Polar Bear, Silly Directions and Listening and Spoken Language Therapy Plans

What are your LSL therapy plans for this week?

We are reading, listening, and learning along with the animals in the classic story "Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear?”, then playing one of my favorites the Silly Directions game?

Silly Directions is an active listening and spoken language game for children of many ages and stages that can be leveled up or down to meet their needs. This game gets kids listening, moving, thinking, and learning.

The directions are designed to be fast, fun, and effective for children who are deaf and hard of hearing and for others who can benefit from practicing listening skills. Kids can expand their receptive language, increase their auditory working memory and processing skills while being engaged and active. 

This game can help children learn to: 

• follow auditory directions

• recall and process directions

• 'chunk' auditory information

• remember critical elements in sequential order

• use compound and more complex sentences 

• ask for clarification if they have trouble remembering

• expand vocabulary:

Silly Directions can target:

- Similes - Children learn comparisons with similes. Similes use the words like or as to compare things —“Arch your back LIKE a cat.”

- Adjectives - Children hear and build vocabulary while naming the objects. They learn the adjectives that describe the objects — a BOTTLE of ketchup, a MONARCH butterfly, a GARDEN hose…

- Body Parts - Children hear and expand the names of body parts — forehead, waist, chin…

Look inside the Silly Directions Game

Favorite Stories And Genres To Read With Your Child For World Book Day

🌎 April 23rd is WORLD BOOK DAY! 🌎  Explore stories from a variety of genres with your child to expand vocabulary and their depth of LSL learning. Try some of my favorite stories below.

📘 PREDICTABLE books with repetitive phrases and strong patterns like Going On A Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen are key for children learning to read.

📙 PARTICIPATION books like Clap Your Hands by Lorinda Bryan Caulery foster listening and following directions.

 📕 RHYMING books such as Is Your Mama a Llama? by Deborah Guarino target listening to sounds in words.

 📗 PICTURE books illustrations often provide information, not in the text. Encourage your child to comment and talk about illustrations in books such as Quick as a Cricket by Don and Audrey Wood.

📘 INFORMATIONAL books are non-fiction and introduce new topics. Dinosaur Bones by Bob Barner is filled with facts, rhyming text, and cool illustrations.

Oh Dear! I Cannot Hear! Celebrating Dr. suess’s Birthday March 2nd

I often use this Dr. Suess quote as an introduction when presenting at school in-services for children in my LSL auditory verbal caseload. It's an ice-breaker that teachers, administrators, staff, and parents all relate to and come together over their love of Dr. Suess. It launches the discussion of each of our roles in helping the child with hearing loss have auditory access at school and helping classmates understand hearing loss.

Oh dear, oh dear! I cannot hear.

Will you please come over near?

Will you please look in my ear?

There must be something there, I fear.

Say look! A bird was in your ear.

But he is out. So have no fear.

Again your ear can hear, my dear.

One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish is a book written by Dr. Seuss in 1960.

Deanna at Listening Fun shares Teacher In-service Training Tips. She is an Itinerant Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and also an Auditory Verbal Ed. Mentee. Learn from Deanna at ListeningFun.com

Pamela Talbot, M.Ed, CCC-SLP, C.E.D, LSLS-Cert AVT offers a recorded PowerPoint, Mainstreaming a Child With Hearing Loss: This one-hour recorded presentation was created to in-service members of a school team who work with a student with hearing loss who is learning through listening and spoken language.

Pam is a dear long-term friend of mine who holds certification as a Listening and Spoken Language Specialist/Auditory Verbal Therapist. Pamela is recognized as a global consultant, presenter, and professional trainer in the fields of language development, parent training, hearing loss, cochlear implants, and aural habilitation. Learn from Pam at LanguageLaunchers.com

Deanna and Pam are fellow authors of games, activities, and resources for children with hearing loss and the professionals that love them at TeachersPayTeachers.com

My Autumn Book - Listening and Language Reading Aloud Tips

My Autumn Book by Wong Herbert Yee is one of my favorite fall read-aloud stories to build Listening and Spoken Language (LSL) and literacy skills for young children who are deaf and hard of hearing. Here are some tips to try with your own child or in a therapy session or school lesson.

L - LANGUAGE

It's a rhyming story of an adventurous child with spectacular illustrations and vivid descriptions that build vocabulary.
➼. TRY THIS: Talk about trees. Expand vocabulary to include the ginkgo, willow, elm, birch, and beech trees. Notice the descriptions. "Oak change into a suit of rust-brown. Ash cloaked in yellow. Maple wears red. Aspen, a crown of gold on its head."

S - STORY ACTIVITY

The child has a trusty backpack with a camera, pencil, and sketchbook to record and keep her treasures.
➼ TRY THIS: Go on a walk. Collect leaves, feathers, acorns then help the child make their own "autumn book".

L - LISTENING

➼ TRY THIS: Encourage the child to sit and attend to the broad vocabulary and deep content of this delightful book. They may even become better listeners in school.
The story mentions cicadas, squirrels hoarding nuts, temperature changes, and countless things young kids are beginning to notice without feeling like it's complicated or overly educational.

Happy birthday USA - Growing Vocabulary in Auditory Verbal Therapy With Kids With Hearing Loss

Reading aloud patriotic picture books introduces new vocabulary and grows background knowledge about our country. Growing vocabulary is important for listening, language, speaking skills, reading, writing, and countless academic skills.

Ideas to try:

🇺🇸 Play, I Spy American flags. Count the 13 stripes. Talk about the 13 stripes stand for the 13 original colonies. The fifty stars for our 50 states.

🇺🇸 Look at a quarter with an eagle. Talk about its strength, size, and that it is our national bird. Find George Washington, our first President too.

🇺🇸 Sing together patriotic songs. March to parade music.

🇺🇸 Go to a 4th of July parade

🇺🇸 Check out library books or shop on Amazon during July and learn about America