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Auditory-Oral Method (Oralism): Learning to Read Lips and Speak

Read this page to learn what it is, and if it's right for your child.

What the auditory-oral method is

The word auditory (AU-di-tor-ee) refers to the ears and hearing. The word oral (O-ral) refers to the mouth and speaking.
The auditory-oral method teaches children to do these things:
- Talk
- Use their hearing as much as they can.
- Read lips.
- Use other clues to understand what people are saying.
The auditory-oral method of communication is also called oralism (O-ral-is-um). That's because it teaches children to talk and to read lips.

How learning the auditory-oral method (oralism) affects children's lives

Children will either have hearing aids or cochlear implants (COKE-lee-er). These are important in oralism.
That's because they help children hear as much as possible.
Children who are oral may go to public schools.
They may also go to schools for the deaf that use oralism. Eventually, they may go to mainstream schools.

What other parents say
Read our Parent Talk page to see what parents said about the communication method they chose.

Learn more about the auditory-oral method.

"Educational Approach" talks about auditory-oralism's goals, problems and its good and bad points.
"Something to talk about: Spoken Language Approaches for Children with Hearing Loss" explains different ways of teaching children to talk.