Playtime is perfect for conversations and language development for all children, especially for children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH). If a family’s goal is for their child to develop spoken language, using listening and spoken language (LSL) strategies can help support language acquisition. Small changes to interactions can have a BIG impact on a child’s exposure to sounds, words, and the world around them to promote their overall language learning.
Here are some LSL strategies families can use during playtime (and throughout the day) with their child:
- Self-talk (also known as play-by-play): Narrate or describe everything you are doing, thinking, or feeling. Think of yourself as a sports announcer who is describing everything that is going on during a sporting event and apply that during playtime. This provides the child with the opportunity to hear lots of words within their listening bubble and builds connections to the world around them.
- Auditory Closure: The speaker starts the phrase and then stops, leaving off the last word and leaning in to look at the child, expecting them to finish the sentence. For example, “The ball is in the...” This technique can also be used with songs and rhymes. This strategy is helpful when the child is beginning to use single words but is not putting words together on their own yet.
- Serve and Return: Take turns talking about what you are doing during playtime. Ask open-ended questions that prompt the child to respond with an answer. Remember to give your child time to process and come up with an answer before you rephrase or prompt your child for a response.
- Expansion: Repeat back what the child has said during the conversation and add additional information or correct the child’s sentence structure. For example, your child might say, “Blocks fall down.” You could respond, “Yes, all of the blocks fell down. Let’s stack them up again.”
- Sabotage (or Keep Them on Their Toes): Create an unexpected situation that is different than what the child would expect and see if they are able to pick up on the difference. For example, when playing house with dolls, you could say, “It’s time to put baby to bed. Let’s put her in the kitchen.” This will hopefully prompt the child to respond and correct that the baby should go to her bedroom and not the kitchen.
Additional Resources
For more listening and spoken language strategies and how to use them within family daily routines, check out LSL Strategies and Techniques.
Resources on how to support families in using these strategies at home:
- Central Institute for the Deaf offers resources, online courses, and curricula and tools to support listening and spoken language development.
- Hearing First offers family-friendly explanations, handouts, and videos on how to use listening and spoken language strategies throughout the day. Online professional development classes are also offered.
- Hear to Learn offers tutorials and materials to promote LSL strategies.
Reference
Listening & Spoken Language Strategies (2020) by Fickenscher, S. & Salvucci, D.