Sensory Impairment Service (SIS): Learning at Home With a Child With a Hearing Impairment - NNC and WNC

Tips for Parents 

Daily Checks: Together carry out daily maintenance checks of their equipment (Hearing aids, CI processors, BAHAs)- Practice putting their equipment on/off with the help of a mirror.

Environment: Create a quiet, distraction free space in the house for when they are doing focused work. Turn the radio, TV off for this period of time.

Instructions: Read the instructions together, are there any new words that need to be explored?

New Vocabulary: Your child may like to keep a log of any new words they have discovered in their work with a picture or image to help them remember what it means.

Comprehension: Before they start an activity check they understand what is being asked of them. Use open questions; get them to explain to you what they have to do.

Evaluate: At the end of the activity ask them what they have; learned, remembered, enjoyed, found tricky.

Rest Breaks: Short, varied and frequent activities are better than fewer and longer. Take rest breaks between activities.

Expressive Skills: Give your child lots of opportunities for conversation so they can develop their language and learn new words and phrases e.g. pretend interviews, plays, shop keeper etc. 

Reading: Read with your child and encourage them to read a wide range of texts- non-fiction, fiction, magazines, recipes, and comics. Ask them questions about the texts as you go along.

Receptive Skills: Having opportunities to listen and practice auditory skills and follow instructions through fun activities.

Hands-On: Create opportunities to learn by creative play and hands on activities e.g. baking, Lego, Play-Doh, painting, pretend shopping, etc.

Writing: Create their own diaries, stories, plays and then let them read them to the family or video themselves. 

This is not an exhaustive list, so please contact your Qualified Teacher of the Deaf for further advice if needed.