• Talk naturally with your child, speaking without exaggerated facial (particularly mouth and tongue) movements and without the use of sign language.
• Emphasize the sounds of speech used with your child in the way that mothers do with hearing infants who are learning to talk (motherese).
• Understand normal child language and speech development.
• Take turns in therapy to give your child time to process what was said and time to respond.
• Encourage your child to use babbling and jargon as normal hearing infants do.

• Note to you the evidence that your child perceived some aspect of a speech or other sound signal whenever your child makes an auditory response.
• Help your child know that you expect a response to sound.
• Allow your child time to respond to sound. (PAUSE TIME)

• Emphasize that primary therapeutic goal is training your child to be aware of, attend to, and use sound.
• Keep accurate notes and /or videotaped records of your child's progress.
• Use information about normal hearing children's language and speech development when discussing your child's progress.
• Coordinate services with other professionals who may be involved with your child.

• After accessing the ability to hear speech, either through hearing aids or a cochlear implant, the child is assisted in developing auditory, language, and speech skills in a near normal manner.
• The Child then learns to develop receptive language, allowing the child to understand spoken language.
• Once the child has a strong auditory and receptive language base, expressive or spoken language will spontaneously follow.

Auditory Verbal therapy is helping your child to integrate hearing, language, and spontaneous speech into the child's personality. Through play and active involvement in everyday situation, listening can become a way of life. (Pollack 1985: Estabrooks & Samson 1992). Auditory-verbal therapy places a strong emphasis on detection of the hearing loss early, early fitting of hearing aids, continuing diagnostic therapy, and a strong partnership between the family and the professionals.

1. Wearing the hearing aids/ cochlear implant throughout all waking hours.
2. Checking the child's hearing aids/ cochlear implant multiple times throughout the day. This can be done through acoustics, like the Ling 6 sounds, and behavioral checks, does your child turn when called, respond consistently from day to day?
3. Using clear well-articulated speech when around the child
4. Reducing any background noise in the child's listening in environment.

• Bring a notebook to all therapy sessions; a three-ring binder with pockets and dividers will help to stay organized. This is used for you to record new goals, ideas for home activities, and used also to record your child's progress throughout the week.
• An experience book is used to record your daily activities with your child; this can be a photo album, scrapbook, even a notebook. It is used to look back on activities of the week, to discuss past experiences and also to encourage you to discuss daily activities. Often, with the beginning child, you may simply draw a stick figure or pictures, even small objects of where you went, or activities you did that day. Later with progress, you or your child may write small subheadings with pictures or stories.
• You will be asked to plan a few activities often and bring them to therapy, this enables you to think openly and freely about your child's goals and new ways you can work toward meeting them.
• You will interact with activities during the therapy session. My goal is to guide and teach you, the parent/caregiver, to help your child listen to the best of their ability. You are the primary teacher for your child with auditory-verbal therapy.

• Follow simple one step commands
• Develop object permanence; understand that an object continues to exist even when they can no longer see it.
• Vocalizes when spoken to
• Turns to localize where sound is coming from
• Talks to mirrors and toys
• Quiets when wearing hearing aids, and is noisy when they are off
• Reacts to hearing a loud sound by smiling, quieting, or being still
• Responds to noise-making toys
• Responds to environmental sounds (doorbells, telephones, knocking, barking, etc.)
• Responds to their name when called from a distance
• Reacts when a noise suddenly stops
• Indicates that they heard something, usually by pointing to ear, cochlear implant, hearing aids or looking puzzled.

• Talk to your child constantly, realizing that he/she can hear you
• Respond to your child's coos, gurgles, and babbling
• Talk to your child as you care for him or her throughout the day (diapering, getting dressed, fixing meals, trips to stores)
• Read colorful books to your child; talk about what is happing in the pictures.
• Tell nursery rhymes and sing songs
• Teach your child the names of everyday items and familiar people with a lot of repetition
• Take your child with you to new places and situations
• Play simple games with your child such as "peek-a-boo" and "pat-a-cake"
• Cover their favorite toys (while they are watching) and wait for responses
• Give your child toys that make different noises

• Stop an activity in response to "no"
• Identify and use words with different number of syllables
• Match similar objects
• Identify facial features (eyes, nose, mouth, hair)
• Imitate a variety of speech babble

• Reward and encourage early efforts at saying new words
• Talk to your baby about everything you're doing while you are with him/her
• Talk about new situation before you go, while you are there, and again when you are home
• Look at your child when he or she talks to you
• Describe what your child is doing, feeling, hearing
• Let your child listen to children's tapes and CD's
• Praise your child's efforts to communicate
• Repeat new words over and over
• Take your child on "listening walks"
• Let your child tell you answers to simple questions
• Read books every day, as parts of routines as well
• Listen attentively when your child talks to you
• Describe what you are doing, planning, thinking
• Have the child deliver simple messages for you
• Ask questions to get your child to think and talk
• Show the child you understand what he or she says bye answering, smiling, nodding your head
• Expand what the; child says, if he or she says, "more juice", you say, "Alex wants more juice."

• Using bingo stampers, let the child blot out a word or picture for his response.
• Cereal box book: cut the front and back and staple these together with blank sheets in between to create a notebook, homemade story book, or activity book, or your child's own photo album to learn acquaintances
• Baggie book: take a bunch of zip lock baggies, stack them, and staple the bottoms together. Cover the stapled bottom areas with cloth backed tape (silver duct tape). You can use these to hold pictures, objects, and pages for a story book.
• If you happen to run across a fancy fly swatter, (i.e. one that looks like a frog/ flip flop sandal) you can lay pictures representing the responses out on a table and let the child swat his response.
• When working on intensity, use small, medium, and large Dixie cups. Have the child place a mini marshmallow in the cup for their responses. When this activity is over, the child's bonus is that he gets to eat the marshmallows, fun fruits, etc.
• When working on critical elements, try using plastic food on a plate.
• Make up some "matching" worksheets. Have the child use licorice sticks instead of a pencil to do his matching.
• Place stickers representing possible responses on the child's fingers. Have them hold up a finger for their response.
• Instead of using typical game board pieces, use cheerios or mini-marshmallows.