A sound start for listening

Week 15 Post Switch On.

We have finished our observation sessions at the Cochlear Implant Clinic now and have our last Mapping Session this week.  Effectively I have now been taught how to teach Harry how to listen. (say that quickly 20 times in a row)

If you read my last post I talked in detail about Harry’s listening and speech development. During my sessions at the CIC we have been looking at his awareness of sound, his understanding of the meaning of words and his ability to discriminate between words and environmental sounds.  Sound awareness is the first step in learning how to listen. A child starts to detect or respond to sounds around him once the implants have been switched on. Initially (being the first 3-4 months) Harry’s brain needs to distinguish between environmental sounds and voices. Environmental sounds such as the doorbell, the microwave ping, the coffee machine, a door knock are all part of his daily life and I am required to point out to him those sounds when they occur and say

“Listen Harry, hear that sound.

  That is a …”  and then repeat the sound if I can a few times so his brain has a chance to interpret and store that info for recollection when he hears the same sound in the future.

There are 6 core sounds referred to as LING 6 SOUNDS which represent different speech sounds from high to low pitch.

With these 6 sounds a child has access to all the speech sounds necessary for learning spoken language

.

A ( ahh sound) as in aeroplane

M (mmm sound) as in mummy, more

I ( ee sound) as in the  sound of a monkey or ee-or of a donkey

U (ooo sound) as in the  twit-twoo sound of an owl

SH as in Shh the baby is sleeping

The next step is associating meaning to sound. The child will start to associate a sound with its related object and start to recognise familiar phrases.  Sounds are now becoming meaningful to him.

AAA- aeroplane,  Pu-pu-pu-  boat,  Mooo- cow,  Brmm- beep , beep- car,  Baaaa- sheep, 

Cheep, cheep- baby chicken,  Meow- cat,  Woof, woof- dog

To associate meaning to sound it is simply spending as much time as we can , one on one, with no distractions or background noise, repeating the sounds with a toy, a puzzle piece, a book,  whatever we can , to show him that a sound is linked to an object.

At Week 15 we have clocked up the following words that Harry repeats and recognises as linked to an object:

1. Mumm- mummy
2. Baa- sheep
3. Moo- cow
4. shh- for baby sleeping