Strategy: Auditory Sandwich
When children with atypical hearing are learning to listen and talk, it is extremely important that adults work to develop listening skills for the child first to take full advantage of neuroplasticity* in the auditory cortex.
The auditory sandwich means that the child is given a message first through audition only. If the child responds appropriately, great! You can respond with “Good Listening.” If the child doesn’t respond correctly, you offer more support. (Explanation to follow). Once the child has made his best attempt, you repeat the original message so that the correct and complete message is the last thing he hears.
Auditory sandwich is a term used widely in the field. However, I prefer “Circle of Listening” (Susan G. Allen) as it elaborates more on the supports to be used. In the circle of listening, the adult provides an original auditory message. If the child does not respond appropriately, the adult prompts the child by calling his name and saying, “Listen.” That way joint attention is assured. If the child still cannot respond, the adult attempts to provide more auditory support by “chunking” (breaking the message into smaller grammatical units), by “highlighting” (emphasizing words the child missed) and/or by rephrasing (changing the wording to more familiar structures or vocabulary). If the child still cannot respond, the adult offers visual support such as a gesture or picture or object. At any time in the process that this interaction is complete, the adult once again says the original auditory target.
Your original auditory message (target) should be carefully chosen. You are working to scaffold with the child to build more complex skills. Work within the child’s proximal zone of development. Use what the child knows and take a step up with your target. This will lead to greater success for you and the child. Sometimes you have to move on without reaching your target. That may mean you overreached a bit, or it may mean you have lost joint attention with the child because of other distractions. It happens. Take a break and move on. Try again later.
Why is this strategy so important?
* Check the strategies menu to learn more about neuroplasticity.
When children with atypical hearing are learning to listen and talk, it is extremely important that adults work to develop listening skills for the child first to take full advantage of neuroplasticity* in the auditory cortex.
The auditory sandwich means that the child is given a message first through audition only. If the child responds appropriately, great! You can respond with “Good Listening.” If the child doesn’t respond correctly, you offer more support. (Explanation to follow). Once the child has made his best attempt, you repeat the original message so that the correct and complete message is the last thing he hears.
Auditory sandwich is a term used widely in the field. However, I prefer “Circle of Listening” (Susan G. Allen) as it elaborates more on the supports to be used. In the circle of listening, the adult provides an original auditory message. If the child does not respond appropriately, the adult prompts the child by calling his name and saying, “Listen.” That way joint attention is assured. If the child still cannot respond, the adult attempts to provide more auditory support by “chunking” (breaking the message into smaller grammatical units), by “highlighting” (emphasizing words the child missed) and/or by rephrasing (changing the wording to more familiar structures or vocabulary). If the child still cannot respond, the adult offers visual support such as a gesture or picture or object. At any time in the process that this interaction is complete, the adult once again says the original auditory target.
Your original auditory message (target) should be carefully chosen. You are working to scaffold with the child to build more complex skills. Work within the child’s proximal zone of development. Use what the child knows and take a step up with your target. This will lead to greater success for you and the child. Sometimes you have to move on without reaching your target. That may mean you overreached a bit, or it may mean you have lost joint attention with the child because of other distractions. It happens. Take a break and move on. Try again later.
Why is this strategy so important?
- The child needs to believe he can learn through listening if the goal is for him to enter a mainstream classroom with typically hearing peers. Children want to “blend” and be accepted. A child who does not trust his ability to learn through listening will begin to rely on visual support and just look around to see what others are doing. This will lead to missing out on parts of a message and will prevent the child from learning higher level listening skills that are so important to academic success.
- Pitch, duration, and intensity, which are important aspects of typical speech and language, are not visually apparent. These are best taught through listening helping the child develop melodic speech and sound pragmatics.
- Returning to the original auditory signal after additional supports provides the child with a final “listen” to the target and a redundant message to support scaffolding.
- This strategy is also important as a diagnostic teaching tool. If the child is having significant difficulties, make sure you have provided an appropriate target. If you have, a referral to the audiologist is suggested. Young children, especially, are not accurate reporters for a lack of access due to a change in hearing status.
* Check the strategies menu to learn more about neuroplasticity.