Getting Started with
Listening and Spoken
Language
Western Regional Early Childhood Conference
June 2017
Catherine Stephens Creamer MEd, LSLS Cert. AVEd
Goals for
Today
To practice diagnostic teaching that will
include:
Identifying the skills children have and
where to go next
Using techniques and strategies to
move forward quickly
Using techniques and strategies to
adapt the activity for better
understanding
A sense of urgency and a feeling
of irreplaceable time being lost
must permeate all of our efforts
with young children.
Mark Ross
Developmental
Synchrony
What is it?
What do we do when it is not?
Increase intentionality and intensity
Small steps that go quickly instead
of a lot of steps that go slowly
Some
Challenges
 Nurture Shock
 Object labeling
 Criss-cross labeling
 Not responding to Ling Sounds
 Staying in one place
 Reinforcement
 Using those diagnostic skills
 Teaching in “the Zone”
Zone of
Proximal
Development
Moving
toward
Use
Input
Imitation
Comprehension
USE
Diagnostic
Teaching
Observe the child
What if you are not getting
what you want?
Strategies for backing up
Strategies for going forward
There is no Cookbook
Helps us chose the
appropriate goal
Get
Talking
Children learn to talk by talking
Wait
Listen to what they are saying
More child talk
Set up the activity for talking
Get the back and forth going
Developing
Goals
Goal for the Child
Goal for the Parent
Appropriate goal for both
 Early Communication
The
Process
 Joint attention or joint reference
 Turntaking conversations
 Signaling of intentions
 Characteristics of Adult talk






Content
Prosodic features
Reductions in semantic and syntactic complexity
Increased repetition of their own utterances and those of the child
Strategies to clarify meaning or to keep the child talking
Increased responsiveness to the child
The
CPDT
A quick look at what to look for
A one page roadmap
Knowledge within the steps
Activities
Meet the goal
Give lots of turns for talking
Have to be fun and engaging
Play not test (say and questions)
Pace is important
Reinforce, reinforce, reinforce
Plan your
strategies
How can you make it easier?
How can you make it more
difficult?