Getting on their level Communicating with children Frances Clark, Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist and Audiologist
Registered charity number 1095133 Established 2003 Based in Oxfordshire, 7 full time & 6 part time members of staff Central London Listen and Talk as one initiative
Auditory Verbal Therapy (AVT) What is AVT? An individualised, auditory, developmental programme, implemented by the child s family in close collaboration with a therapist, with the goal of achieving age appropriate spoken language ability, and full social participation throughout childhood and beyond.
Learning Goals To identify how and why breakdowns occur in conversation To illustrate techniques to help children have conversations through listening and speech Tips to get on their level when testing
Conversation is a talk, especially an informal one, between two or more people, in which news and ideas are exchanged (Oxford Dictionary, 2014)
The foundation of conversation is equally shared participation But what if one of the participants isn t very competent?
Analyzing adult conversation skills can help us to develop the skills we use with/want to facilitate in children No pausing = a lecture Constant topic changing comments = a sports commentary Constant Questioning = an interview
The usual solutions used by adults can feel unsatisfactory Non-verbal games Constantly offering new things to try and catch the child s attention Trying to direct the child s behaviour Describing and explaining to the child
Techniques for helping young children have conversations Positioning Acoustic highlighting Shared Attention Pausing Interpreting behaviours as being communicative Comments rather than questions Sabotage
VIDEO 1
Take Home Messages Sit close to the baby so he can see you and engage with you Use acoustic highlighting to make your speech easier to hear Give him time to listen to you and make his contributions Respond to all vocalisations as if they were communicative Even profoundly deaf babies can do things with their hearing aids IF they are appropriately aided.
VIDEO 2
Take Home Messages Expansion Ask questions to gain more information Seek clarification Support the child s thinking; scaffold ask the lady.. Contribute your own information Respond to all vocalisations/responses as if they were communicative
Follow what the child is thinking!
Communicating when testing Tips from a parent Tips from and Audiologist
Tips from a parent Audiologists, please talk to children (and parents) as if they are real people, not just things to be tested. Sounds harsh, but what we (parents - and children) often need to do at the start of an appt, is to offload some of our concerns. Gentle probing open questions can relax the atmosphere and make the parent/child more relaxed resulting in much better outcomes. We had a session once, where the audiologist gave Beatrice some bubbles. Bea, aged circa 3 years, loved these and played with them happily. The audiologist came and took out Bea's hearing aids and then took away the bubbles - Disaster. Bea didn't understand why she had been "punished". Not a clever start to a hearing test when you want the child to be as compliant as possible!
Tips from a parent Many, many times, audiologists took out Bea's hearing aids and then carried on speaking to her. It made me lose faith in their professionality because they clearly didn't understand hearing loss!!!!!! Remember - parents/children are the experts - they deal daily with the practicalities of hearing loss - please listen to us. Be up with new technology and developments. As Bea approaches 11 years old - we need to know what technology is out there for her to access phones/ipads etc. Really important for audiologists to engage with all the newer technology. Kate Cadman, mother of Bea (now 11)
Tips from an Audiologist Don t assume that they CAN HEAR. Assume they CAN T HEAR WELL. Back up whatever you say with clear visuals eg. If you say I want you to put the man in the boat when you hear the sound give them a cue to listen by putting your hand behind your ear and then show them. When testing, you must know that the signal you start with is perceptible. Choose the frequency most likely to be audible to start off with. If they are profoundly deaf, they may need to feel this on the speaker.
Tips from an Audiologist Give the child ownership of the game to start. If the child wants to play men in a boat, by letting the men jump out into the sea, or lying them down on the table, let them! They are more likely to comply if they play the way they want to. Watch subliminal messaging (your body language) Parents and children will focus on your facial expressions in testing, particularly in non-behavioural testing. Dr Josephine Marriage, CHEAR
Questions?
Thank you for listening! W www.avuk.org E info@avuk.org Auditory Verbal UK Registered Charity No 1095133 facebook.com\auditoryverbaluk @auditoryverbal youtube.com\auditoryverbal1