IntroductionIn the article “Is auditory-verbal therapy effective for children with hearing loss?” a multidisciplinary team, Dornan et al. (2010), sought to design and execute a longitudinal study that explored whether auditory-verbal therapy (AVT) is effective in treating children with hearing loss, especially regarding academic success. The team cites several articles showing both positive and negative empirical evidence for AVT longitudinally; however, they state that these studies were conducted without consistent procedures or appropriate standardization and without control groups. The researchers looked for evidence to show whether AVT showed promising results in five parameters over 50 months. The five parameters were listening, spoken language, reading, mathematics and self-esteem. Dornan et al. hypothesis (2010) hypothesized that if a well-designed longitudinal study is performed on children with hearing loss treated with AVT, the outcome will support the previously sought positive outcomes. Method The study was designed with two matched groups: an AVT group and a typical hearing group. (TH) group. Groups of participants were matched based on the following parameters: “total language, receptive vocabulary, gender, and socioeconomic level (measured by the education level of the head of the household)” (Dornan, Hickson, Murdoch, Houston, & Constantinescu, 2010) The process of Matching ended with 19 participants matched in each group. It was noted that the chronological age did not match due to the rationale that a typical hearing child may have more advanced language development than a deaf peer. However, participants were chosen only from families with the highest level of education achieved by the midpoint of the document. I wholeheartedly agree that restrictions on socioeconomic status should be broadened for future research, as we have learned in so many of our lectures and texts that higher socioeconomic status generally leads to a lower risk of developmental delay and less “word gap,” as Dr. Stiegler put it. he would say. Children from a higher socioeconomic class, especially where parents have had access to higher education, tend to be more exposed to a variety of vocabulary which usually results in a larger mental lexicon. I would like to see more research in areas (like ours) where most children receive early intervention, but most of the services they receive are in public school. References Dornan, D., Hickson, L., Murdoch, B., Houston , T., & Constantinescu, G. (2010). Is auditory-verbal therapy effective for children with hearing loss? The Volta magazine, 361-387.