The 4 Ls: Listening, Language, Literacy, Life-long Learning
Language
In the August installment we looked at the primary importance of listening. The necessity of providing your child with early access to all the sounds of spoken language throughout his waking hours was discussed.
Now we look at language. Spoken language, comparable to that of peers with typical hearing, is most probably your goal. You want your child to communicate comfortably and effectively with family, friends and the wider world.
We think of language in two ways. First, there is receptive language. Receptive language is what your child comprehends through listening. You can gain knowledge of this by asking your child to collect or point to objects or to perform actions with objects. For example, from your Ling sounds toys: “I want the airplane that goes, ahhh.” At a higher level, “Get your shoes and hat.” Receptive language will lead the way, particularly in early times as your child will show understanding for more than he is saying.
What the child says to you spontaneously is expressive language. That starts with the earliest vowels and consonants, to babble, to word approximations, to words and word combinations and to sentences of increasing complexity.
If your child has good access to spoken sounds as we discussed in the listening section, you will use a variety of strategies to encourage him to “use his words.” You will expect vocalization. You will model words and word combinations. You will expand on his spoken language to encourage him to build auditory memory and add more grammatical structures and syntactical elements to his speech.
As always, build and work with your team of professionals. Work with your audiologist to ensure that the current status of your child’s hearing and his access to sound with technology are providing adequate information for the development of spoken language. Make sure your early interventionist, speech-language pathologist or educational specialist are each specifically qualified, through experience and additional certifications, to work with children who are deaf or hard of hearing to develop spoken language.
Language
In the August installment we looked at the primary importance of listening. The necessity of providing your child with early access to all the sounds of spoken language throughout his waking hours was discussed.
Now we look at language. Spoken language, comparable to that of peers with typical hearing, is most probably your goal. You want your child to communicate comfortably and effectively with family, friends and the wider world.
We think of language in two ways. First, there is receptive language. Receptive language is what your child comprehends through listening. You can gain knowledge of this by asking your child to collect or point to objects or to perform actions with objects. For example, from your Ling sounds toys: “I want the airplane that goes, ahhh.” At a higher level, “Get your shoes and hat.” Receptive language will lead the way, particularly in early times as your child will show understanding for more than he is saying.
What the child says to you spontaneously is expressive language. That starts with the earliest vowels and consonants, to babble, to word approximations, to words and word combinations and to sentences of increasing complexity.
If your child has good access to spoken sounds as we discussed in the listening section, you will use a variety of strategies to encourage him to “use his words.” You will expect vocalization. You will model words and word combinations. You will expand on his spoken language to encourage him to build auditory memory and add more grammatical structures and syntactical elements to his speech.
As always, build and work with your team of professionals. Work with your audiologist to ensure that the current status of your child’s hearing and his access to sound with technology are providing adequate information for the development of spoken language. Make sure your early interventionist, speech-language pathologist or educational specialist are each specifically qualified, through experience and additional certifications, to work with children who are deaf or hard of hearing to develop spoken language.