It’s All About Listening/ It’s Not All About Listening

In Auditory Verbal Therapy, we want children to learn to listen all the time, but we don’t want them to focus just on listening.  We focus on audition, but we don’t focus only on audition.  Listening is an important factor, but it’s not the only factor.  So which is it — is AVT all about listening, or not? 

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Living Room Idol

Whether you love singing or wouldn’t be caught dead singing in the shower, singing is a terrific way to help your child with hearing loss learn important listening and spoken language skills.  You don’t have to be an award-winning singer to build your child’s brain through music. 

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Say It LOUD and CLEAR

You may have heard rumblings about some legislation popping up in various states around the US regarding language acquisition for children who are deaf or hard of hearing.  What are these bills all about and how could they affect your family?

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It’s Not Magic: 4Ps for Parent Involvement

Imagine you and your child have been given tickets to a performance of the greatest magic show on earth.  The tricks are astounding, the special effects magnificent, and you’re sure to be dazzled.  How would you choose to experience this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?

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“She’ll always be deaf, you know…”

I hear (and see — on social media) this phrase all the time.  Parents who choose amplification and listening and spoken language for their children are reminded by not-so-kind strangers, “She’ll always be deaf, you know…”

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Ready, Mindset… GROW!

In 1975, psychologist Carol Dweck and her team conducted an experiment with a group of low-performing elementary school aged math students.  The students were given a very difficult math assignment.  These students had a poor self-concept about their ability to succeed in math and a history of bad grades.  The students were given a very difficult math assignment and divided into two groups.  When they did poorly, the children in Group One were told that they could do better with more effort, that they had the ability to improve their skills, and were given lessons in persistence and problem solving.  Group Two was not given this feedback or training.  Despite both groups starting out as equally poor performers, the children in Group One actually improved their math abilities over time, while the children in Group Two continued to fall apart on the assignments and did not progress.  What made the difference?

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2016 AV Challenge: Tip #4

I often receive questions from parents, especially around the holidays, for suggestions of toys that will help their children grow listening, speech, and language skills… and have fun!  This week’s tip helps you zero in on what kinds of toys promote language, and which you can walk right by in the toys store because they actually hurt your child’s language progress.  Read on!  

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2016 AV Challenge: Tip #3

We live in a noisy world!  Take a minute and think about all of the noises that surround you: the clanging of a radiator, noise from the street outside, someone driving by with their radio turned up too loud, a television blaring in the other room.  Now think about how hard it would be to be a child trying to learn to hear and learn language in the middle of all of this chaos.  This week’s tip encourages you to PULL THE PLUG and turn off sources of electronic background noise in your home to make the listening environment friendly for your little listener’s brain.

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2016 AV Challenge: Tip #2

You may have heard that your words have the power to grow your child’s brain and that children who are successful in kindergarten have heard far more words in their first years than their less successful peers. All of this is true, but it’s not just the number of words that matters… the richness and quality of those words is important, too!

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2016 AV Challenge: Tip #1

Did you know that babies practice talking long before they say their first words.  This week’s tip, BABBLE MATTERS, is about the importance of baby’s coos and goos.  As it turns out, goo goo ga ga isn’t just adorable, it’s the foundation for later language success.

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