Auditory Verbal Speech Therapy - The Hear Center - September 29, 2009 (Ella Marie just shy of 5 months old)

This week our goal continues to be looking for Ella Marie to change her pitch when she is vocalizing. Notes from our speech session are listed below:

• Not only does Ella Marie need to change her pitch, but everyone that works with Ella Marie should change their pitch in the sounds/words they make. As a hearing person we know that words, sentences, and conversation is not all in one pitch. Our voice changes in a conversation when something we say is interesting, sad, exciting, etc. It is important that we are already working on pitch changes (from low to high) with Ella Marie.
• Puppets are a great way to interest Ella Marie and get her to vocalize. Since Ella Marie is facinated with hands and fingers, puppets are great. We have ordered some from Oriental Trading and there are some on ebay as well that are still new.
• We should also continue doing patty cake with Ella Marie. We want to repeat the song and motions with her many times.
• Peek-a-boo books can never be use too much. When we are reading to her we are modeling pitch changes in our voice, but we are also getting her engaged in books. She really enjoys reading already.
• We continued with our noisemaker activities. This is where one of us is holding Ella Marie and the other person is presenting a sound behind her. We are looking for Ella Marie to respond/turn to sound. As always, we validate her when she hears the sound and point our ear and tell her that we heard the sound too. We say "I heard the cymbals Ella Marie" "Did you hear the cymbals?" We can let her touch the noisemaker but basically we are teaching her to listen. We discussed out the activity jumper/seat would be a great place to let Ella Marie sit during this activity (we have had more luck with the bumbo at this point she has had a hard time turning herself in the seat.).