Your child is now well on their way to adjusting to their new cochlear implant, and hopefully they are feeling more confident and familiar with their sound processor.
You’ve established new routines and strategies with your child. And you’ve shared your experience with loved ones, friends and colleagues. Another important step to improve your child’s hearing experience is to bring listening practice into your daily life. Ensuring your child has good access to sound and developing listening skills is important for speech development. As they develop their listening skills, they will learn to monitor their own speech sounds, just like we do.
Here are three ways you can create listening and language opportunities every day.
1.Talk while doing daily activities
“Performatives” are sounds that represent a word—they are repetitive and simple. Children often begin to use performatives before they use other common words. Think of phrases like “The dog goes woof woof” or “The cow goes moo.”
Here’s an example of how you might talk to your child using performatives like “Yum, yum, yum” and repeating various words during the daily activity of having a snack.
“Oh, it’s snack time. Let’s find your favorite, mmm. You love bananas. Where’s the banana? Oh there it is! Yum, yum, yum. Peel the banana. Peel, peel, peel. We both love bananas! Here’s some for you. Here’s some for me! Mmmmm, yum!”
2.Try parallel talk
Parallel talk is a language strategy you can use when you are talking about what your child is doing, seeing, hearing, touching or thinking while you are alongside them. Here’s an example of parallel talk while your child is going to bed:
“You’re putting your pajamas on. Your arm goes up, up, up. Now pull it down. You’re ready for bed. And all tucked in. You look so snuggly. Night night, sleep tight.”
3. Use self-talk
Self-talk is a language strategy you can use when you are talking about what you are doing, seeing, hearing, touching or thinking. Here’s an example of self-talk while you are going for a walk with your child:
“I see a doggie. I can hear him go woof woof woof! Oh, there are lots of birds in the tree. Can you see them? I can hear them going tweet tweet tweet.”
Using these tips while engaging in activities with your child can help keep them involved and supported throughout the day as they adjust to their cochlear implant.
Learn more about our listening resources for babies and toddlers here.
