MED-EL Lesson Kit for Babies 3

Young children learn from those around them and through exploring their environment.[2,4,5] As young children begin to crawl and walk, they begin to access, explore and learn from their environments in new ways. It is also as young children with hearing loss begin to move more that staying close to the child to provide linguistic input in optimal auditory conditions becomes more difficult.

Helping Young Children With Hearing Loss to Learn Verbs

To support caregivers of children with hearing loss to provide high quality and quantity of linguistic input in meaningful situations, the final lesson kit in the MED-EL Lesson Kits for Babies series focuses on the topic of movement. As verbs and verb morphology may be more difficult (than nouns) for children with hearing loss to learn,[3] young children with hearing loss may benefit from more instruction to help them learn verbs.

By using themes of daily routines, simple play and songs, the lesson kits aim to provide rehabilitation specialists ideas and guidance for intervention that offer meaningful learning activities for young children, but also activities that are easily able to be repeated and practiced by the caregiver independently. As caregiver involvement in facilitating their child’s hearing device use and communication development is essential,[1] the lesson kits provide guidance for caregiver coaching to support their involvement.

What’s Included in MED-EL Lesson Kit for Babies 3: Let’s Move

The MED-EL Lesson Kit for Babies 3 Let’s Move includes lesson plans, therapist notes and guidance for using block towers, vehicle play and experience books to target verbs in meaningful play in cochlear implant rehabilitation with babies and their families. The resource also includes a rhyming story book based on the movement theme.

Free Download: Lesson Kit for Babies 3: Let’s Move

For more information on how to use them, access the Lesson Kits for Babies video tutorial on the MED-EL Academy after logging into your myMED-EL account.

Previous Lesson Kits for Babies

Free Download: Lesson Kit for Babies 1: Routines

Free Download: Lesson Kit for Babies 2: Mess

Special thanks to Natalie Teakle, Advanced Rehabilitation Manager at MED-EL,  for writing and contributing to this article.

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References

1. Ambrose, S. E., Appenzeller, M., Mai, A., & DesJardin, J. L. (2020). Beliefs and self-efficacy of parents of young children with hearing loss. Journal of early hearing detection and intervention, 5(1), 73. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7523736/
2. Cantor, P., Osher, D., Berg, J., Steyer, L., & Rose, T. (2019). Malleability, plasticity, and individuality: How children learn and develop in context. Applied Developmental Science, 23(4), 307-337. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2017.1398649
3. Koehlinger, K. M., Van Horne, A. J. O., & Moeller, M. P. (2013). Grammatical outcomes of 3-and 6-year-old children who are hard of hearing. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 56(5), 1701-1714. https://doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2013/12-0188)
4. Landry, S. H. (2008). The role of parents in early childhood learning. Encyclopedia on early childhood development, 1-6. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=a38f20b9f6a95b68f252ba6be244134073625229
5. Robson, K. & Mastrangelo, S. (2018). Children’s views of the learning environment: A study exploring the Reggio Emilia principle of the environment as the third teacher. Journal of Childhood Studies, 42 (4), 1–16. https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/jcs/article/view/18100/7613