An Emergency Case of Catch-Up

With high quality support, students who are deaf can learn to use spoken language to communicate with anyone they choose.

That is the basis of this blog.

I think now I should be more specific and add: even with later-than ideal intervention.

For many reasons, some children who are deaf don’t come to receive support in learning spoken language until they are school-aged. These children are suffering from an emergency case of catch-up. So much language and vocabulary to learn and so many years lost.

Meh. Forgive the bad visual pun. I didn’t want to say ‘game’ of catch-up. It’s much too serious a topic for the flippant use of that term.

In my experience, children who begin a quality spoken language program at 11 years old can acquire language and speech that allows them to be successful communicators.

I believe this with all my heart –because I have seen it. And many others have witnessed these victories.

Yes, it’s true that not all children can make that achievement with a late start. But many can. And doesn’t that child – and that family – in front of you deserve the chance to thrive?

There are so many topics on my “To Write” list. But this one is crying out to be aired. I am working on a series I’m calling Belated Intervention to discuss how these children can be supported and perhaps to highlight those who have succeeded.

(Easy) October Experience Story

Making a Halloween Monster Mobile!

An Experience Story is an excellent opportunity for repeated practice with selected language and vocabulary targets while maintaining the child’s interest and motivation. One big reason:The Child is the Main Character!

Read more about it! The Power of Experience Stories, How to Use Experience Stories, and Making a Mummy Doll Experience.

Expressive Language Targets

The book we used has two expressive language targets (what the child will say).

NOUN-VERB-NOUN (We glued the paper)

NOUN-PREPOSITION-NOUN (paper on the cup)

Receptive Language Targets

The students for whom I planned this experience also practiced understanding and answering questions. Notice that the answers to these questions would use the expressive targets.

Q: WHO? A: N-V-N Q: WHERE? A: N-prep-N

Vocabulary Targets

Not all vocabulary practice is boring! Our kids need to know the names of popular (and literary Halloween characters.) So my students were instructed that their 3-monster mobile should include at least two of the following:

a GHOST FRANKENSTEIN a JACK-O-LANTERN

Students ‘label’ their monsters to practice the vocabulary.

The Experience in Future Tense

These photos are PowerPoint slides used to practice future tense (with a high level of teacher support) on the day prior to the experience (making the project). If your students aren’t ready to consider past-present-future, then skip this part of the lesson.

The Heart of the Experience: The Story Book

These photos show a classroom version of the Experience Story Book. The Cover would highlight a photo of the class, each student holding his/her Monster Mobile and each student’s ‘signature’ on the by-lines.

Each page features

a photo taken during the Experience or an illustration of that moment( represented by the box)
text that includes a language or vocabulary target

October Experience Story: Making a Mummy Doll

OoooooOOOooooooooo

It’s the perfect time of year to learn about mummies and to make your own mummy.

Here are directions with pictures and some language targets to make your planning easier.

The Mummy-Making Experience

Thank you to GainingMommymentum Mandy for the Experience idea!

Here’s the finished product.

Materials

a Barbie-type doll

cloth (cotton)

white school glue, like Elmers

plastic gloves (optional)

a craft paintbrush

scissors

a small plastic bowl

water

wax or parchment paper or plastic cover for your table

Directions

Cut the doll’s hair as short as possible.
Cut the cloth into strips about one inch wide.
Cover the table with wax paper or plastic.
Mix well equal parts water and glue in the plastic bowl.
Drag a cloth strip through the glue mixture. Then run it between your fingers to clear the extra glue.
Wrap the strip around an arm of the doll, starting at the armpit and moving down the arm as you go. Repeat until arm is covered.
Continue to wrap arms and legs of doll as described in step 6.
Wrap head, shoulders and torso until doll is completely wrapped.
Use the paintbrush to spread the glue mixture evenly (just spread what’s already on the doll.) IF necessary, add glue mixture to any dry spots.

If you want to you, can stop here. To make a more realistic mummy, continue on with steps 10 and 11.

10. Drag more cloth strips through the glue mixture as before. Wrap the entire body of the doll, pinning its arms to its body and wrapping both legs together. Repeat step 9.

11. Allow doll to dry. Finished mummy should be hard!

The Language Possibilities!

Structured/Repetitive Language

Noun-verb-noun

Mommy cut the cloth. Susie wrapped the arm.

noun-around – noun

Wrap the cloth around the ____ arm, leg, other arm, other leg, body, head.

possessive ‘s

Wrap the mummy’s _____. Hold the mummy’s ____. Put glue on the mummy’s ____ .

‘its’ 3rd person neutral possessive (not it’s as in it is.)

Cut its hair. Its hair is long. Its hair is short. Wrap its arms. etc.

Special Cases of Language

Questions – Questions can be practiced two ways: the child ANSWERS the question or the child ASKS the question.

The child should be able to answer the question before she asks it. To answer the question, she must be able to understand it.

For an experience story, you can make the question your text in the book, and when reading the book, the child answers the question.

*Who ____ed? Who wrapped the ____?*

Who cut the hair? Who wrapped the first arm? the other arm? the leg? the other leg? O the tummy? the head? Who wrapped the mummy again?

until

Until is a higher language structure that kids don’t pick up naturally, but try to use in many different contexts.

One way she will be excited to use until … ___ days until Halloween.

In this activity, you can say things like “Wrap the arm until it is covered” might be a target for your child in this activity. “Let it set until it dry” is another.

While diving into the Mummy-making experience, here’s a Reading Rainbow selection that you can use to talk about the real mummies of Egypt. Aliki’s text uses simple language, but a discussion of the afterlife can be a tough one for language learners. I think you’ll bring this book out year after year, having ever more informative discussions about Egypt and its mummies.

How to Use Experience Stories

Experience stories are a fun and easy way to practice language. They can be created and enjoyed both at home and school and are helpful for any child with language goals.

WHAT IS AN EXPERIENCE STORY?

An experience story begins as an activity that an adult shares with a child. After the activity, a story is created, targeting language that the child needs to practice. The result is a homemade book that includes photos taken during the activity and the child is the main character. It is read together often, providing repeated practice with the target language.

STEP ONE: PRE-PLAN

Of course, you should start by deciding what your activity will be and what language you will target.

You might have an activity in mind (baking cupcakes for the cat’s birthday, washing dishes, a craft project – almost anything will do.) If not, there are plenty of places to find activities online.

To plan the language you will target, imagine you and your child actually doing each step of the activity. What language can you practice when you look at the photos and discuss it afterward?

Plan the sentences you can use in your book. That way, you’ll know when to take pictures during the activity. How many sentences you plan (or actually use) will depend on your child’s language level and ability to sit with a book.

Here are some examples for A Chocolate Milk Experience.

noun-verb-noun (Mommy opened the milk. Susie poured the milk. Mommy squeezed the chocolate. Susie stirred the milk. Mommy and Susie drank the chocolate milk. Yum!)
noun-preposition-noun (We put the glasses on the table. We put the milk on the table. Mommy poured the milk in the glass. Susie squeezed the chocolate in the glass. Mommy and Susie stirred the milk in the glass. The milk is in our tummies. Yum!)

STEP TWO:

PARTNER PLAN, USING FUTURE TENSE

As mentioned, Experience Books can practice all verb tenses. When the adult and child plan the activity together, they use the future tense to discuss what they will do.

If your language target includes a verb, this is where your child will practice using future tense. If there is no verb target, you can use this step to expose her to future tense — she will hear it, but isn’t expected to understand or repeat it.

You’ll need something physical on hand to talk about. This can be a finished example of what you’re making, a photo of what you’ll make, the written instructions (with illustrations) for your activity or all the items you’ll use in your activity.

Your goal is to have your child produce all of your target sentences in future tense. Here are some examples for our Chocolate Milk Experience. The language targets are underlined. These are the words we want the child to say at the very least.

noun-verb-noun (Mommy will open the milk. Susie (I) will pour the milk. Mommy will squeeze the chocolate. Susie (I) will stir the milk. We will drink the chocolate milk. Yum!)
preposition-noun ( Susie (I) will put the milk on the table.Mommy will pour the milk in the glass. Mommy will squeeze the chocolate in the glass. Susie (I) will stir the milk in the glass. We will drink the milk. Chocolate milk will be in our tummies. Yum!)

STEP THREE:

EXPERIENCE THE EXPERIENCE

There are two important things you need to accomplish during the experience.

Have FUN!
Take pictures

FUN: The fun will keep the child motivated for future experiences. We certainly don’t want a language experience to become a time when the child feels the pressure of saying everything exactly the way you want it said.

While one of the benefits of Experience Stories is practicing all verb tenses around one experience, I suggest that present tense not be practiced during the first experience. During the first couple experiences, the child will be learning how the process works. She’ll be listening, following directions, using tools and so much more. Delaying the fun of pouring stuff into a bowl until the language is produced might be too much. But when some of those participation skills have been developed, the child should be expected to imitate the language that you planned in Step One.

For every experience, from the very beginning, the adult should be narrating the activity, using the present tense and highlighting any new vocabulary. The child should repeat the adult’s language, including as many words as possible, in the correct order, with her best possible speech. You can try to correct or improve her language, but if three attempts don’t achieve that goal, then model the correct language once more and go back to having fun.

Here’s the present tense noun-verb-noun language for the Chocolate Milk Experience. (Great name for a band!)

Mommy is opening the milk. I am pouring the milk. Mommy is squeezing the chocolate. I am stirring the milk. We are drinking the chocolate milk.
Yum!)

While this can be an opportunity to practice present tense, the most beneficial language practice comes with the book. The experience itself is the memory upon which the language is built.

TAKING PICTURES: During the experience, pause for a few candid and a few posed pictures. Your child can see the picture and use the present tense sentence again. The pictures are for your Experience Book. It’s what makes the book personal and supports comprehension of the language. But fear not. If you were so caught up in the fun of the experience that you forget to snap a shot for each of your target sentences, you can always ‘stage’ the shots in a re-enactment. Or make your drawings to evoke the memories.

Remember: the experience must always be .

STEP FOUR: CREATE THE EXPERIENCE BOOK

The materials you use to create the book are up to you. You can tape the pictures into an everyday notebook that holds several experience stories. You can print it out on the computer and staple it. (Tape over the backs of the staples to prevent scratches.) Use a photo album or brag book. Use Ziploc bags and duct tape. A hole punch, index cards and ring.

I like to have the child’s handwriting on each page. A good way to start is to have her write her name and names of family members every time they appear. Provide the traditional primary lines to encourage good penmanship.

Books based on true experiences should be written in past tense – because the experience happened in the past. This reinforces the meaning and usage of past tense, which can be challenging for kids who are deaf.

Here’s the final noun-verb-noun version of the Chocolate Milk Experience.

Mommy opened the milk. Susie poured the milk. Mommy squeezed the chocolate. Susie stirred the milk. Susie and Mommy drank the chocolate milk.
Yum!)

A topical non-fiction book, while not really an “experience story,” can still repeat the same language. This one repeats the pattern “Do (chipmunks) have spots? No! (chipmunks) have stripes!” to practice present tense for plural verbs and “Do” questions.

STEP FIVE: USING THE BOOK TO PRACTICE LANGUAGE

The Prime Directive:

Experiences & Experience Books Must Always be FUN.

This promotes the enjoyment

of more experience stories,

love for language and love for books.

First readings should be about becoming familiar with the book, appreciating the pictures and remembering the experience.
When the book itself is familiar, the purpose becomes to practice language. Repetitive reading of the book will promote language learning.
When the language is more familiar to the child, use post-it notes to cover the target language (for example, the preposition) to require the child to think about what word belongs there.
Ask questions that require the child to use the target language in her answer. For example, “Who poured the milk?” to have her answer, “Mommy poured the milk.” “What did you squeeze?” “I squeezed the chocolate.”
When pronouns are a language target, change the names in the book to pronouns when reading it. For example the child and the child’s activity partner say “I” and “you” to replace their own names. For others’ names, they use “he” and “she.”
For beginning readers, have the child point to certain words.
To practice listening and auditory comprehension, the adult says a sentence from the book and child finds the picture for that sentence. Have her repeat the sentence back to you for extra language practice.

SHARE THE BOOK

Some suggestions:

Share the book with extended family, babysitters and teachers. They help promote carryover of the language into their time with your child.
It can be fun to put an extra page at the end and have others write comments about the story.
Keep your Experience Books as a collection and a memory of fun activities and language growth. When language or vocabulary from a previous activity needs to be reviewed, you can read that book again. Or read it again just for fun!

I’d love to hear about your favorite experience stories

and other ways you use Experience Books.

The Power of Experience Stories

(Note: If you’re already sold on Experience Stories, watch for suggestions for using them to practice language, vocabulary, auditory skills, reading and more. Coming Soon!)

Experience stories are a fun and easy way to practice language. They can be created and enjoyed both at home and school and are helpful for any child with language goals.

WHAT IS AN EXPERIENCE STORY? An experience story begins as an activity that an adult shares with a child. After the activity, a story is created, targeting language that the child needs to practice. The story includes photos taken during the activity and the child is the main character. It is read together often, providing repeated practice with the target language.

The benefits of these personalized books are many.

The adult can control the language and vocabulary that is used, or wait and see what the child attempts to say during the activity.

If the child needs repetitive, structured practice with language, experience stories can be a fun and motivating way to accomplish that. The parent, teacher or therapist can also use experience stories to expand the child’s language if the child has complex language or learns language more naturally .

A single language target can be practiced many times.

Here are some examples for a Banana Split Experience Story targeting noun-preposition-noun. New vocabulary is in italics.

The bananas were in the pantry. Anna put the bananas on the counter. The ice cream was in the freezer. Mom put the ice cream on the counter too. Anna put the banana in the bowl. Then mom put three scoops in the bowl. Anna squeezed chocolate on one scoop.Then Anna poured strawberry on a scoop. Anna poured pineapple on the last scoop. Mom sprayed whipped cream in Anna’s mouth! Yum! Mom put whipped cream on three scoops. Anna put cherries on three scoops. Anna and mom made a banana split in the kitchen!
All verb tenses can be practiced around a single activity.

Involving the child in planning the activity (making a shopping list, etc.) allows you to use future tense to talk about the activity. Present tense is used during the activity. Past tense is used in the book.
The child can practice the same lesson over and over without losing interest.
The book created after the experience can be enjoyed for months, and becomes a keepsake documenting the child’s language growth.
By sharing the book with extended family, babysitters and others, caregivers can carry the learning over into their time with the child.
The text in the book promotes literacy. The child is reading about an activity she participated in, so she is likely to have a better comprehension of what she reads than if it were a commercial book.
The book can be used to practice listening and auditory comprehension. The adult says a sentence from the book and the child finds the picture.
The book can be used to practice pronoun use. When reading, the reader replaces her own name with ‘I’. If reading with the activity partner, she replaces the partner’s name with ‘you’ etc.

A Thought about Language During the Experience

It’s important that the Experience itself is fun, motivating and natural as possible.

It is not at all natural, while pouring pineapple, to say, “I am pouring pineapple on the last scoop.” But what if Grandma is on speaker phone, participating in the activity from afar? The child can give a play by play . Or the activity can become a cooking show. Mom is the host and asks, “So, Miss Anna Banana, please tell us what you are doing with the pineapple.” Dad could be in the living room and, on cue ask, “Anna, what’s happening now?” Be creative. Mix it up. Above all, keep it fun.

Language and Deafness: Language vs. Speech

In IQ and Deafness I discussed the assumptions about someone’s intelligence that we make based on a person’s speech and language. I named four characteristics that can lead others to misjudge someone’s intelligence.

One of these characteristics is imperfect speech, discussed in Speech and Deafness.

Another effect of deafness that can cause us to make incorrect assumptions is imperfect language.

I will use 2 posts to discuss why those who are deaf sometimes have irregular language. You may also want to read the short post HOW DID YOU LEARN LANGUAGE?

Language & Deafness 1: LANGUAGE vs. SPEECH (this post)

Language & Deafness 2: WHY IS LANGUGAGE DIFFICULT FOR D/HH Students?

Language & Deafness 1: WHAT IS LANGUAGE ?

Sidebar: SPEECH vs LANGUAGE

When we learned in school that nouns and verbs are “Parts of Speech”, that was technically incorrect. Nouns are verbs are really parts of language.

Speech is

the sounds that we make when we talk. The word cat has three sounds: /k/ /a/ and /t/.

Language is:

knowing what words means (vocabulary)
knowing how to put those words together (grammar)

Note: This is a very oversimplified definition of language. People have been discussing and writing books on the subject for thousands of years. There’s a lot more to say about language!

Big Question: WHAT IS LANGUAGE ?

We have said that language has two main components: vocabulary and grammar.

Language Component 1: VOCABULARY – NAMES for ITEMS, ACTIONS & IDEAS

Here are some words: dog – boy – tiger – chased – the – and

To share an idea using these words, we first must know what they mean.

The nouns (dog, boy, tiger) and verb (chased) are easy to learn because we can see examples of them and learn what they mean.

Challenge: explain the meaning of the and and. These are a couple of the words often omitted or misused by D/HH language learners. And think about it: often they can be omitted from a sentence without changing its meaning.

Commonly cited vocabulary statistics:

a 6-year-old child uses a 2,500-word vocabulary
the same 6-year-old understands 20,000 words
a 12-year-old child understands about 50,000 words.

Language Component 2: GRAMMAR – HOW WE PUT WORDS TOGETHER

We all spent 12 years of school learning (among other things) the rules of language. But really, by the time we were 6 years old, we knew the most important rules about how to put words together. You learned these rules by listening to people talk. But language development is much more complex. So much so that scientists don’t yet agree on how it happens. http://www.simplypsychology.org/language.html

Let’s use our familiar set of words to look at some of the most basic language rules.

dog boy tiger chased the and

If I use these words to make a sentence for you, you could create a mental picture that should be a fairly accurate representation of my idea.

I could say

The dog and the boy chased the tiger. Or, I could say

The dog and tiger chased the boy. Or

The boy and tiger chased the dog.

Each of these sentences creates a different picture. The sentences have a different meaning, even though they use the same six words.

It seems simple.

Rule #1: the order of the words changes the meaning of the sentence.

You know who is chasing and who is being chased in each sentence. That’s because you know the sub-rule: the first noun is the person or thing that is doing the action.

Let’s look again at our first rule: the order of the words changes the meaning of the sentence

Using that rule, these two sentences should have different meanings because the words are in different order.

The dog and the boy chased the tiger.

The boy and the dog chased the tiger.

Do they have different meanings? No.

Why? Because there’s another rule.

Rule #2: The order of the words DOESN’T affect the meaning of the sentence IF two words are joined by and .

But now consider this pair of sentences,which adds 2 words.

The tiger chased the dog.

The tiger was chased by the dog.

The word order is the same, but the chaser and chase-ee have changed parts.

Sentences that use passive voice, like the last example above, are notoriously difficult for language learners.

Rule #3: There are many exceptions to rule #1.

But then there are …. IDIOMS

Idioms are phrases that don’t mean what their words say.

Type 1 Idiom – Colorful phrases

Here’s one popular idiom: It’s raining cats and dogs! We just have to explain this meaning to language learners. And they have to memorize it.

Type 2 Idiom – Multiple meanings

There are also more subtle idioms. Let’s go back to our dog, boy and tiger.

Dog says, “Tiger is after me!” That sentence can mean two entirely different things.

Boy: Dog, why are you running? Dog:Tiger is after me!

Boy: Dog, whose turn is it after yours? Dog: Tiger is after me.

Type 3 Idiom – I-don’t-know-why-we-say-this.

Why do we say, “The alarm went off” when an alarm turns on?

There must be more of these puzzlements. Please share in the comments!

Click here for Language & Deafness 2: WHY IS LANGUAGE DIFFICULT for D/HH Students?

Speech and Deafness

In IQ & Deafness we discussed the assumptions we make about intelligence based on a person’s speech and language. I named four characteristics of students who are deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH) that can lead others to misjudge their intelligence. The first of these characteristics was imperfect speech. Other features include imperfect language.

aristocrat-clipart-20.08.-Aristrocat-ClipArt

This man has perfect diction, so he’s obviously smart.

Proposition:

We unconsciously make judgments about the intelligence of an individual based on the characteristics of their speech.

Think about the actors who played the aristocracy in the TV series Downtown Abbey – they all had perfect speech – each word pronounced carefully and precisely.

Now think about movies that have bumbling sidekick bad guys who talk with thick tongues and mispronounce words right and left.

bumbling villains

As soon as they open their mouths, you know these guys are idiots.

WHAT Exactly IS SPEECH?

“Speech” refers to the sounds that make up our words. A common baby’s first word, “Momma,” has three sounds: mm, ah, and uh.

m + ah + m + uh = Momma!

Speech is NOT making sentences, using good grammar or knowing Nouns vs. Verbs.

Stated simply:

SPEECH is using the parts of your mouth to make sounds.

How Did You Learn to Speak?

Who taught you to talk? The answer is (if you had typical development) “no one”.

Human brains are programmed to learn to talk just BY LISTENING to adults talk. That’s it. The typical baby in a typical environment will learn to talk without any help.

HERE’S HOW WE LEARN TO TALK

A baby listens to speech and imitate the sounds he hears — again and again.
For months, he listens and babbles, listens and babbles.
While babbling, he is listening to himself and refining his sounds, trying to match them to the sounds he hears from others.
He also hears the melodic patterns of our speech and copies them when babbling. (This is adorable to hear.)
By age 6, the sounds and melodic patterns he hears from himself match what he hears from others.

WHY IS DEAF SPEECH SOMETIMES IMPERFECT?

A baby who is born with a significant hearing loss doesn’t hear these sounds until he receives a hearing aid or cochlear implant. And even then, he is hearing the sounds imperfectly through man-made devices.

Imperfect sound going into the ear makes it more likely that imperfect sounds will come out of the mouth.

SLI = SLO Speech/Language In = Speech/Language Out

Even with hearing aids and implants some sounds are difficult to hear. These are the sounds often left out of the speech of someone who is deaf. He doesn’t say what he doesn’t hear.

Even after a child learns to make the sounds of our language, he is often unaware when they are used because he isn’t hearing them. A common example is s at the end of words.

The speech problem becomes more complicated when we think about the child hearing his own speech. When a child fails to include the s in the word cats, he is unaware of the omission because he hears himself speak in basically the same way he hears us – imperfectly. When you and I get to the end of the word cat, we know we haven’t heard the s yet, so we add it. So the production of those tough sounds must become a conscious act, and maybe eventually deeply ingrained habit.

HOW DO CHILDREN WHO ARE DEAF LEARN TO TALK?

A child who is D/HH needs to be directly taught how to make the sounds of their language. He learns where to place his tongue, what shape his lips should make, whether or not to add his voice, and many other variables.

It’s more complicated than you think

Consider tongue placement: /t/ vs. /k/

The /t/ sound brings the tongue up just behind the teeth.
The /k/ sound brings the tongue up at the back of the throat.

A diagram showing the places consonant sounds are produced. Notice that m, n, ng use more than one part of our mouth/nasal passage.

diagram from http://www.tuninst.net/PHONET-UNIL/text/IPA.htm

Is your voice on or off? /f/ vs /v/

When we make the /f/ sound and the /v/ sound, our tongue is in the same place
but for /f/, we don’t use our voice, and for /v/ we do

When you consider all the challenges a student who is deaf overcomes to learn to talk, can you honestly question his intelligence?

Implants & Hearing Aids: NOT a FIX

UNLIKE EYEGLASSES & VISION,

cochlear implants

& hearing aids

do not fix hearing loss.

Many times teachers have said, “I know she can hear me,” usually followed by comments that openly state or imply that the student is intentionally ignoring what was said.

Yet we all know that hearing something doesn’t mean you understand it.

Think about listening to a radio that isn’t tuned exactly to the station you want to hear.

You HEAR the voices,

but they are DISTORTED

and there are lots of BREAKS

in the sound and STATIC around it.

That’s one way to imagine listening with a hearing aid or implant.

Hearing aids and implants

can get the radio tuned more closely to the right place on the dial.

But IT’s NOT a PERFECT SIGNAL LIKE YOU & I HEAR.

Here’s a demonstration of listening through a hearing aid at close distance, 10 ft., with background noise and with a personal FM.

Here’s a demonstration of listening through a cochlear implant.

Simulation begins at 2:44.

HOW ARE THEY DIFFERENT?

Both hearing aids and implants are programmed to make voices sound as loud as necessary and as clear as possible.

One is not “better” than the other. Some types of hearing loss can benefit from a cochlear implant. Others get full benefit from a hearing aid. Which device a student uses can depend on her individual hearing loss, insurance coverage, and ultimately, parent choice.

: Cochlear Implant

: Hearing Aid

: Bone Anchored Hearing Aid (BAHA)

So when a student seems to be ignoring you, or just doesn’t seem to ‘get it’, stop and remember that she is still deaf – even with her state of the art listening device.