Welcome to The Sound Steps Podcast: Conversations in Auditory-Verbal Therapy, exploring fluent spoken language development, conversational competence, clear speech, and age-appropriate development, in children who are deaf or hard of hearing, through the transformative power of listening and parent-centred Auditory-Verbal Therapy, one sound step at a time.
In this fourth episode, Shefali Shah invites you to reflect on why we sometimes limit the nature and depth of our engagement with our deaf or hard of hearing toddler. Through this conversation she explains the repercussions of the assumptions we make about what our toddler can or cannot understand, on her spoken language development. When we pre‑judge our toddler’s ability, we unintentionally withhold the very language, stimulation, and interaction she needs to learn and thrive.
In conversation with Rashi Sanghi, mother of a bi-lateral cochlear implant recipient, in the early days of Auditory-Verbal Therapy, Shefali Shah guides, coaches, and reshapes her approach to spoken language development in her child with hearing loss, revisiting real moments of daily interaction. Together, they rework these situations to restore variety and richness, using the techniques of Auditory-Verbal Therapy such as Sabotage and Modelling to accelerate the development of both receptive and expressive spoken language.
Toddler development tells us that young children are constantly telling and showing us what they've understood and whether they are ready to move on. Are we observant enough to trust them?
This is The Sound Steps Podcast.
🎧 Top Tips from Episode 4
Bring abundance, variety and richness of experiences into every day. This positions your child to build new connections in language and thinking.

Time Stamps:

00:00:00 Introduction to this episode
00:01:03 Choosing Auditory-Verbal Therapy for your deaf or hard of hearing child
00:01:35 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents
00:01:41 AVT facilitates age-appropriate development
00:02:43 Abundant choices open up through AVT
00:03:07 Early identification and the fitting of early and optimal amplification.
00:03:15 A life free of limitations
00:03:24 Show notes, Top tips and Time Stamps
00:03:33Links and contact details
00:03:42 Resources on this topic
00:03:47 Introducing our guest: Rashi Sanghi
00:04:30 The Sound Steps Podcast is rooted in the real-life experiences of Sound Steps’ families
00:04:40 AV Techniques
00 :04:58: AV Technique: Sabotage
00:05:21: AV Technique: Modelling
00:05:52 Do we have preconceived notions about what our toddler can or will understand?
00:6:11 Explaining to our child through books
00:06:21 Hesitating
00:06:41 Doubt
00:06:58 How to determine readiness
00:07:07 Preparation
00:07:11 Can one ever know the readiness of another?
00:07:27 Trust your child
00:07:57 Holding off on pre-judging the other
00:08:09 Offer our child a banquet of experiences and spoken language opportunities
00:08:20 Abundance, Variety and Richness
00:08:33 Steady progress
00:09:36 Appreciating the other
00:10:00 Using the language of emotion and appreciation
00:10:20 Sufficiency of experiences
00:10:37 Bringing sufficiency into Follow-up
00:10:52 Generalisation
00:11:01 Sufficiency of experience generates a strong foundation with which to create
00:11:33 Creating new connections in language development
00:12:47 Modelling
00:13:10 Sabotage
00:13:44 Understanding that using one’s voice fulfils my needs.
00:14:58 Typical development in 21+ month olds
00:15:30 The need for generalisation
00:16:31 Bringing in the richness of linguistic experiences
00:16:40 Let’s not pre-judge
00:17:09 Lay out a diet of enriched language experiences
00:17:17 Encourage your child to show you what she wants to learn.
00:17:34 Using Sabotage to support the development of expressive language
00:18:52 Engage but also observe and analyse
00:19:36 The value of Generalisation.
00:20:20 Neural plasticity
00:20:45 Allow your child to demonstrate what she is ready to absorb
00:21:34 Steer engagement based on your child’s readiness and willingness as demonstrated
00:22:05Context conveys meaning
00:22:40 Let’s not put our children on a diet
00:22:47 Offer a feast
00:23:00 Reflection
00:23:35 Our next episode features a celebrity guest: Warren Estabrooks
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