Polar Bear, Silly Directions and Listening and Spoken Language Therapy Plans

What are your LSL therapy plans for this week?

We are reading, listening, and learning along with the animals in the classic story "Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear?”, then playing one of my favorites the Silly Directions game?

Silly Directions is an active listening and spoken language game for children of many ages and stages that can be leveled up or down to meet their needs. This game gets kids listening, moving, thinking, and learning.

The directions are designed to be fast, fun, and effective for children who are deaf and hard of hearing and for others who can benefit from practicing listening skills. Kids can expand their receptive language, increase their auditory working memory and processing skills while being engaged and active. 

This game can help children learn to: 

• follow auditory directions

• recall and process directions

• 'chunk' auditory information

• remember critical elements in sequential order

• use compound and more complex sentences 

• ask for clarification if they have trouble remembering

• expand vocabulary:

Silly Directions can target:

- Similes - Children learn comparisons with similes. Similes use the words like or as to compare things —“Arch your back LIKE a cat.”

- Adjectives - Children hear and build vocabulary while naming the objects. They learn the adjectives that describe the objects — a BOTTLE of ketchup, a MONARCH butterfly, a GARDEN hose…

- Body Parts - Children hear and expand the names of body parts — forehead, waist, chin…

Look inside the Silly Directions Game

DIY - A Listening Box - A Classic Auditory Verbal Resource

A LISTENING BOX is a must-have tool if you guide families of young children who are deaf and hard of hearing. I first made a Listening Box while learning from Doreen Pollack in her video-tapped training lessons as an undergraduate student at the University of Akron Speech and Hearing Clinic.

The auditory premises I learned from Doreen remain true today. Doreen Pollack established the Acoupedic Program in Denver for teaching listening and spoken language to children who were deaf and hard of hearing. This was later named Auditory-Verbal Therapy and today it is referred to as Listening and Spoken Language Therapy.

A Listening Box is a classic Listening and Spoken Language Auditory Verbal activity for beginner listeners. A Listening Box holds sound-making toys, objects, and toy instruments in order to present the sound through hearing first. The sound-making objects are hidden behind the Listening Box’s lid which little kids love. This Learning To Listen activity helps a child develop sound awareness and attach meaning to speech and environmental sounds.

DIY In one of my early intervention auditory verbal sessions with the parents or caregivers we make a DIY Listening Box together either face to face or in a teletherapy session. It gives us time to chat when I can offer important information about sound awareness and listening and spoken language outcomes.

Tips for Building Listening and Language with Floor Puzzles

Do you use floor puzzles 🧩 in your auditory verbal sessions or lessons for children that are deaf and hard of hearing?

Well-chosen puzzles are fun, challenging, and provide a catalyst for listening and language. Choose a puzzle that offers a rich vocabulary and corresponds to a theme Work together and narrate what you are thinking.

Talk about:

🧩 the similarities between the pieces. Kids learn how things can fit into categories.

🧩 the differences while noting details in a complex picture.

🧩 Memory. I wonder where the train puzzle piece is that completes the scene? Do you remember....?

🧩 Puzzle-solving strategies that build confidence. Kids love the sense of accomplishment.

Creativity and Crafts Can Foster Listening and Language Opportunities For Kids With Hearing Loss

I foster children's creativity so typically don't love staged crafts. HOWEVER, kids find them irresistibly fun especially if they involve hot chocolate!

I've learned that crafts when well-planned can create countless listening and spoken language opportunities in both virtual sessions and face-to-face sessions. The purpose of the craft and the target areas need to be clear especially when guiding families.

➼ What strategies will be modeled? - Sabotage?
Too bad. The lid is stuck on the glue, or the scissors are out of reach.

➼. What are the listening and language goals? - Following directions? Sequencing? Critical elements? Turn-taking and conversational skills.

❤ Is there a simple craft you recommend for expanding listening and spoken language learning?

Planting Flowers A Barrier Game For Kids With Hearing Loss

Nothing is much more fun than siblings competing while playing a barrier game and planting flowers. The barrier keeps both players from seeing each other’s garden and focus on listening alone. The TALKER gives verbal directions to help the LISTENER choose the critical elements describing the stems, leaves, and flowers to plant their flower garden in exactly the same way. A spring and summer favorite activity that targets auditory comprehension and expressive language skills such as:

🌼 Listening carefully to directions and details.

🌺 Giving clear and concise directions.

🌸 Questioning for clarification and accuracy.

🌼 Comprehending and expressing basic concepts.

🌺 Using and understanding vocabulary.

🌸 Using describing words such as adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions.

🌼 Discussing and reflecting on an activity.