Books with Lots of Learning to Listen Sounds

The Learning to Listen Sounds are one of the first things a parent learns when introduced to Auditory-Verbal Therapy.  Therapists with a caseload of many new listeners repeat these sounds dozens of times a day.  While a box full of Learning to Listen Sound toys is great, pairing these sounds and toys with a literacy experience is even better!  The following is a list of some of my favorite books that are filled with Learning to Listen Sounds:

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Too Much of a Good Thing: Technology, Apps, and Auditory Verbal Therapy

I love technology.  I love the ability it gives me to communicate with people around the world about the miracle of cochlear implants and listening and spoken language.  I love that, though Facebook, Twitter, and teletherapy services I am able to reach out to people with hearing loss, parents, and professionals to share information, advice, ideas, and support.  When used correctly, technology can be an amazing tool!

So, what’s the downside?

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Social-Emotional Development for Children

As a child grows, so do his abilities to socialize and interact with those around him.  When children approach the beginning of formal schooling at about five or six years of age, a whole new world of social experiences opens up for them to explore.  How can we help ensure that our children with hearing loss are up to the social challenges of kindergarten and elementary school years?

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Social-Emotional Development for Infants and Toddlers

When parents learn that their child has a hearing loss, often some of the first questions they ask themselves have to do with their little one’s ability to socialize and be a part of the world — “Will he have friends?” “Will she be able to play sports?” “Will the other children make fun of her?”

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Here’s to the Dads!

Dads by birth, dads by adoption, foster dads, step-dads, granddads, dads who work outside the home, dads who work at home, dads who have made a career of raising their kids… I have had the pleasure of working with all kinds of fantastic father figures over the years.

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Sports and Hearing Loss

Having a hearing loss should not prevent a person from participating in sports and activities with his or her hearing peers.  Here are a few tips and tricks to help make your or your child’s athletic experience fun!

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Your IFSP/IEP Tool Kit

The process of preparing an Individual Family Service Plan (ages birth to three) or an Individualized Education Plan (ages three to twenty-one), can be a nerve-wracking process for even the most resilient parent of a child with hearing loss.  These meetings can be stressful, emotional, painful, confrontational… and good.  While there are many factors that may be out of your control, there are also quite a few things that you, as the parent, can do to build the strongest case for what your child needs.

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Advanced Reading Comprehension

If your child has mastered foundational listening and spoken language skills and is good at early reading comprehension, it’s time to take the task away from parent/teacher/therapist-read stories and to give the child tools for independent reading and comprehension of more complex written information.

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Early Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension is the ability to understand written text and use that information in meaningful ways.  It’s a skill that can be difficult for many children, including those with hearing loss, but it is an important one to master.

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Dominican Republic 2011: Part I

After a whole lot of airport delays, I’m back from the Dominican Republic and excited to share with you all that I experienced about hearing loss in the developing world.

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