Hesperian Health Guides
Suggestions for helping your child learn
HealthWiki > Helping Children Who Are Deaf > Chapter 3: Guidelines for teaching language > Suggestions for helping your child learn
Contents
- 1 Let your child take the lead
- 2 Make communicating fun and useful
- 3 Let your child help you do work
- 4 Get your child's attention before you communicate
- 5 Sign or talk face to face, at eye level
- 6 Use gestures, touch, and expressions on the face
- 7 Reduce background distractions as much as possible
- 8 Change activities to suit your child
Let your child take the lead
Children are most eager to learn when they are doing something they like. If your child seems interested in something, or likes to play with a special toy, make that an opportunity to help her communicate or learn.
find a new game?
Let your child take the lead. It will keep her interested and help her learn that her decisions are important. She will know that she has some control over what happens. This is especially important for girls. In many places, girls are expected to be quiet and to follow instructions. Helping a girl make decisions and follow her own ideas can strengthen her confidence and abilities.
But just because you let your child take the lead does not mean you allow her to act badly or get into dangerous situations. Your guidance is important. And the knowledge you have about her language needs and abilities can help you guide her play so that she will learn.
Make communicating fun and useful
Children enjoy communicating when they have real things to sign or talk about, and people to sign or talk with. Try to give your child many opportunities to learn about the world and encourage her to sign and talk about what she is learning. Making conversation with your child will help her learn faster than if you ask her only to memorize and repeat signs and words.
Let your child help you do work
As your child helps you do your work, communicate with him about what you are doing. Use words or signs to ask him to help you do something, to get you tools, or to help in other ways. Your child will be more interested in paying attention and communicating when he is helping you do something you both value.
Get your child's attention before you communicate
A child who cannot hear well needs to watch your lips move or see you gesture or sign to understand you. He also gets a lot of information from seeing the look on your face. So it is important to wait until he is looking at you before you begin to talk or sign.
To get a child's attention, move or wave your hand where he can see you, call his name, touch him, or hit a nearby object to make a loud noise so the child can feel the vibrations.
Other ways to get your child's attention
If your child is more interested in an object than in what you are communicating, you can get his attention by stopping all action, bringing the object close to your face, or gesturing or signing near the object.
- Stop all action. If you completely stop moving, especially with an object in your hand, your child will probably look at you to see why you have stopped.
- Bring the object close to your face, so he can see your face and the object at the same time (if you want him to see your mouth).
- Point to or sign near the object (if you want him to learn a sign for the object).
At first, it can be hard to remember to get your child's full attention before you begin to communicate. But it gets much easier with practice.
Sign or talk face to face, at eye level
Your child will be able to understand more of what you say or sign if you squat down close to her (within about 1 meter, or 3 feet), and look her in the eye as you speak or sign.
If possible, try to have light from the sun or a lamp shining on your face, not from behind you. When the light comes from behind you, your face and hands will be in a shadow and harder to see.
It will be easier for your child to understand spoken words if you talk naturally and in a clear voice. Do not shout. Shouting makes the words harder to understand. Speak in short, simple sentences so you do not confuse her. It will be easier for your child to see your lips move if you do not have anything in or in front of your mouth while you are speaking.
If your child can hear a little
These suggestions may help her hear sounds a little better.
- Cupping a hand behind the ear can help more sound reach the ear.
- Speaking close to a child's ear can help her hear better. This makes sounds louder and lessens the amount of noise from the environment. Remember she also needs to see your face while you are talking to her.
Use gestures, touch, and expressions on the face
All people use body movements, touch, and expressions on the face to help people understand what they want to say. Children often use touch to communicate with each other. Children who cannot hear well find touch extremely useful. A touch will help communicate your care and concern in a way that nothing else can. Sometimes movements and looks can take the place of a word or sign. At other times they add information to words and signs.
Help your child by using your body and face to communicate as much as possible. First, try to notice how you already do this. Then look for ways to add to what you do.
Try to make sure that the messages you send with your body and face are the same as those you send with words and signs. If the messages of your face do not match your words, your child will be confused.
Reduce background distractions as much as possible
Background distractions, such as other children playing near your child, can make activities more difficult or even impossible to do. You can help by finding a place with few distractions. Try to get rid of any noises that are not necessary. When a room is noisy, a child who cannot hear well finds it more difficult to understand what is being said.
Change activities to suit your child
The activities in this book can help your child learn to communicate. But they are just examples of activities that can help a child learn. Watch your child carefully to see what interests him and makes him want to communicate — and also watch for what upsets him and makes him want to stop. Then you can think of ways to adapt the activities in this book so they will work better for your child and fit more easily into your family's daily activities.
You can also adapt these activities so they fit with your child's abilities. For example:
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 It is hot. Do you want some water? I want water too. |
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 If you use this sign for 'ball', Paulo can understand you. |
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 Did you hear? Someone is at the door. |
| Helping your child grow | |
| If you make these activities part of your family's everyday life, your child will have a childhood that is full of fun and learning. As he grows up he can: | |
| join in family conversations | develop friendships with other children |
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| go to school and learn a trade | |
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 meet other children and adults who are deaf or cannot hear well |
 and years from now, marry and have a family of his own.
He will be able to support his family and be involved in the community. | |
As you do the activities in this book, try to:
- be patient. Very young children can only pay attention for a few minutes at a time.
- be light-hearted. Learning activities will work only if they are fun for both of you.
Do not get discouraged. Do not expect immediate changes in a child's behavior. Your child will gain something from every activity, even if you do not notice it right away.