Anthony Alfano Halloween Superstar and Auditory Therapy Graduate

Christmas 2017

I began working together with the Alfano family when Anthony was an infant. Anthony is an amazing cheerful child who has cerebral palsy and Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder (ANSD). Anthony hears with his cochlear implant and communicates with his great big smile and an eye gaze speech-generating augmentative communication system.

Make My Chair Disappear

Each Halloween Anthony's dad Tony designs and makes one of a kind costumes for Anthony's wheelchair. Ten-year-old Anthony Alfano was in the Blue Man Group this year! Anthony’s mom Deanna authored, a children's picture book chronicling Anthony’s elaborate homemade Halloween costumes entitled Make My Chair Disappear. The Alfano family has been invited to classrooms all over Chicagoland to share the book and hear his story. Last Halloween in 2018, Anthony, a viral video star reached 42 million people with his Beetlejuice costume. In 2017, Anthony was a guest of Vanna White’s and was flown to the west coast with his Wheel of Fortune costume.

Amazon.com

Follow anthonyalfano_official on Instagram.

The HearSayLW Blog Has A New Home

On a whim, in 2014, I began writing content that became the HearSayLW blog. My purpose was to share auditory verbal resources, daily activities, fun games and content with families in my private practice. In no time, I had followers from around the globe, both families and professionals. My blog filled a need for readers that were seeking knowledge about auditory access, hearing technology and the listening and spoken language journey.

To date, I’ve written 617 posts for HearSayLW, published 479 of those and have 138 drafts in my inbox. Many of you have been following for years, so thank you for sticking around. It’s been so much fun and the BEST is yet to come. The HearSayLW blog is on my new website www.HearSayLW.com and is living alongside my newest venture Listen With Lynn™ LSL tools for parents and professionals. I will continue to blog about LSL topics and activities many of which will be available for download.

I’d love to hear suggestions and your ideas for LSL product development and creation that will inspire listening, spoken language, literacy, and auditory processing therapy materials for children and adult auditory rehabilitation resources.

HearSayLW.com established 2014

ANNOUNCING Listen With Lynn™ Launched October 2019.

Beyond my love of direct therapy, I have an affinity for resource design, practical professional development, and guiding and coaching families. I launched Listen With Lynn™ is an online store offering a growing suite of Listening and Spoken Language tools, resources and activities for parents and professionals.

The resources are for:

• Families - Fun listening and spoken language activities, games, songs and play ideas for babies, preschoolers, and school-age children

• Teens and adults - Engaging and motivating auditory rehab activities and lessons based on real-life experiences and communication situations

• For professionals LSL tools and resources for your lessons or sessions.

These resources are designed to complement and not replace early intervention, auditory verbal therapy, school-based teacher of the deaf lessons or auditory rehabilitation.

Let my years of experience and my resources assist, encourage and make your listening and spoken language journey easier. See the products available now at my Listen With Lynn™ Shop and check back soon!

Listen With™ Lynn

Chicago Walk 4 Hearing - September 28th

Let's Connect

I'm volunteering this year at the Chicago Walk 4 Hearing refreshment  booth.

Stop by, get a cool drink and a snack.  

Introduce yourself and let's chat!

Do Listening and Spoken Language (LSL) Techniques and Strategies Only Benefit Babies and Toddlers?

Recently, I replied to this question from a Teacher of the Deaf 

Q: Can Listening and Spoken Language (LSL) Techniques and Strategies benefit children in the classroom who are 5 and up?  Many of the webinars I've seen the focus is on therapy for babies and toddlers, so I'm curious as to how these techniques will translate to a class of 4-9 school-aged children. I really want to ensure that my students are ready for inclusion settings/mainstream classes.

A: My reply to a great question

I am positive LSL techniques and strategies are beneficial to school-aged students and others! 

My LSL caseload has predominately been with families of babies through kindergarten. However, I have guided families of older children who continued to require intervention for many reasons such as those transitioning from a visual system such as Cued Speech, those identified late such as cross-cultural adoptions, others with autism, hearing loss plus other disabilities and so on.  The same LSL strategies and techniques (Audition First, Auditory Sandwich, What Did You Hear? Etc.)  which place emphasis on learning spoken language through listening apply to all ages with a wide range of needs and goals. I have provided LSL intervention to improve auditory skills and receptive language of children who are non-verbal and those on augmentative communication devices. The same LSL strategies and techniques can be effective when incorporated with teens and adults in post CI rehabilitation.  These LSL techniques can be powerful as a part of therapy for individuals with auditory processing disorders. So unequivocally yes!