Strategy Terminology

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I have brought a slight intermission in the strategy series to discuss why I am spending time and energy into promoting this information.

The main reason is that I wish I had this information as a new professional. I was scrambling around trying to “gain” as many strategies as I could for my “toolbox” and felt lost on where to look. I had a few basic ones but the feedback I was getting in my mentoring was that I needed a more diverse toolbox. I felt really stumped by where to go for this diversification. This is where the push to corral the most common Auditory Verbal strategies began. What I learned through this process is that these strategies are good for anyone who is trying assist in developing language in a child. But I also learned that for Listening and Spoken Language instruction to be successful, these strategies need to be used proficiently.

Through researching the strategies, one stumbling block was which terms to use in sifting through the literature. Elizabeth Rosenzweig and Elaine Smolen conducted a survey to gain more information on these strategies and found that most of the respondents felt the same way. When we don’t have a list of what qualifies as a strategy, with commonly used terminology, how can we find what we are looking for? Below I will discuss some of the preliminary findings of Rosenzweig and Smolen in relationship to terminology.

Please respond in comments to which strategies you were familiar with and which ones you have a different name for. Some of these strategies have their own post already, but some will be discussed in the future.

Auditory Bombardment: providing numerous opportunities for a child to hear the target phoneme, sound or language (Dickson, 2010).

Other terms used:

  • input

  • bathing in sound

  • auditory soup

  • listening opportunities

The reason why I like Auditory Bombardment is because other professionals are familiar with this term, specifically in the Cycles Approach for phonological targets in speech therapy. It is more specific and clear than some other descriptors and helps a parent/caregiver remember the purpose of this strategy.

Auditory Sandwich: information is presented for the child to listen to before the introduction of visual or other support information is given to a child.  When visual information is needed to assist in comprehension, the information is then repeated in the initial auditory-only presentation.

Other terms used:

  • Circle of Listening

  • Listen, Listen, Look, Listen

  • Listening First and Last

Listen, Listen, Look, Listen is a great description of what is actually happening in this strategy. However, it is quite a mouthful to say. Any of these terms would make me think of the same steps but I prefer Auditory Sandwich purely for the imagery that it evokes. You (probably wouldn’t) leave off the top or bottom bread in a sandwich, it would be incomplete. Similarly, our instruction is incomplete when we do not emphasize the auditory signal after giving visual support.

Self-talk/parallel talk

Self-talk: an adult talks to the child about what the adult sees, does, or hears at any particular moment in time.  

Parallel talk: an adult talks to the child about what the child does, hears or sees at any particular moment in time.

Other terms used:

  • Modeling

  • Narration

  • Thinking Aloud

  • Sportscasting

These terms are very similar but deserve different terminology to describe their intricacies.

Modeling is a different strategy, and while similar, requires the child to respond. These strategies do not require the child to respond, though they may naturally repeat some of what they are hearing. The following three terms are descriptive but don’t quite capture the nuances of each approach.

Whisper: accomplished when the speaker turns off the voice and reduces the suprasegmental of intensity. Whispering is a form of acoustic highlighting.

Other terms used:

  • another type of acoustic highlighting

  • lowlighting

Whispering is a type of acoustic highlighting, just in a different direction that we typically think of. It is easily recognizable and done by adults. This is not to say that we know how to use it to elicit language, but we know what it means to change our voice. The skilled coach can explain when and why we use a whisper with children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Motherese: the singsong voice that parents naturally use when speaking to very young babies.

Other terms used:

  • parentese

  • baby talk

  • child directed speech

  • sing-song voice

We are now seeing more of a shift towards the terms “child directed speech” or “parentese” to be more inclusive of the varying dynamics in the families of children who are deaf or hard of hearing. These terms are more descriptive than baby talk or sing-song voice which can leave out the element of modeling appropriate language for young children.

I believe it is important for us to use common terminology in this field so that these strategies are equally accessible to professionals and parents/caregivers, regardless of where they are from. Terms that are easily understood and easily remembered become terms that are easily used.

Please share below your common terms and where you are from!