Pediatric Habilitation

A Guide for Parents and Families
of Cochlear Implanted Children

The “Listening is Fun” CD and handbook is designed to help children with cochlear implants learn to listen using fun, everyday activities. Developed in collaboration with the Yorkshire Cochlear Implant Service, the CD demonstrates a variety of activities and games designed to foster the development of listening skills. The activities require only very basic toys and other items commonly found in the home. Suggested activities can be easily adapted according to children’s interests and environment.

“My LittlEARS Diary” gathers information about early auditory, speech and language development. It is both a record book and an assessment tool for documenting early development of children with hearing loss using either hearing aids or a cochlear implant. It includes: A Diary to guide parent’s observations about their child, enabling the therapist to use these reports as an evaluation instrument for research and therapy; a Parent Book introducing the diary; a Therapist Book providing an overview of the milestones of auditory development during the first 2 years of (hearing) age, as well as guidance to using the diary; Diary Overview Sheets for the therapist, to allow documentation of questions and observations taken from the diary and parent reports; and the First Words List for children with hearing loss, which documents the first words understood and spoken by the child.

Alisa Beard, M.S. and Patricia Parekh, M.S. developed the “Picture Perfect Preschool” especially for parents of preschool-aged children. The Picture Perfect Preschool (PPP) package was designed to assist families who are just beginning the search for a preschool setting for their young child with hearing impairment. It also includes a helpful tool for evaluating a child’s current preschool placement to determine if the use of audition, speech, language and academic skills are being maximized.

The package includes: 20 Questions, a guideline for parents to use when evaluating a potential preschool; the Parent Observation Checklist which assists parents in focusing on and documenting observations about important listening and language targets that can occur throughout the various units of a typical preschool day (circle time, snack time, etc); and Teaching Tips, a simple guide parents can provide to the classroom teacher with suggestions to better serve the child with hearing loss in the classroom.

The “Murat Reader Series” was developed to provide an inexpensive habilitation tool for CI children and their families. It also gives less experienced professionals and parents access to easy-to-use comprehensive therapy materials. The “Murat Reader Series” enables professionals and parents to work with a child with a newly acquired ability to hear speech in a way that will promote development of spoken language.

Each storybook includes both child and parent pages. Each child’s page has the story about Murat, a child with a cochlear implant. These pages are illustrated with colorful pictures that include speech bubbles and text. Each parent’s page guides parents with discussion points, listening and speaking activities and games to play to develop listening and language. Action and event cards, cutouts, activity sheets and reference pages are included in the books. Each CD provides a PDF of the book intended to be printed out and used as therapy or home activities. Developed by Julie Kosaner, pediatric audiologist.

Speech Tracking Materials for Children

“KidTrax” is designed for use with a wide range of children with hearing loss. It provides teachers and therapists with an Introduction to Speech Tracking, a testing and training approach originally developed by Carol De Filippo and Brian Scott in the 1970s. A careful step-by-step guide introduces the approach to the teacher/therapist and provides suggestions to prepare a child to use the technique. “KidTrax” also provides teachers and therapists with a wide range of text materials at three levels. These are designed to be suitable for use with children from 5 years of age to young adults. “KidTrax” includes sets of bright, attractive picture books for use with younger children (Levels 1 and 2). Text specially written for use with older children and young adults (Level 3) is an adventure set in 19th century Sweden. Developed by Geoff Plant and Sue Archbold..

Speech Communication Training
Materials For Teenagers And Young Adults

“TeenTrain” is a training program designed specifically for teenagers and young adults with cochlear implants. It provides teachers and therapists with a wide variety of speech communication training materials. Detailed instructions are provided for the professional and suggestions for follow-up exercises and activities are included.

The aim of many of the activities is not only to improve the student’s listening skills, but also to foster an interest in the intricacies of spoken language and word formation. For example, folk songs are used to introduce rhythm and rhyme, while other exercises look at word games such as Pig Latin and Rhyming Slang. Developed by Geoff Plant.