring they are healthy, happy and learning. AVUK Impact Most deaf children have the potential to learn to listen and speak, as well as a hearing child. When deaf children have access to effective and early support their opportunities in life are transformed. 80% of children who spend two years on the charity’s Auditory Verbal programme achieve the same spoken language as their hearing peers; most achieve this by the time they start school and many attend mainstream schools. There are currently around 7,200 deaf children under the age of five in the UK but 92% of these cannot currently access Auditory Verbal programmes due to very limited publicly funded services. Without access to skilled early support, deaf children face a lifetime of disadvantage and continue to be at risk of lower academic achievement, poorer employment prospects and at higher risk of bullying and social exclusion. But we can change this. Future Vision AVUK wants to create transformational change so that deaf children in the UK to have same opportunities as hearing children – our goal is for Auditory Verbal therapy to be available within the NHS and publicly funded services by 2032, while also delivering direct support to the most vulnerable children and families, to ensure all deaf children under the age of 5 in the UK have the opportunity to access an Auditory Verbal programme close to where they live without the barrier of cost Currently, we are not reaching some of the most vulnerable children in areas of high deprivation and this needs to change. Despite offering up to 100% bursaries for low-income families, unless parents and communities are aware that we exist, we cannot help them, meaning deaf and vulnerable children may acquire language skills at half the rate of their hearing peers and start primary school with the language of a 2 ½ year old.

Category

Disability

Additional Information

You can find out more through our strategy outline. Here is also a link to our Power Of Speech event where you can listen to deaf children speak of their experience with our therapy.