Summer Bucket Lists For Kids With Hearing Loss

 
 

Creating a Summer Bucket in auditory verbal therapy is a listening and language-rich activity that I introduce each year to children who are deaf and hard of hearing. I begin a bucket list with listeners who have just graduated kindergarten and repeat it annually with older kids. Brainstorming for a bucket list is a terrific transition from the school year to summer break. 

There are countless listening and language goals to target and include summer vocabulary, categories, describing places, things, and events with relevant details, expressing ideas and feelings clearly, listening to others, asking and answering questions, and speaking one at a time about the topics, building on others' talk in conversations, using clear speech and more. 

Summer is a time to relax but, also an opportunity for extended learning, building language, and adventures whether in the backyard or on a vacation. Parents and kids alike enjoy thinking, talking together, dreaming, and setting summer goals with a bucket list.

How to Guiding Parents and Children When Creating a Summer Bucket List
I begin with a bucket craft made simply from construction paper and target listening and following directions. Next, I introduce printed shapes of summer categories such as a swimming pool, a playground swing, minivan, sunglasses, library book, and more. The parents write the child's goals for each category as we brainstorm and talk together. 

 
 

☀️ Summer Bucket List Categories ☀️
Places I want to visit
Things I want to see
Things I want to try
Summer foods I want to eat
Crafts I want to make
Sunny day activities
Rainy day activities
Nature activities
Playground goals
Sporting goals
Water activities
Swimming goals
Books I want to read
Reading Goals
Camping activities
Carnival rides to try
Fourth of July activities
Beach activities
Summer music concerts
Celebrations to attend
Travel plans
Road trips
Fun with friends

Auditory Egg Hunt With Localization Goals For Children That Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing

 
 

Auditory Egg Hunt with eggs that talk and call out* to give hints of their hiding spots.

Here's how to play:
➼ Hide the noise-making toy eggs.
➼ Ask, WHAT do you hear?
➼ Then, WHERE is the sound is coming from?

✧ Keep the choices simple. "Do you hear the sound near the windows or closer to the fireplace?"
✧ It is so much easier to "look and find" so this Little Listener chose to wear the no-peeking mask. He found all the eggs by localizing and through hearing alone. ❤ This took practice and is a challenging task for many.

Sound Localization
The ability to localize sounds develops over time. The earlier your child has received their bilateral cochlear implants/hearing aids, the sooner they will start picking up sound cues and gains valuable experiences localizing sounds.

Tips For Children Learning To Locate Sound Sources

- Using two different musical toys, hidden from the child’s view, locating one to the left of the child and one to the right side of the child. Then, make a sound with each instrument in varied sequence, ask your child to identify which instrument is on which side. You can do this with Mom's vs. Dad's voice as well.

- At the dinner table or while playing games help your child locate who is speaking. Your entire family can help the child learn to locate and follow the natural flow of conversation.

- Playing hide-and-seek indoors (e.g. room or house), hiding yourself, and calling out to your child to find you. This task may be varied by taking turns between hiding and searching

- Games in a group, such as “Blindman’s Buff ” or “I Spy” (with sounds), and hand-clapping games are ideal for practicing sound localization in a playful way.

Safety and Sound Localization

Teach your child that is deaf or hard of hearing to be extra alert visually in crowds, walking near cars, crossing streets, riding bicycles, and in group games. Remind your child to look for traffic and not to depend on hearing oncoming vehicles. If your child rides a bicycle, consider rear-view mirrors to help him see traffic he might not hear.

Localization GOAL with Benchmarks
GOAL: Child will auditory locate with bilateral cochlear implants or hearing aids:
- a sound presented at ear level within a 3-foot radius in front or on either side
- a sound presented at ear level within a 6-foot radius from behind
- understand and verify gross, environmental, music, or speech sounds within 9 feet, then 12 feet, and finally, within the same room in all directions.
- Understand sounds with a specific location or direction outside.

* JoJo & Friends Electronic Easter Egg Hunt by Ouaps Company

Listening Directions The Auditory Verbal Way for Kids that Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing

 
 

If you know me it's safe to say I am not a fan of worksheets of contrived directions that ask the listener to draw a green circle around the blue box. UGH!

This is how we do it in my LSL auditory verbal sessions!

Real-life fun directions that to level up and down while playing together, learning spring vocabulary, listening to natural connected speech, and take turns giving the directions to create an Easter scene.

Putting Humpty Dumpty Together Again With Kids That Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing

 
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Many traditional rhymes, like Humpty Dumpty and Jack and Jill, contain repetition which makes it easy for children with hearing loss to remember words and how they go together. Learning rhymes, fingerplays, poems, and songs are important for developing listening and language skills but also thinking skills, and early literacy skills.
Each spring near Easter, I target listening and spoken language goals using Humpty Dumpty. Together with the parents, the child learns to act out the nursery rhyme with fun toys, books, crafts, and props.

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Listening and Spoken Language Targets:

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

For preschoolers we often
- Focus on concepts that require fine auditory discrimination involving syntax such as sat/sit, fall/fell, horse/horses/ man/men.
- Talk about positional words (e.g. on, off, above, below, after, before, over, under,).
- Expand vocabulary with synonyms for broken such as break, separate, split up, fall apart, come apart.
- Have conversations and build critical thinking skills while discussing how to fix poor HUMPTY DUMPTY and sometimes try tape and bandaids.
- Talk about HUMPTY DUMPTY'S changing emotions throughout the rhyme - happy, frightened, sad, hurt, disappointed.

A Classic - Hard-Boiled Humpty Dumpty

 
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Kids love acting out HUMPTY DUMPTY by first decorating a hard-boiled egg. We sing and talk about the nursery rhyme with a shoebox wall, toy horses, and a few king's men. This is a Listen With Lynn™ auditory verbal classic activity that grown kids remember and talk about for years to come.

Humpty Dumpty Favorite Activities To Try

There are countless games and activities to include when targeting nursery rhymes. Each spring near Easter we have fun listening and talking with Humpty Dumpty. The only downfall is that families report that many of the dyed Easter eggs become Humpty Dumpty then fall, break, and cannot be repaired.

Here are links to some of my favorite activities:
HERE is a printable HUMPTY DUMPTY with story props, a mini-book, and rhyming words.

 
 

Above is a FREE App: Rhymes for Tots by Emantras that includes putting broken toys together again!
Try a simple listening and language craft and make HUMPTY DUMPTY out of a yogurt container.
My friend and colleague Dave Sindrey M.Cl.Sc., LSLS Cert. AVT has a printable Humpty Dumpty Game that kids love. Grab it HERE or at TheListeningRoom.com hosted by Advanced Bionics and Phonak.