Scene: riding in the car with my children in the back seat

4yo: Where are we going?
Me: You have a dentist appointment today.
4yo: Huh?
Me: We are going to the dentist.
4yo: What?
Me: Tell me what you heard.
4yo: Dentist.
Me: Yes, you are going to the dentist. They will clean your teeth.

Often a child (or spouse, let’s be real, all of us to this at times!) falls in to the habit of responding “what?” or “huh?” without the proper auditory attention to the intended message. We get distracted by our phones, looking out the window, or competing background noise or action. The purpose of this strategy is for the adult to consider asking “What did you hear?” instead of an automatic repetition of the message. There are other variations that serve the same purpose:

“Which part did you hear?”
“What did you hear me say?”
“Tell me which parts you heard.”
“What [part] do you remember?”

These phrases serve to prompt the child to give back the part of the message that was heard and attempt to repair a communication breakdown. A breakdown can occur when the listener gives an incorrect, inappropriate, or absent response. (Fickenscher, S., & Gaffney, E. (2016). Auditory verbal strategies to build listening and spoken language skills. Retrieved from http://www.auditory-verbal-mentoring.com/contact/contact.php) *can also be retrieved from this website using the navigation at the top of the page*

Using one of these prompts after the breakdown holds the listener accountable for participating in the repair. Regular use of this strategy teaches a child [typicallly] that the adult expects the child to listen and respond. When the adult quickly repeats the message after the child responds “huh?” or “what?”, the child does not learn to trust their own hearing. They learn that is it not necessary to listen the first time a message is said.

Additionally, the response of the child to the prompt will give the adult information about what child may or may not have heard. Thinking diagnostically, the adult gains information about what needs to be changed or targeted to improve communication. Perhaps the child needs more processing time, better signal to noise ratio, eye contact, simplified vocabulary or phrase length, or schema on the topic. As the child thinks about what they heard, they can attend to fill in the blanks of missing information (Estabrooks, MacIver-Lux & Rhoades, 2016).

Yes, there are times when the child does in fact need the message repeated. Being diagnostic and aware of the child’s hearing and language skills will ensure that this strategy is being use appropriately. If this strategy is used haphazardly or condescendingly, it can create a hesitation or lack of confidence in the child and affect their self esteem. Be mindful of your tone of voice when you ask these questions. It is important to keep these moments encouraging!

Here is another example of how this strategy could be used:

A child is in a speech session with his speech language pathologist and they are working on auditory memory skills.

Adult: We are going to pretend to go shopping. I will tell you which items to put on our shopping list. I want you to remember what I say and put the items in the cart. Now, tell me what you will do.
Child: I will listen to food you say. I will put it in the cart.
Adult: Great! We need bananas, chocolate milk, bread, and cheese.
Child: Wait. What?
Adult: What did you hear me ask for?
Child: ummm. Bread, bananas and cheese.
Adult: Yes. What else did you hear?
Child: Milk?
Therapist makes a note that the child heard ‘milk’, but may have missed the beginning part of the phrase. She repeats the whole message using acoustic highlighting on the word ‘chocolate’.

The handout for this strategy can be downloaded by clicking this link. As always, the entire ebook can be downloaded by using the navigation at the top of the page.