Parent Resources: Tips and Advice: AV Sessions at Home

AV SESSIONS AT HOME: [Back to Tips and Advice]
Tips by Virginia Durham

1.Quiet room - Do the sessions in a quiet room, with the door shut and all noisy sources switched off (computers, TV, music etc.). Put the answering machine on.
Put a note on the door telling others in the house not to come in.

2. Routine - Find a time that suits you and your child and stick to it. It will then become part of your daily routine and will be easier to stick to. Our daughter is an early bird so we find first thing in the morning (after breakfast) a good time: she is not tired, hungry and there is nothing else that has to be done then.

3. Be flexible - Try and remember that the aim is not to rush through all the planned activities, but to make the child listen and talk. If a task proves too difficult, adapt it, or shorten it.
Also , if one day your child is very enthusiastic, extend the session for longer than an hour. Similarly, if your child is very tired, shorten your session.

4. Preparation - Prepare your activities beforehand. I normally do it when Petra is in bed the night before.

5. Highchair - We used to put Petra in her highchair when young so she wouldn't be tempted to wonder off.

6. Surprise - Try and keep an element of surprise during the sessions. We use a huge wicker basket with all the planned therapy toys for the day in it. She can't see what is in it but I can, at a glance, see all the activities and therefore choose the order of them.
Also, we tried to keep "therapy toys" separate from normal ones and out of sight. This helps keep the interest going.

7. Easy task - Include something easy, not necessarily related to your current goals, in your basket; something your child enjoys and can do easily. Use this after a task your child has found particularly difficult. This will boost his/her confidence and keep him/her keen.

8. Rewards - If you are going through a stage when your child refuses to do the sessions, promise a reward or prize at the end ( a new toy that you may be introducing in your sessions, any little gadget that they then are allowed to keep; a sticker ... ). I did this with Petra for a little while. Now most days she demands that we "play with therapy toys" without the need for any incentive .

9. Holidays - I used to use these as opportunities for longer sessions (as there were no appointments to keep). I always did them early in the morning so that we would have the rest of the day free to go swimming/shopping/sightseeing etc. and involve Petra in these.
I always pack a bag of therapy toys when I go away on holiday. I make sure to include some board games which are excellent for involving other adults/ children that may be around

10. Material - Do look in ordinary toy shops/supermarkets/newsagents for toys/games/gadgets you could use. There are also catalogues that have specific therapy material. We have used HOPE (Tel 08451 202055 - they will send out free catalogues) and LDA (Tel.01945 463441 - They also send out a free catalogue). These however tend to be quite expensive so you must try not to get carried away.
You could also borrow/swap toys with a friend.

11. Favourite doll/animal - Introduce this in your session when attention starts to wonder. Ask the doll to do the activity and make the doll do it. I found this almost always worked.

12. Take turns - Let the child be the teacher some times.

13. Diary - I keep a diary of objectives next to the basket. This gets updated daily/weekly/monthly as the need arises. Glancing at it keeps me focused. It also prompts me to move on once an objective has been achieved

14. Control - Let the child think he has some control, e.g. give him a choice between 2 activities.

15. Model and expand anything your child says. Remember the goal is to get him talking, not to complete the task.

16. Pen and paper - Keep these handy to illustrate any new vocab/ideas that might come up. As your child progresses, you will find that you will use words rather than pictures to explain new vocab.

17.SMILE - Try to enjoy the sessions.

GENERAL TIPS

1. Post it-notes - Stick them around the house (fridge/bathroom mirror/bedroom) to remind you of goals during the day.

2. Radio aid - Keep it already set up in a visible and convenient place. Seeing it will prompt you to use it more, i.e. in car/supermarket/park/public transport/ birthday party (We always bring ours and give it to the entertainer or the person who directs the children on party games).

3.Socialise - Invite children (1 at a time we find works best) to encourage peer socialisation. I find that leaving the children alone works better at making them communicate with each other rather than interfering/giving them ideas on what to do. I normally try to get on with something else whilst always listening to what they are saying.

4. Strengths - Build on your individual family members' strengths.
I found I couldn't cope with the idea of doing AV all day, every day. So I became very disciplined about the structured sessions. You may be not too keen on daily sessions, but good at sticking to AV principles and apply objectives throughout the day. Try and build on your own strengths/your child's/your partner's; e.g. if your child likes books, use them. Petra and I used to spend hours sharing books as this was probably her favourite activity.
If your partner enjoys cooking, ask him to do it while you prepare tomorrow's session. At he weekend, get him to involve your child in the cooking.

5. Use grandparents/friends for occasional short beaks. We all need them - including the children.

6. Don't give up - it gets easier with time!

Finally I would like to share with you some ideas which I remember reading somewhere and which I found particularly helpful:

* Stop thinking about the past (You can't change it anyway). Stop worrying about the future (You can't fully predict it anyway). Concentrate on the present. Take things step by step.

* Don't let your child's deafness get into the way of a pleasant life (for you and your child).

DIFFERENT WAYS OF MAKING BABBLING FUN by Owen Kellie-Smith

We ground through a miserable exercise one night and then checked the notes. "N.B." said the notes "This has to be hysterically funny". Oops. Here are some games that were fun.

1. As a "ticket" to build up a fun game. (E.g. like Jacqueline does with the butterflies in the elephant - if you say what I said you get a butterfly to pop in the elephant.)

2. To unroll a secret message. A nice message (e.g. "There's ice-cream for pudding") is folded up. If you say the sound you can unroll another fold and get closer to the message.

3. While playing "follow-my-leader". You do what the person in front says and you say what they say.

4. Getting it wrong. The children tell the adult what to say and the adult gets it all wrong.

5. Going up stairs (though this can be a bit dangerous!). After each sound you all go up another step.

6. Bedtime story. This (pop-up) book: "Robert Crowther's most amazing Hide & Seek 123 Numbers Book" is terriffic. It's full of short phrases (one snail, two swans) - lots of s's at the start & end of words - snails, slugs, spiders, swans, snakes, fleas. You read it out and maybe your child is echoing you. If they miss a bit you can say "let's try that again". Then you're just over the moon when they give it a good go. At the end of the book there are "100 little creatures" so you can see which ones you recognise from earlier in the book.

7. In order to get something nice, like painted toenails. You repeat another sound to get another toenail painted.

SOME MORE IDEAS

Home therapy sessions
For parents who would like to do therapy sessions at home but somehow don't seem to manage it on a regular basis, my tip is to always have a session prepared (with all the materials needed ready in a box or bag somewhere handy). I have wasted many good opportunities, because by the time I knew what I wanted to do and had all the materials together, the usual demands of a family - feeds, nappies, sleeps and conflicts etc. - would thwart my plans. But being always prepared for a session, I can just take out the box and do it when a convenient gap in the day suddenly presents itself.

Event diary
In an event diary we record experiences that have been special to the child.
The Swiss auditory-verbal therapist Susanna Schmid-Giovannini uses it as one of the
most important therapy devices. Whenever something special has happened, the
parents record this on an A4 sheet of paper, either by making a drawing or
using photos. You write the language associated with the event using a
computer (Arial 14 or 16, I think), because this is easier to read for the
child (one goal of the diary is to help the child learn to read at an early
age). The purpose of the diary is to repeat new language in a fun way. The
diary puts the child, his/her feelings, activities, experiences at the
centre, something they love. They like looking at their book (usually a
ringbinder) and will remember the experience and practise the language that went with it. The children also enjoy showing their event diary to visitors and friends and are thus encouraged to relate the whole story again.
For a very young child, you write just a few words, use 3rd person singular
and the present tense, e.g.
'Peter plays in the paddling pool.
Splash! Doggy's jumping in the pool.
Now Peter's all wet.

The language used will become more sophisticated over the years. By the time the child is 8, the diary will contain longer stories, reports, cut-out maps, descriptions of the landscape, architecture etc.

A Polaroid camera can be very useful for keeping such a diary, because it allows you to complete your diary page the same day, when the memory of the event is still fresh.

Car games
Nowadays, a lot of people spend quite a large chunk of the day in the car. This can be an excellent auditory-verbal environment (no lip-reading, no major distractions, no running off), but you have to use a radio aid.

1. 'I spy with my little eye something beginning with ….' ( if no one can guess it, so much the better, because by giving clues you can work on conceptual thinking.

2. Memory games, e.g. 'I went on holiday and I took …. a pair of flip-flops, three white mice, a dinner jacket, two Walt Disney video tapes … etc. (take turns and try and remember all these)

3. Find words beginning with the letter on the number plate of the car in front. Take turns. Keep going until you have a different car in front.

4. How many can we count? All together. Let's count 'bridges' or 'lorries' or 'busses'. Depending on what it is, it can be a short spell of intense counting, or if something rare is counted, we can keep it going throughout the journey (How many cyclists did we see on the way to school today?); Increase the level of difficulty with time: How many white vans with number plates where the numbers make up 15 when you add them up?)

5. Make up a story by taking turns after every sentence.

6. Sing songs going through the alphabet, e.g. A - All things bright and beautiful, B- Baa Baa Black Sheep, C - Curlylocks etc.

7. Sing number songs - '10 green bottles', 'This old man' etc. (We're still working on 'On the first day of Christmas' - and that includes the adults)

8. Play when two adults are in the car: Read something out (from a book), then stop for a missing word. The others have to fill in the gap. You can practise auditory closure if you stop in the middle of a standard phrase. You can finish the sentence in a whole variety of ways, including some very funny ones.

9. Try and recite your favourite poems (No 1 in our family is 'Ning Nang Nong')

10. Choose a person (passer-by, someone you see in another car etc.) and make up a story about them including their name, profession, where they are going, where they have been and what they are going to do. Take turns. When it's your turn, make up something that is hilarious or appeals to the child's interests (I think this man could be a party entertainer, and he's got to go to a party at 4 o'clock where there will be lots of children but he has just realised that he has run out of balloons … etc.)