Encourage Flexible Language Learning in Children Who Are Deaf and Harding Of Hearing

When is the best time to buy a trampoline? Spring time.
Last week, I began my therapy sessions by showing the kids a metal spring or coil. I received puzzled looks and questions. Auditory Verbal therapy is conversational so together we talked, listened, and learned, about multiple meanings of the word spring. Little ones heard about the season of spring while older listeners learned additional meanings.

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Thinking With Language - Duck! Rabbit! Read-Aloud

 
 

Do you know the book Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal? (Ages 3-7) The simple story follows two kids as they debate whether they see a picture of a duck or a rabbit and then leave it up to the listener to decide.

Duck! Rabbit! is a "thinking with language" activity and so much fun! In LSL therapy, I introduce opinions and how to be persuasive. The parent and child must back up their final decision with at least three supporting details.

 

Recently, I was a guest reader and chose Duck! Rabbit! to read aloud.

The kids and their teacher loved it!

Auditory Comprehension Spring Matrix Games

 
 

Spring MATRIX GAMES are grab-and-go resources for building listening and language. They are auditory comprehension tools for children with hearing loss or auditory processing difficulties.

SIX THEMED MATRIX GAMES:

1. Where am I? (Outdoor locations)

2. Spring animal babies

3. On the farm

4. Outdoor play

5. Insects

6. Colored egg hunt

YOU CAN TARGET:

Auditory attention

Auditory memory

Vocabulary

Critical elements

Descriptive language

Multi-step directions

Length of utterances (MLU)

A variety of grammatical structures

Concepts of color, size, quantity, location, time/sequence


Matrices are flexible games that can be leveled up or down to meet a child’s auditory memory, comprehension, and language goals. As a child’s skill level develops add more elaborate syntactic structures, use the keywords in sentences or within simple stories.

Here is an example how Matrix One can be played.

You’ll ❤ the matrices and all the other Spring Listening and Language games and activities!

 

Humpty Dumpty and Leftover Easter Eggs

 
 

Do you have leftover hard-boiled eggs from Easter?

Then, try this rich Listening and Language Activity!

First, make Humpty Dumpty From an Easter egg. There is a whole listening and spoken language lesson in just making Humpty Dumpty from an egg. Be creative!

Then, act out Humpty Dumpty with the hard-boiled egg, toy horses, and a wall made from a block or box.

A few spokenlanguage targets:

For TODDLERS focus on "more", "uh-oh", "sit down", "fall down" "broken" talk about the horses, and more.

For PRESCHOOLERS, while re-enacting Humpty Dumpty target fine auditory discrimination involving syntax such as sat/sit, fall/fell, horse/horses/ man/men.

Talk about POSITIONAL WORDS - on, off, top, bottom, under, over above, below, before, after, before, over, under, on, off.

Expand your child's vocabulary with SYNONYMS for broken - break, separate, split up, fall apart, and come apart.

Talk about HUMPTY DUMPTY'S changing EMOTIONS throughout the nursery rhyme - happy, frightened, sad, hurt, disappointed.

CRITICAL THINKING and conversations can emerge while discussing how to repair HUMPTY DUMPTY.

Have fun listening and talking. We sure did!