A Sound Start For Listening - Sound Awareness, Sound Has Meaning, Discrimination and Auditory Memory

Cochlear Corporation has a free series for a sound start for listening. 

I hope  you will find the information very helpful.

Click on the links for your printables.

Sound Awareness

Sound Has Meaning

Auditory Discrimination

Auditory Memory

Absurdities: March Listening, Language and Vocabulary Building

During the month of March, 

leprechauns are very popular in my practice

 and serve as an excellent catalyst for listening, spoken language and F-U- N!

Source:http://sweetclipart.com/cute-saint-patricks-day-scene-791ion

We talk about Ireland, traditions and mischief because-

That's What Leprechauns Do

By Eve Bunting

The  leprechauns are a great way to introduce listening for absurdities. 

Listening for absurdities keeps your child’s ears perked.

Source: FotoliaMonthl.com

“Is that what I heard?” “Did I mishear?” “Was that a joke?”

During the month of March some of our school age children target

listening for and talking about "ABSURDITIES".

 This focuses on: 

Auditory Association

Auditory Comprehension

Auditory Processing and Critical Thinking Skills

  Absurdity is at the core of both critical, cause-and-effect thinking and basic humor. 

Listening For Absurdites Fun Deck and App
http://www.superduperinc.com

Research offers evidence of the value of understanding humor as a key element 

in developing higher-level language skills and complex language patterns.

 These skills are often weak for children with hearing loss without intervention.

Understanding humor is tool for promoting pragmatic language skills, social skills, communication competence,

 emotional balance and stimulating intellectual growth

 The children at the Auditory Verbal Center of Wheaton will be ready

 by the time April Fool's Day arrives.

Source: Happy Holidays2014.com 

Rx: Read to Your Child Daily - Oral Vaccine for Literacy

Jim Trelease 2014, The Read Aloud Handbook

Your Child is Not Too Old - Reading Aloud Builds Vocabularies

Parents often say, '"My child is in second grade and he already knows how to read, why should I read to him?"

And I reply, "Your child may be reading on a second-grade level, but what level is he listening at?"

Think about the language, the content and vocabulary level of the books your child reads to himself.

 Your child with hearing loss needs to be introduced to new vocabulary, 

new thoughts, new adventures and new lands that can be experienced through listening and hearing stories beyond their reading level.

Jim Trelease 2013, The Read-Aloud Handbook

Although, your child may be very successful there are some specific effects of Hearing Loss you may want to review again. Specific Effects of Hearing Loss for Children from the American Speech Language and Hearing Association (ASHA). 

Vocabulary

• Vocabulary develops more slowly in children who have hearing loss.
• Children with hearing loss learn concrete words like cat, jump, five, and red more easily than abstract words like before, after, equal to, and jealous. They also have difficulty with function words like the, an, are, and a.
• The gap between the vocabulary of children with normal hearing and those with hearing loss widens with age. Children with hearing loss do not catch up without intervention.
• Children with hearing loss have difficulty understanding words with multiple meanings. For example, the word bank can mean the edge of a stream or a place where we put money.

Sentence Structure

• Children with hearing loss comprehend and produce shorter and simpler sentences than children with normal hearing.
• Children with hearing loss often have difficulty understanding and writing complex sentences, such as those with relative clauses ("The teacher whom I have for math was sick today.") or passive voice ("The ball was thrown by Mary.")
• Children with hearing loss often cannot hear word endings such as -s or -ed. This leads to misunderstandings and misuse of verb tense, pluralization, nonagreement of subject and verb, and possessives.

Speaking

• Children with hearing loss often cannot hear quiet speech sounds such as "s," "sh," "f," "t," and "k" and therefore do not include them in their speech. Thus, speech may be difficult to understand.
• Children with hearing loss may not hear their own voices when they speak. They may speak too loudly or not loud enough. They may have a speaking pitch that is too high. They may sound like they are mumbling because of poor stress, poor inflection, or poor rate of speaking.

Academic Achievement

• Children with hearing loss have difficulty with all areas of academic achievement, especially reading and mathematical concepts.
• Children with mild to moderate hearing losses, on average, achieve one to four grade levels lower than their peers with normal hearing, unless appropriate management occurs.
• Children with severe to profound hearing loss usually achieve skills no higher than the third- or fourth-grade level, unless appropriate educational intervention occurs early.
• The gap in academic achievement between children with normal hearing and those with hearing loss usually widens as they progress through school.
• The level of achievement is related to parental involvement and the quantity, quality, and timing of the support services children receive.

Social Functioning

• Children with severe to profound hearing losses often report feeling isolated, without friends, and unhappy in school, particularly when their socialization with other children with hearing loss is limited.
• These social problems appear to be more frequent in children with a mild or moderate hearing losses than in those with a severe to profound loss.

http://www.rif.org/us/literacy-resources/articles/getting-your-child-to-love-reading.htm

http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/rah-contents.html

http://www.asha.org/public/hearing/Effects-of-Hearing-Loss-on-Development/

EXPLODE THE APP - Workshop at the 2014 AGBELL Convention

Dave Sindrey and I are presenting “EXPLODE THE APP” 

at AG Bell Conference in Orlando

 on Sunday, June 29^th at 1:00 to 2:30 pm

AG Bell 2014 Convention

June 26-30, 2014 | Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin, Orlando, Fla.

- See more at: http://listeningandspokenlanguage.org/2014Convention/#sthash.lcpecWjm.dpuf

We believe the iPad is a great tool for listening and language but works best when everybody knows the iPad belongs to Mom and Dad.

 Print the free one sheet poster from our presentation to show your child that iPad is on vacation...everybody needs a break! 

Here is your freebie!

1930: Rare footage of Helen Keller speaking with the help of Anne Sullivan.

This video comes from a 1930 television program that explains how 

Helen Keller was able to learn to communicate. 

Anne Sullivan, Helen's teacher, demonstrates her techniques that got Helen to speak.

Click HERE to view.