Auditory Comprehension Spring Matrix Games

Spring MATRIX GAMES are grab-and-go resources for building listening and language. They are auditory comprehension tools for children with hearing loss or auditory processing difficulties.

SIX THEMED MATRIX GAMES:

1. Where am I? (Outdoor locations)

2. Spring animal babies

3. On the farm

4. Outdoor play

5. Insects

6. Colored egg hunt

YOU CAN TARGET:

Auditory attention

Auditory memory

Vocabulary

Critical elements

Descriptive language

Multi-step directions

Length of utterances (MLU)

A variety of grammatical structures

Concepts of color, size, quantity, location, time/sequence

Matrices are flexible games that can be leveled up or down to meet a child’s auditory memory, comprehension, and language goals. As a child’s skill level develops add more elaborate syntactic structures, use the keywords in sentences or within simple stories.

Here is an example how Matrix One can be played.

You’ll ❤ the matrices and all the other Spring Listening and Language games and activities!

Favorite Stories And Genres To Read With Your Child For World Book Day

🌎 April 23rd is WORLD BOOK DAY! 🌎  Explore stories from a variety of genres with your child to expand vocabulary and their depth of LSL learning. Try some of my favorite stories below.

📘 PREDICTABLE books with repetitive phrases and strong patterns like Going On A Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen are key for children learning to read.

📙 PARTICIPATION books like Clap Your Hands by Lorinda Bryan Caulery foster listening and following directions.

 📕 RHYMING books such as Is Your Mama a Llama? by Deborah Guarino target listening to sounds in words.

 📗 PICTURE books illustrations often provide information, not in the text. Encourage your child to comment and talk about illustrations in books such as Quick as a Cricket by Don and Audrey Wood.

📘 INFORMATIONAL books are non-fiction and introduce new topics. Dinosaur Bones by Bob Barner is filled with facts, rhyming text, and cool illustrations.

Oh Dear! I Cannot Hear! Celebrating Dr. suess’s Birthday March 2nd

I often use this Dr. Suess quote as an introduction when presenting at school in-services for children in my LSL auditory verbal caseload. It's an ice-breaker that teachers, administrators, staff, and parents all relate to and come together over their love of Dr. Suess. It launches the discussion of each of our roles in helping the child with hearing loss have auditory access at school and helping classmates understand hearing loss.

Oh dear, oh dear! I cannot hear.

Will you please come over near?

Will you please look in my ear?

There must be something there, I fear.

Say look! A bird was in your ear.

But he is out. So have no fear.

Again your ear can hear, my dear.

One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish is a book written by Dr. Seuss in 1960.

Deanna at Listening Fun shares Teacher In-service Training Tips. She is an Itinerant Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and also an Auditory Verbal Ed. Mentee. Learn from Deanna at ListeningFun.com

Pamela Talbot, M.Ed, CCC-SLP, C.E.D, LSLS-Cert AVT offers a recorded PowerPoint, Mainstreaming a Child With Hearing Loss: This one-hour recorded presentation was created to in-service members of a school team who work with a student with hearing loss who is learning through listening and spoken language.

Pam is a dear long-term friend of mine who holds certification as a Listening and Spoken Language Specialist/Auditory Verbal Therapist. Pamela is recognized as a global consultant, presenter, and professional trainer in the fields of language development, parent training, hearing loss, cochlear implants, and aural habilitation. Learn from Pam at LanguageLaunchers.com

Deanna and Pam are fellow authors of games, activities, and resources for children with hearing loss and the professionals that love them at TeachersPayTeachers.com

Winter Olympics and Listening and Language Fun

Listening and learning about the Winter Olympics is one of my favorite themes to share in LSL therapy with preschoolers and on up. Whole families get involved. Kids become "experts" while learning about sports, athletes, equipment, and current events in the world.

I buy the winter Olympics issue of Sports Illustrated for Kids for each listener to take home. Families find the magazines educational, inspirational, and fun. Kids become engaged in the sports news and want to follow and listen and read all about the event and Olympians.

We sing along with Jack Hartman's Move Like the Winter Olympians Do. This video is on YouTube and showcases the winter Olympic sports and how the Olympic athletes move in their sport. It’s great to listen, move to the music while learning facts and new vocabulary.

I love the Winter Games: Literacy, Language & Listening Game by K.Ratliff, Listening and Spoken Language Specialist (AVEd.) on TpT. As your students move around the board, they are challenged with answering questions/engaging in the tasks practicing the following skills:

1. Curling Comprehension- Short reading or listening comprehension passages containing information about the Winter Olympics with a WH- question to answer.

2. Figure Skating Functions- Given an item associated with the Olympics, name its function.

3. Snowboarding Synonyms and Antonyms- Given a sentence with an underlined word, change the underlined word to a synonym or antonym, as directed by the card.

4. Guessing Goalie- Describe the item on the card using attributes and other players guess the item.

5. Alpine Analogies- Solve the analogies containing a combination of pictures and words.

6. Bobsled Run Rhyming- Roll the die and name that number of words rhyming with the item pictured on your card.

We target so many goals! Kids are excited and come back to therapy to share the events they watched, their favorite athletes, and information about countries worldwide.

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?