The Provision of Auditory Verbal Therapy in Scotland

That the Parliament acknowledges the importance of early and effective support to develop language and communication for all deaf children, whether their families choose to communicate with spoken language, sign language or both; recognises the outcomes and opportunities for deaf children, whose families want them to learn to listen and talk, with auditory verbal therapy; understands that early support with auditory verbal therapy can significantly improve long-term outcomes for deaf children, enabling them to attain the same educational outcomes as their hearing peers; further understands that there are significant savings for Scotland, the NHS, local services, mental health support services and other services resulting from auditory verbal therapy; acknowledges reports that there are around 600 deaf children under five in Scotland who could benefit from auditory verbal therapy; calls on the Scottish Government to expand the number of speech and language therapists and teachers of the deaf working in health and education services who are qualified in auditory verbal practice, and further calls on the Scottish Government to commit to ensuring that all deaf children in Scotland have the opportunity to access auditory verbal therapy through existing public services.