Evaluating Therapists
- Has extensive knowledge and experience working with children who use hearing aids and cochlear implants.
- Stays current in field, attending workshops, reading articles, observing other therapists, etc.
- Knows and understands the hierarchy of auditory skill development.
- Incorporates strategies and techniques to promote auditory-oral language development. For example, therapist: sits on side of child’s better hearing ear, watches for and encourages child to alert to sounds, brings everything back to auditory, uses Ling sounds (“ah, oo, ee, sh, s, m”) to ensure child’s device is working optimally every day, focuses on developing child’s speech and language through listening, uses auditory sandwich technique to encourage reliance on hearing (when working with child who is more visually based), uses typically development milestones as the guideline and benchmark when setting goals.
- Assesses child’s progress both informally (on an ongoing basis during therapy sessions) and through formal annual (once yearly) or semi-annual (every 6 months) evaluations in order to maintain up-to-date goals and to be sure child is progressing at an appropriate rate.
- Empowers parents to be the primary speech/language role model for their child.
- Makes sure parents understand strategies and techniques they can use at home with their child.
- Includes parents or other family members as active participants in child’s therapy sessions.
- Has knowledge of equipment and troubleshooting of child’s CI or hearing aid. Will ask questions or become familiar with the child’s hearing device if the device is new to the therapist.
- Is aware of potential noise sources and understands how noise negatively impacts communication. Helps children learn to identify such difficulties and to self-advocate in these situations.
- Maintains contact and open communication with child’s school or other therapists.
- In school setting, therapist collaborates with child’s teachers, is aware of the language and content of classroom instruction and reinforces skills the child needs for classroom success (e.g., the therapist: targets development of language skills children need to communicate within the classroom, pre-teaches vocabulary, identifies and targets development of social language abilities children need in the classroom, etc.).
