26: AUDITORY-VERBAL THERAPY (AVT) AND EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE (EBP)

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: EBP as conscientious and clear use is considered the best evidence in making decisions about patients. The auditory-verbal approach is a communication model through which parents and professionals can identify the deaf children. According to EBP, there are 3 required hypotheses of evidence-based practices in auditory-verbal approach; 1. Evidence-based research: systematic researches; 2. Clinical skills: enjoying all the specialists' experiences, who worked on this issue; 3. Stakeholder perspectives: including families preferences, specialists, and financial resources. All these hypotheses are required to conduct evidence-based practices. METHODS: The methodology used in this sectional paper is descriptive-analytical on the basis of auditory-verbal approach and the basics of evidence-based practices. Twenty children with hearing loss, aged 6-8 years old, who used both audio hearing aid and cochlear implant, were selected as samples. It took 1 year to study the samples. Individual 20-minute sessions were held twice a week by speech therapists, psychologists, and audiologists. Group meetings were held twice a week by the trainers of the children with hearing loss. The children's parents participated in the meetings once a week and the mothers were trained how to interact with children by speech therapist. Once a month, the therapist went to their home and controlled the family's interaction with the child. Using TOLD-3, the linguistic indicators of the children were assessed before and after research. RESULTS: 80% of the children reached a language development level as that of normal children. Considerable development could be seen in receptive language within the first 6 months and in expressive language within the second 6 months. CONCLUSION: the auditory-verbal approach is a legitimate communication approach for the deaf children or those with different hearing loss severity, regardless of the hearing aids.