Humor and Listening and Spoken Language Learning

Put your toddler in a bathtub with no water or give them a juice box without a straw. Read a book upside down to your preschooler or serve ice cream sundaes for dinner. April Fools! 

Silly faces, peekaboo, and unexpected tickles connect toddlers and parents.  Funny business, like silly words to a song or wearing underwear as a hat tickles a child’s sense of humor. Plan fun April Fool’s pranks to create a reason for your child to think, listen and talk.

Kid’s get a kick out of talking about silly situations. Slapstick humor leads to understanding riddles, knock-knock jokes, puns and even sarcasm for older kids. Humor is evidence of brain development and growing listening, spoken language and social skills.

Overused Questions

“What color is that?”

Your child is likely thinking, “It’s red. 

You know that!  

So why are you asking?”  

Why as parents do we ask the same boring, overused questions?

Try saying things like,

“I like the colors you used”. 

“It looks like you loved drawing this picture.”

“Draw something that makes you happy.”.

It is easy and important to turn your questions into comments to foster two-way conversations. 

St. Patty's Day and Early Descriptive Language Learnng

St. Patrick’s Day is all about leprechauns, pots of gold and colorful rainbows. 

But did you know that there is little need to talk about COLORS with your child who is deaf or hard of hearing?  

Once your child uses COLORS to describe they become the easy go-to adjective.

A red apple, the yellow sun, a green frog… 

Children easily learn the colors and then commonly over-use color words in their spoken language learning.

Rather model, expand and talk with your child by describing how the frog hops, has big eyes and can swim in the water.

Isn't this more language-rich than describing the frog is green?

1, 2, 3, FOR ME! Shamrock Game

Listen, find 3 things that are living, things with a hole, things that are lucky... and explain why. Give your child a turn to think of and ask the categories. 

Any little trinkets and toys will do! 

Best of luck!

President's Day and Preschool Listening and Spoken Language Fun

Introduce your child to the Presidents in a way that sparks their curiosity. 

Talk about the coins in your pocket. 

Sort the money in piles by size, color, President’s faces and if they are clean or dirty. Separate the dirty pennies and use vinegar and salt to clean and polish them. 

Talk about what is different/same about the pennies. Make it easy for your child to start a conversation and go back and forth a few times.

Finally, have your child count the pennies and add them to their piggy bank.

Cochlear Celebration 2019

I spy a couple teens I know 👋🏼👋🏼. 

Can’t wait to hear about Cochlear Celebration 2019 ! 

Thanks for the pic!

AV Graduate living the LSL Life!

LSL Leads to Beautiful Destinaitons

Enjoyable brunch with Ally, one of my Auditory Verbal graduates and her Mom Lisa. Unstoppable Ally, a high school senior has already been accepted at her 1st choice university. Grateful that your parents allowed me to guide them along the LSL (listening and spoken language) journey. We’ve come a long way together but challenging roads lead to beautiful destinations. 

(We really should have taken our photo before walking out the door.)