The verbotonal method for management of young, hearing-impaired children

The verbotonal method is effective for establishing good spoken language and listening skills. It is based on a developmental model of normal-hearing children, and emphasizes the importance of developing good rhythm, intonation and voice quality in hearing-impaired children. Specifically trained teachers/clinicians are combined with high quality amplification and vibrotactile input with System Universal Verbotonal Audition Guberina units. These units provide a wide frequency response with the option of modifying the frequency response through the cutoff frequency and slopes of filters to emphasize the optimal field of hearing of each hearing-impaired child. Through intensive intervention the rhythm and intonation patterns and the listening skills develop simultaneously. The goal is to integrate hearing-impaired children into regular educational and social situations. The integration rates are between 60 and 90%. The parents role is more supportive than therapeutic, and is designed to meet the needs and skills of each parent.