In session and at home
Listening and spoken language strategies
These are the techniques used in auditory-verbal therapy — and the ones caregivers are coached to use every day. Therapy is one hour a week. Family routines are all the rest.
Listening first
Before showing an object, a picture, or your mouth, give your child the chance to hear it. Presenting sound first builds the auditory pathway instead of letting vision do the work.
Try it: Say “I hear the dog — woof woof!” and pause before you point to the dog.
Acoustic highlighting
Make the target sound or word easier to hear by changing how you say it — slightly louder, slower, at a higher pitch, with a pause before it, or by placing it at the end of the sentence.
Try it: Instead of “Put the ball in the box,” try “Put it in the … box.”
The auditory sandwich
Present information by listening alone first. If your child does not get it, add a visual or gesture — then immediately return to listening alone. Sound, support, sound.
Try it: Say “Get your shoes.” If needed, point to the shoes. Then say “Get your shoes” again, listening only.
Wait time
Silence is a strategy. Children who are deaf or hard of hearing often need extra processing time before responding. Counting silently to five or ten feels long to adults and feels just right to a child who is working hard.
Try it: Ask your question, then count slowly to seven in your head before you say anything else.
Self-talk and parallel talk
Narrate what you are doing (self-talk) and what your child is doing (parallel talk). This floods the day with meaningful, connected language tied to something your child can see and feel.
Try it: “I'm pouring the milk. It's cold! Now I'm putting the cap back on.”
Expansion and extension
Take what your child says and give it back a little bigger. Expansion fills in the grammar; extension adds a new idea. Both show your child the next step without correcting them.
Try it: Child: “Doggy run.” You: “Yes! The doggy is running — he's running to the fence!”
Sabotage and expectant waiting
Gently set up situations that give your child a reason to communicate: a missing piece, a closed container, a shoe with no match. Then wait with an expectant look instead of fixing it.
Try it: Hand over the bubble jar with the lid on tight, look expectant, and wait for a request.
Learning to Listen Sounds
Pairing simple sounds with meaningful objects — “ahhh” for the airplane, “moo” for the cow — gives very young listeners early, highly detectable targets that bridge into real words.
Try it: Keep a basket of five toys with their sounds and play with the same set daily for a week.
Auditory closure
Leave off the last word of a familiar phrase or song and let your child fill it in from listening and memory. It builds prediction, vocabulary, and confidence all at once.
Try it: “Twinkle, twinkle, little …” and wait.
Building auditory memory
Gradually increase the number of items or critical elements your child must hold in mind — from one, to two, to three — across directions, stories, and songs.
Try it: “Get the red cup” → “Get the red cup and the spoon” → “Get the red cup, the spoon, and the napkin.”
Optimizing the listening environment
Distance, background noise, and reverberation all compete with speech. Small changes to where you sit and what is running in the background can make an enormous difference.
Try it: Turn off the TV, move within three feet, and sit on the side of the better-hearing ear or microphone.
Daily technology checks
Hearing technology only helps when it is working. A one-minute daily check — batteries, tubing, moisture, the Ling sounds — protects every other minute of the day.
Try it: Run through the Ling 6 sounds (ah, ee, oo, sh, s, m) each morning and note what your child detects.
Song, rhyme, and repetition
Predictable, repeated language gives a developing listener the same input again and again. Repetition is not boring — it is how auditory patterns get built.
Try it: Choose three songs and one book and repeat them all week before adding anything new.
Following your child's lead
Language sticks when it is attached to something a child already cares about. Join the play they chose rather than redirecting to the activity you planned.
Try it: Sit down at eye level, watch for thirty seconds, and talk about whatever they are already doing.
Want help putting these into practice?
Strategies work best when they are coached, practiced, and tailored to your child's specific listening age and goals. That is exactly what sessions are for.