Oralism - Technique used with deaf children in which the use of sign languages such as American Sign Language (ASL) etc. is discouraged, emphasizing listening and lip-reading. Its use was greatly encouraged by the Milano Congress of the International Congress on the Education of the Deaf in1880, and is still used in some countries, such as India.

Auditory/Oral
Educational Approach

Goal:
The goal of the auditory methods is to teach a child how to use his residual hearing so that he may have access to spoken language. There is often a lot of confusion about how much the Deaf actually "hear", due to those with more or less severe hearing loss being placed in the same learning environment as those born deaf. The children born deaf are the least successful when it comes to lip-reading and "learning to listen", and are therefore considered to be the class idiots. Those that have a memory of having once heard spoken language (i.e., became deaf after having heard, or are only "more or less" deaf) are the success cases lifted forth by the Oralist schools to prove that their methods of teaching are correct.

It is really sad to see little Deaf kids in deaf schools in India with their "hearing aids" attempting to understand spoken languages, be it Hindi or another of the 15 official languages of India.

Auditory Training:

Auditory/verbal (AV) training only trains the child to use his residual hearing.  Children that have successful AV training tend to be completely mainstreamed into hearing society. This is of course only an alternative for children that do hear something, i.e., not for those born deaf.

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