AVT in action

I've been wanting to blog this for quite some time and I only have one part of it captioned...so i will go ahead and just show just the one clip that I have finished and save the other for a later date. Andrew and I did one of the weekly activities from hearing journey. To be honest, he is well past this and we normally do most of our listening practice during every day activities...but I thought I'd show how you can mix things up a bit. First, the idea behind this activity was for Andrew to listen to where I was asking him to put the treats and I would do the same to my hidden snack mat. We then compare to see if he is right. But you do not need to print out anything- any doll, plastic McDonalds toy, plastic or real food, or even blocks will do. The idea is to provide language just at and above where your child is at developmentally. If a child is just beginning, you might GIVE a child a toy french fry and say..."moooo." Then they would give it to the cow. You may have to START by showing them what to do a time or two. When they are advanced, still practice listening but add several treats and several 'people' or things to give the treats to as we did in this video. Also use voice inflection changes (such as I did with 'really') to indicate an idea. You can use words like 'each' or 'many' as well. I read somewhere that a person's auditory memory is their age- up to a certain age LOL..I know I can't remember over 40 things in a row!!! But don't worry so much about that...give some success at what there level is then bump it up a notch. A wonderful AVT told me to not let them get it wrong more than 2 or 3 times max. I'm famous for drill and skill which is not a way to make a happy auditory camper!

Andrew also has adhd and 'other.' I make our sit down lessons SHORT...very short. Five minutes tops! And I have learned ways to re-direct over the years. In this case, I just ignored his errant comments.