World Emoji Day and Listening and Language Ideas For Kids With Hearing Loss

Happy 😊 World Emoji Day! The word “emoji” is made up of two different words: 'e' for picture and ‘moji’ is for character. Emojis attempt to fill the space when written communication happens virtually.

Kids ❤️ emojis and so do we! My Emoji cookie cutters and play dough is a fun activity for kids with hearing loss learning to listen and talk.

Try these ideas for growing listening and language with emojis.

1. 😊 For little listeners, emojis are a great way to target emotions, happy, sad, surprised...

2. Can the child listen 🦻🏼 (don't look) to a phrase of identical words and identify the intended emotion?

Where is my 🐶 puppy? - 😊 Happy tone 🦻🏼

Where is my 🐶 puppy? -🤨 Angry tone 🦻🏼

Where is my 🐶 puppy? -🥺 Scared tone 🦻🏼

3. World Emoji Day It's a great way to begin a discussion about different ways people communicate, even across language barriers, and how we express sentiment.

Do you have a favorite emoji? What ones do you use most frequently?

Visit my Listen With Lynn store for games, activities, and resources for children that are deaf and hard of hearing learning to listen and talk.

Relax Enjoy Summer - Listening And Spoken Language Activities For Kids With Hearing Loss

Listen, Riddle & Rhyme is a mini-lesson and a competitive game that uses the excitement of summer while players build auditory skills, solve riddles with rhyming clues and learn summertime vocabulary. 

The object of the game is for kids to:
- Listen to a category clue. (e.g., a biting insect)
- Listen to a rhyming word clue. (e.g., burrito)
- Auditorily recall both clues, process, think and then name a related summer word.
(A biting insect that rhymes with burrito is a mosquito.) 🦟

Summer fun that targets
☀️ word knowledge
☀️ categories
☀️ rhyming
☀️ listening for details
☀️ inferences
☀️ critical thinking
☀️ auditory processing
☀️ auditory closure
☀️ auditory memory
☀️ auditory comprehension

Try this riddle!
Listen and think of a summer drink that rhymes with 🍋 lemonade? 
You got it! 🦻🏽 A hearing aid!

🌴 Relax. 🍹 Enjoy Summer. ⛱️ LSL Resources Ready To Go!
Listen and Draw At The Pool
Summer Idioms Listen and Learn
Summer Vocabulary Flexible Language Game
Summer Auditory Comprehension Listen, Search & Find Games
Buzz Off! Listening, Language and Vocabulary Builder 5 Games In One
Self-Advocacy Scenarios - Turning Lemons Into Lemonade
Summer Auditory Skills Summer - No Prep Found Sounds - Outdoor Listening
Four Auditory Comprehension Listen, Search & Find Games For Summer

At The Pool - Listening and Language Tips For Kids With Hearing Loss

Summer and swimming go hand in hand for many families with young children. The opportunity for maximizing listening and spoken language LSL learning is immense for water-loving families. Early each summer, I guide parents as we brainstorm LSL goals to target with their child while enjoying the pool and related activities. The children’s ages and goals dictate the activities and strategies. I also help families understand and take advantage of water-resistant hearing technology and related gear/equipment.

For home-based LSL intervention, the backyard plastic pool is equally as effective as play-based clinic therapy with a container of water and pool-themed manipulatives. I am fortunate to have a Fisher-Price Little People pool. Countless children have loved listening, learning, and playing with this set over the years. I recently saw that this pool is available on ETSY for only $129.93 😳 . My husband says, SELL IT! but that’s not going to happen!

TALK-ABOUTS for listening, vocabulary and language expansion

• Packing a bag to go to the pool or grabbing a suit, towel, and toys for the backyard

• What’s goes in the pool bag? (Towels, sunscreen, hats, shovels… )

• Putting on a swimsuit or dressing a doll (The straps go over your shoulders.)

• Swimsuit, bathing suit, bikini, trunks…Cover-up

• Rubbing sunscreen on your toes vs. nose

• Pool-related words/phrases that sound similar to little listeners such as ➼ sun, sunny, sunscreen, sunburn, suntan, sunglasses…

• Body parts vocabulary expansion - forehead, cheeks, chin, shin…

• The weather ➼ sunny, too hot, cloudy, bright, humid, breezy

• The water ➼ warm/cool; deep/shallow; sink/float; above, below, or under

• Pool/ sand toys ➼ and related activities (splashing, digging, castles…)

• Pool snacks or a picnic lunch ➼ popsicles, ice cream sandwiches...

• Barefoot ➼ shoes, sandals, flip flops, water shoes

• Sing, Old MacDonald had a pool E I E I O. And in that pool her had a toy boat.. with a ppppp… Or a beach ball…with a splash, splash…

• Sing, Motor Boat, Motor Boat Song ( goes so fast, slow, goes around and around…)

Read-aloud stories, iPad apps, and printables for little listeners:

Maisy’s Pool and Maisy Goes Swimming by Lucy Cousins

Dave Sindrey’s pool/beach themed murals, games, and materials in The Listening Room

VocAB Scenes app by Advanced Bionics, LLC

Speecharoo’s Funny Directions app

Check out Lynn Wood’s Top Swimming Tips For Cochlear Implants article in the MED-EL Blog.

Summer-themed Listen With Lynn resources you may like:

Listen and Draw At The Pool
Summer Auditory Comprehension Listen, Search & Find Games
Summer Vocabulary Flexible Language Game
Summer Idioms Listen and Learn
Listen, Riddle & Rhyme Summer Auditory Processing and Vocabulary Game
Buzz Off! Listening, Language and Vocabulary Builder 5 Games In One
Self-Advocacy Scenarios - Turning Lemons Into Lemonade
Summer Auditory Skills Summer - No Prep Found Sounds - Outdoor Listening
Four Auditory Comprehension Listen, Search & Find Games For Summer

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