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Getting on their level
Communicating with children
Frances Clark, Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist and Audiologist
© AVUK 2014
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
© AVUK 2014
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.
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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
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Conversation is…
“a talk, especially an informal one,
between two or more people, in which
news and ideas are exchanged”
(Oxford Dictionary, 2014)
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The foundation of conversation is…
…equally shared participation
But what if one of the participants isn’t
very competent?
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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
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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
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Techniques for helping young children have
conversations
Positioning
Acoustic highlighting
Shared Attention
Pausing
Interpreting behaviours as being communicative
Comments rather than questions
Sabotage
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VIDEO 1
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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.
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VIDEO 2
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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
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Follow what the child is thinking!
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Communicating when testing…
Tips from a parent
Tips from and Audiologist
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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!
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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)
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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.
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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
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Questions?
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Thank you for listening!
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Auditory VerbalUK
Registered Charity No 1095133
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