RIDBC - hearing specialist

I went along to the RIDBC teleconference at the Australian Hearing venue this morning (with Annie and Raphael). The teacher had brought along a hearing specialist to talk about Raphael's hearing and language development.

She explained the stages of hearing and language development and she said that Raphael is still within the normal range for his age. She emphasised using cause and effect to encourage his hearing skills. Eg play a game with him and ask him if he wants more. If he responds (in anyway) then reward him with more of the game.

Point out sounds when they happen and what they mean. eg If you hear a door close then say "that was the door, I wonder who that was" and then take him to go and investigate. Also use simple sounds to associate with toys such as zooming planes and mooing cows.

We don't know how/if his face palsy will effect his speech yet, but it is encouraging that he can close his mouth.

When talking to him it is important to:

• get down to his level so he can see our faces
• speak in a normally volume to him (it is possible that louder volumes can be distorted in babies ears)
  
• speak clearly
• make sure there is no background noise

There are stages in hearing and speech development:

1. Listening skills
   
1. Detection (is there sound or no sound) - Raphael doesn't have a normal range of detection yet, but he can detect some sounds.
2. Discrimination - Determining one sound being distinct from another.
3. Identify sound - knows what a sound is (eg door slamming).
   
4. Comprehension - knows what a sound means eg understanding words such as ball to the level that if we say ball then he might look around for the ball.
2. Speech skills follow (although he might start experimenting with sounds sooner than this to imitate sounds).