FEATURE

TOP TEN Srategies for Parents

By Jill L. Bader, MA

accelerating strategies into their
everyday lives.

The TOP TEN Strategies are easy-to-learn, and easy-to-use. They should be taught to parents one at a time in weekly therapy sessions.
Guiding parents to use the TOP TEN within the context of their home environment greatly enhances the likelihood of parents
effectively interacting with their children in non-therapy time.

The TOP TEN training video and Parent Manual can be used in therapy sessions to train parents. The TOP TEN video shows a
strategy being taught to a parent and then that parent being coached as they practise using that strategy with their child. The children
on the video are all hearing impaired and range in age from 6 to 36 months. Parents are professionally coached while planting a garden, putting away toys or playing in the sandbox.

The TOP TEN Parent Manual includes a description of each of the TOP TEN Strategies. Each strategy has companion Notes to Parents written in very simple parent-friendly language. The manual is most helpful when used in conjunction with the video. The TOP TEN materials can be ordered from JBaderConsultant@aol.com for very minimal costs.

The first TOP TEN Strategy for Parents is Make Your Point, which helps parents learn to draw their child’s attention to sound. When a sound occurs, parents are taught to point to their ear, name the sound they hear, and then, imitate the sound. So, when the doorbell rings, parents would point to their ear and say “I hear the doorbell. Ding dong.”

The second TOP TEN Strategy for Parents is Yardstick, which helps parents establish good signal-to-noise ratio. Children hear best when they are within three feet or a“yardstick” distance from a sound. Parents are taught to stay in close proximity to their child when speaking by imagining that there is no more than a yardstick distance between their mouth and their child’s hearing aid or implant. Parents may move closer than three feet, but closer than six inches is not recommended because sound can then become distorted.

The third TOP TEN Strategy for Parents is Yardstick Level. It is easiest for a young listener to hear sound that is not only close (within a “yardstick”) but is also on the same level with microphone on their hearing aid or implant. A step stool is an inexpensive valued addition to your home. When your toddler climbs up to wash their hands or help you cook at the kitchen counter, they will be moving themselves into perfect listening position with your mouth level with their ear. This lessens the demand on you for lifting, bending and squatting.

The fourth TOP TEN Strategy for Parents is Where You Lead I Will Follow. This strategy helps parents talk about the object of
their child’s attention. Too often parents are talking about one thing and their child is looking at or thinking about something else. This mismatches language to thought. If a parent is talking to their child about the pretty butterfly, but the child is focused on a booboo on their finger, then the words being heard by the child do not match thoughts of the boo-boo. Parents need to follow their child’s lead and talk about the boo-boo.

The fifth TOP TEN Strategy is Radio Commentator. Language learning accelerates when a child has an adult who provides words to describe what their child is touching, tasting, hearing, seeing, and doing all day long. Much like a commentator on the radio describes the sights and sounds of an athletic event for his listening audience, parents must radio commentate the events in their child’s day.

The sixth TOP TEN Strategy is Cheap Hotel. When we go to a cheap hotel where the walls are paper thin, you may be able to tell if the people in the adjacent room are fighting or laughing, or hurrying out the door, even if you can’t hear the actual words being used. Why? Because words come fast when people are in a hurry and words get loud when people are fighting. In the same way, children gain a lot of information from these vocal clues of pace, pitch, tone, and timing of adult’s words, long before they understand the actual words their parents are
using. These vocal clues are called suprasegmentals. The Cheap Hotel strategy helps parents maximize the use of expressions rich in these clues. The greater the contrast in expressions commonly used, the quicker the child will learn them. For example, a child will learn the difference between open and close, if a parent says “Ooooopen” and “Close the door!” This is because open is said long and slow and the other is said short and quick.

The seventh TOP TEN Strategy is 1-2-3. Parents can check their child’s language comprehension and accelerate language growth by the use of 1-2-3. When giving your child a command, #1 Say “Get your coat” without touching, looking or pointing at the coat. If your child gets their coat with none of these visual clues, you know they understand that language. If not, go to #2 and say “Get your coat” then look at the coat. If the child still doesn’t get the coat, go to #3 and say “Get your coat,” look at the coat and point to the coat.

Repeat this every time your child needs to get their coat until the child gets their coat only after #1.

The eighth TOP TEN Strategy is Three Ring Circus which trains parents to diminish and control interfering background noise. Our homes are full of a million sounds: doorbells ringing, TV blaring, dishwasher whirring, telephone ringing. Parents need to get rid of the three ring sound circus in their homes so their unsophisticated new little listener has only one sound at a time to master. A child will come to understand the words in the bedtime story quicker if it is read with the TV and dishwasher off.

The ninth TOP TEN Strategy is Bore Me to Death. This is a strategy designed to maximize the use of repetition. Parents are encouraged to radio commentate daily repetitive events each time they occur. For example, if a parent commentates every time they open things all day (Oooopen the door, Oooopen the closet, Oooopen the car, Ooooopen the sack, Ooooopen the drawer.), that child will comprehend the language of open very quickly, even though the parent may be bored to death!

The tenth TOP TEN Strategy is The Brass Ring. The first nine strategies are about your child listening. The tenth one is about your child speaking. It simply trains a parent to delay gratification of their child’s wants until the child attempts a verbal request. Children have to learn that talking is powerful. Talking gets children what they want. If children get what they want without talking, the motivation to talk is diminished.
If, however, children get what they want quickly only when they talk, language learning is motivated and thereby accelerated.

These TOP TEN Strategies soon become a way of life. In the beginning it is hard to concentrate on pointing to your ear at every sound, moving within a yardstick distance of your child before you speak, commentate on your child’s experiences, and, and, and! But with time and practise, as you learn each strategy one at a time, it all comes together and becomes automatic.

These strategies will be used even when your child is grown. People who use hearing aids or implants will always be able to hear better without the three ring circus of background noise and when sounds are within a yardstick rather than farther away. Language that is repeated can be learned quicker and is never boring to the person learning it. TOP TEN Strategies will serve you and your child well once your child has appropriate amplification. The quicker parents learn to use TOP TEN, the quicker their child will learn to listen and speak.