Auditory Games for Babies

1
Auditory Games for Babies

• Part 3 Presentation 4
• Early Intervention Series
• Susan R. Easterbrooks
• Georgia State University

2
The Purpose of Auditory Games

• To promote auditory attending
• To promote auditory interactions
• To promote listening
• To relate speech sounds to experiences
• To provide parents with a source of activities
  for promoting the above

3
Premises

• Excluding the sleeping hours, the child with
  intact hearing listens and absorbs sounds around
  him for over 4000 hours during his first years of
  life. Ten minutes of auditory training daily for
  the five preschool years amounts to 300 hours,
  or not even one-tenth of the 4000 hours of
  listening and absorption time experienced by the
  child with ordinary hearing.
• Structured, lesson-like auditory training lacks
  the richness of communication affect experienced
  by the infant and preschooler in the home.
• When developing the listening function of the
  hearing impaired youngster, the above mentioned
  4000 prerequisite hours begins to accrue only
  with the initial fitting of hearing aids. Time
  from that point on has been referred to as the
  child's "listening age, so a 10 minute daily
  lesson is a high estimate.
• For these reasons, an alternative to structured
  lessons must be provided to babies who are
  learning to listen.
• Auditory Games are the alternative.

4
Criteria for Games

• Auditory games must have a sequential basis. The
  sequence of vowels taught in the Ling curriculum
  (Ling, 1978) is one framework. Vowels carry the
  most acoustic energy of any speech element.
  Mastery of the vowels and mastery of the voice go
  hand in hand. Vowels also form the basis for
  canonical babbling, the first communication event
  that is under the childs control.
• An auditory program must be something that
  parents can do easily and naturally that they
  will incorporate it into their routine
  interactions with ease and pleasure.

5
Rules of Thumb

• The child should wear binaural amplification at
  all times. Our brains are designed to process
  speech and language through two ears. Listening
  develops best with two hearing aids. Two aids are
  necessary for localization.
• Adults should get on a child's level
  physically. This will help enhance lip-reading
  skills as well as ensure that the speaker will be
  as close to the child's hearing aids as possible.
• Adults should talk as near to the child's aid as
  possible so as to approximate the distance
  between a parent who is holding or playing with
  his or her own child. The farther away you are
  from the aid, the less beneficial this early
  stimulation will be.

6

• Adults should use natural voice patterns of
  rhythm, inflection, and intensity. Use the voice
  quality you would use with any baby. Do not
  over-exaggerate.Do not talk overly loudly.
  Speak naturally.
• Choose a target phrase and repeat it as often as
  possible developing additional games to
  capitalize on that particular vowel combination.
•   New phrases should be added daily to the
  repertoire, slowly building up to a maximum level
  of stimulation.
• Follow a language curriculum as as well as an
  auditory curriculum, incorporating auditory
  skills into your language routines.

7

• Expect regional variations in pronunciation. The
  teacher and the parents should use their natural
  speech patterns and not attempt to match the
  dialects of one another.
• Repeat activities often and present in an
  organized progression. Sounds must be repeated
  frequently for many reasons.
• child may not be "listening" to what is being
  said
• his attention may have been diverted to another
  sound or to a visual stimulus
• you may have been too far away from the aid
  without realizing it
• child may not have heard you at all. Repetition
  is important
• In addition to target phrase, use words and
  phrases that are appropriate to the situation.
  After you have gone through the curriculum
  exposing the child to all sounds, repeat the
  sequence of activities which are appropriate for
  production activities.
•   HAVE FUN and don't stop talking!!

8
Characteristics of Stimuli

• Use the actual experience itself. Actually do the
  activity or show the object you are describing
  (e.g., a real baby).
• Use some three-dimensional representation of the
  concept you are talking about. Demonstrations,
  models, role-playing, and simulations are all
  appropriate (e.g., a baby doll).
• Use pictures of the actual object or experiences
  (e.g.,pictures of a real baby)with older babies.
• Use representations of pictures, such as
  drawings, cartoons, pictures in storybooks and
  coloring books, etc.

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• Vary the ways you represent information (real,
  3-D, pictures, etc.)
•  
• Use any activity that is inherently
  repetitive.For example, little children love to
  be bounced on your knees. Do this while saying
  "Bouncy bounce. Bouncy bounce." This activity is
  inherently repetitive in two fashions.
• the act is repetitive itself (You don't just
  bounce the child once and leave it at that!), so
  you will say the target sound and again and
  again.
• the act is inherently repetitive in that the
  child will initiate the activity, asking you to
  repeat it again and again.

10
Sequence of Vowel Combinations Start with
greatest distance (e.g., oa-ee). Move from
highest to lowest auditory, visual, and tactile
feedback

• Diphthongs i-e, a-e, oa, ou, u-e, oi
• Group 1 Vowels aw, -oo-, oo
• Group 2 Vowels -o-, -u-. er
• Group 3 Vowels ee. -a-. -i-. -e-

11
Highest Contrast Examples

• go to bed
•  
• Use this at bedtime or whenever your child goes
  down for his/her nap.
• Use this target as you put dollies to bed.
•  
• Look through "The Three Bears", "The Seven
  Dwarfs" or any story where children go to bed.
  Point out these pictures.
• Play a color matching game. Color and cut out
  ten little beds. Color and cut out ten little
  babies wrapped in blankets. Match the same color
  blanket to the same color bed. When child makes a
  match, say "Go to bed. Go to bed little baby. Go
  to bed."

12

• open the letter
• Let your child open your mall everyday. Use this
  target each time he/she opens a piece of mail.
•  
• Make mailboxes out of shoeboxes. Color or
  decorate them. Put Mommy on one box and the
  child's name on another box. Send letters back
  and forth to each other.
• Write a letter to grandma or friend. Have child
  draw a picture. Send it through the mail. Ask a
  friend or relative to have his or her picture
  taken opening the letter and another one of him
  or her holding up the picture. Comment on how the
  friend or relative opened the letter.
• Go visit daddy or mommy at the office. Walk
  around and look at people who are opening letters.

13
Medium Contrast Examples

• thank you
• Say "thank you'' anytime child gives you
  something. Enlist the aid of your family.
  Encourage them to say "thank you" to the child
  when he passes them a requested dish.
• Put objects such as blocks into a can. Have child
  hand you a block one at a time and put it into
  another can. Say, thank you" each time he hands
  you a block.. Repeat until child gets the idea.
  Switch roles. Hand him the block and encourage
  him to say "thank you''. 
• At Hardys or McDonald's, notice the "thank you"
  sign on the trash can. Point this out to the
  child. Make a game of throwing the trash away,
  one piece at a time. Each time you put a piece in
  say and point to the word ''thank you".

14

• bathroom
• When using the bathroom, say "bathroom. "We're
  in the bathroom. Lets go to the bathroom.
• If child indicates that he has to go to the
  bathroom say "bathroom". "You have to go to the
  bathroom. Let's go to the bathroom."
• When out shopping, take the child to the
  restaurant and department store. Say "bathroom)'.
  We're in the bathroom".
• When cleaning the bathroom ask child to help
  you. Let him scrub the tub. Say "bathroom".
• Play with a dollhouse. Point out the bathroom in
  the dollhouse.
•  
• Look through pictures in magazines and point out
  all the bathrooms.
•  

15

• cat food
• Let your child help scoop the cat food out of
  the cat food can. Say "cat food . "Get the cat
  food. Let s put down the cat food. Here's the cat
  food.''
• Go to the grocery store and point out the cans
  of cat food.
• Get a little stuffed kitty cat or kitty cat
  puppet. Pretend that the puppet is eating cat
  food and say Cat food. Eat the cat food".
• Look at pictures in magazines of cats eating cat
  food. Mate a collage out of pictures that you
  have cut from magazines. 

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Low or No Contrast Examples

• pat pat
• At nap time take turns patting each others
  back. Say "Pat, pat, pat, pat", in a sing song
  voice.
• After bath dab a powder puff into some loose
  powder and pat it on your arms, legs, tummy, etc.
  Say "Pat, pat, pat, pat. Pat your tummy, pat your
  knees. Pat, pat".
• Put your dollies to bed and pat their backs.
• Make cookies or a pie crust, let your child help
  you pat out the dough. Say "Pat, pat"

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• quack quack
• Visit a farm or public pond in your area, which
  has ducks. Listen to their sounds. Call attention
  to their quack quack sound and imitate it.
• Play with a rubber ducky in the bath tub. Say
  "Quack. quack" all the time.
• Point out ducks in books, magazines, coloring
  books, etc. and say "Quack quack"
• Pretend to be a mama duck with her little
  ducklings quacking behind her.

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• dance dance
• Turn on a record with a bouncy beat Dance to the
  music, saying "Dance, dance, dancey dance".
• Make your dolls dance. As you move their little
  legs, say Dance, dance, dancey dance".
• Draw eyes, nose and mouth on the back of your
  hand.With V fingers, make a hand person dance.
• When you see people dancing, say the target
  phrase.
• Make gingerbread men. Let them dance, dance,
  dance into your child's mouth each time she takes
  a bite.

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Other Auditory Activities

• Listening to music and dancing
• Singing
• Playing piano
• Reading a book
• Making a concept book (e.g., bath time)
• Focusing on characters in childrens literature
  (e.g., Mickey Mouse week)

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What Next?

• After parents become comfortable with playing
  auditory and visual games and with focusing on
  specific language objectives, it will be time to
  introduce structured listening objectives. These
  include
• Sequence of auditory skills
• (suprasegmentals, vowels, consonants, words,
  phrases)
• Levels of perception
• (identification, discrimination, identification,
  comprehension)
• Levels of difficulty
• (closed set, open set, varying levels of
  distraction)