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

July 4th, Fireworks and Fireflies in Auditory Verbal Therapy With Kids With Hearing Loss

THE VERY LONELY FIREFLY by Eric Carle is one of my favorite books to read with little listeners in auditory verbal intervention before the 🎇 fireworks display on the 4th of July.

Why? You wonder.

✨ It's a simple story about a very lonely firefly that goes out into the night searching for other fireflies. It sees a lantern, headlights, the eyes of a cat, and an owl ... all glowing in the darkness and then the 🎇 FIREWORKS in the sky!

✨ The book ties new vocabulary and non-fiction facts about fireflies which expands background knowledge and facilitates listening comprehension

✨ It’s great for story sequencing and kids love retelling the story with the firefly finger puppet

✨ Repetition is important for listening and language development and the sentence “The firefly saw a light and flew towards it.” and “But it was not another firefly it was a…..” repeats throughout the story.

✨ The lights of the firefly, flashlight, headlights, reflection of the cat’s eyes... and the 🎇 FIREWORKS together make connections between the story and what the child experiences on Independence Day.

If you don’t have trinkets and engaging manipulative to use in the story no worries. Beautiful stories paper props are available for free download from Kizclub.com

Summer In A Can - A Classic Auditory Verbal Therapy Activity

Summer in A Can is one of my classic LSL auditory verbal therapy activities that really get kids talking and sharing while focusing on time elements and past tense storytelling skills. Kids relish collecting and filling their can with memories and treasures and have no idea they are growing listening and spoken language skills.

You’ll Need an empty plastic or metal coffee can. If the child wants to make the can personal, they can wrap it in construction paper and decorate it.

Directions The child collects mementos from summer adventures and keeps them in their can. A seashell from the beach, a feather from a bird, a rock from a hike, pictures from a brochure, a ticket stub, a toy car that reminds them of a road trip, or anything to jog memories. If they begin early in the summer and they will have a can full of memories.

Summer in A Can is an easy and rich activity to build spoken language skills all summer long.

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

"I'm BORED!" Here's Help For Kids With Hearing Loss

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This mini-poster is a terrific home and family resource to post on your fridge. It provides ideas for kids to find something to do and bust the boredom! This was originally created at the beginning of the Covid and long months of quarantine but serves a great purpose especially as the long dog days of summer begin.

If this isn't helpful, you can try what I did when my girls when were young. If they couldn't find something worthwhile to do I would happily assign chores. 😉 Parenting is hard but remember that you are your child's first and best teacher. Even on your worst day, ninety percent of parenting is being there. So, good for you. You’re doing a great job.

Remember it may be hard for kids to decide what to do because their time is usually so structured that they aren’t used to much “free time” and finding fun things to do. School typically takes up much of their days and downtime is often screen time. Thus, many children and teens aren’t experienced in looking inside themselves for direction. If there is no one to play with they may have not yet discovered things they like to do by themselves. 

Parenting is hard but remembers that you are your child's first and best teacher.
Even on your worst day, ninety percent of parenting is being there.
So, good for you. You’re doing a great job!

❤ You'll love all the Listen With Lynn FREE resources including the Boredom Buster reminder!  

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