WHAT DISTINGUISHES THE CERT. AVT FROM OTHER THERAPISTS?

(Expanded upon and adapted from Marian Ernst)

1. Regardless of the child's severity of hearing loss, the Cert. AVT (Certified Auditory-Verbal Therapist) focuses on the use of sound (audition) as the primary channel for learning and gaining meaning from the environment, and bases the auditory-verbal approach on well-defined principles of treatment.
     
2. The Cert. AVT is a cross-disciplinarian clinician. Skills are drawn from three primary professions: audiology, speech-language, and education of the deaf, with sound knowledge of other professions including, but not limited to, otology, sensorimotor integration, child development, psychology, family therapy. The Cert. AVT is not a team member in the sense that s/he represents one of these professions singly, but rather has a body of knowledge beyond any single one of these primary professions. S/he has cross-disciplinary skills and is trained to monitor a larger field of development and functioning than do most individuals from any one of these three professions.
     
3. AVT is an international profession represented by Auditory-Verbal International (AVI) and has certified members in eight countries and four continents. Few professions have any kind of an international certification.