There are approximately 7,200 deaf children under the age of 5 in the UK. They currently face the prospect of lower academic achievement, lower employment, and are at higher risk of poor mental health, bullying and social exclusion. But it doesn’t need to be this way.

When children and families have access to effective, early support, deaf children can get an equal start at school and opportunities are transformed.  AVUK was founded in 2003 to raise expectations for deaf children and since that time has worked with over 1,000 families supporting deaf children and babies to learn to listen and speak. AVUK does this through a family-centred coaching programme, called Auditory Verbal therapy.  This approach equips parents and carers with the tools to support the development of their deaf child’s speech and language.

Around 80% of children who attend the AVUK programme for at least two years achieve the same spoken language as hearing children. 

“AVUK was a safe and welcoming environment where

we could share our concerns with people who knew

what our son was going through and were best

positioned to help him.

It gave us support, it gave us answers and it gave us

techniques that we could apply every day to support

our child.”

“I believe that AVUK’s aspirational and personalised approach can literally be life-changing for deaf children and their families.”

AVUK is the only UK charity offering parents and carers specialist family-centred Auditory Verbal support. They believe all families who want their deaf child to develop spoken language should have that choice.  That is why they are embarking on a 10-year plan to enable all families who want their child to learn to listen and talk, to be able to access Auditory Verbal therapy through publicly funded services. They need to raise £2m per year to make that vision a reality.

To find out more about AVUK and how our partnership is helping deaf children across the UK visit their website.

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