Oh, The ALG, My Bible
This chart is literally everything when you get a newly diagnosed child (hearing loss). No matter the age of the child, this is the guide to how they listen and learn language. It's broken down into 5 levels: Sound Awareness, Phoneme Level, Discourse Level, Sentence Level and Word Level. Each section also has its respective sections of development based on years (1yr-4yrs). This is the average typical development of language in a child who is deaf or hard of hearing from the time they get their listening devices. IMPORTANT, realize that I said FROM THE TIME THEY GET THEIR LISTENING DEVICES. As a TOD, all our children have 2 ages, their chronological age (the age they actually are) as well as their listening age (how long they have been LISTENING aka, since they've been fitted with their listening devices). A child can be 5 years old (chronological age) but could have just been fitted with listening devices 2 months ago, so their listening age is 2 month old. Sometimes this discrepancy is small, but sometimes it is large. It's all dependent on the child! We typically use this chart with children post-implantation, but I also use it with my children who are newly fitted with hearing aids and have a severe hearing loss.
I use this chart to determine my goals for the child. When they are newly amplified, I always start from step one in each section, and then work my way down. It's not uncommon to see kids scattered across each level. In fact, it's more UNCOMMON to see a perfect progression throughout each section. Everyone learns differently and has skills in different areas; never forget that!
Every month, I review where we are in this chart with the caregiver (parent, aunts, uncles, babysitters etc...whoever is with the child the most!). We choose goals from each section for the next month. Trust me, after a few months, you'll know how many goals will most likely be obtainable for your child! Some children can have a fews goals each month, others, you'll need to choose just one or two. Sometimes, you'll have the same goal for 3 months straight! And thats ok. Maybe you'll have the same goal for 3 months in one section, but need to pick a new goal in two other sections every month. It also highly depends on how often you see them a week (just once? three times?) and how involved the parents are. Somehow, I have been SO lucky that all of my parents are highly involved in my therapy and the carry over is truly flawless. It makes my job easier and gives the child the practice they need to obtain these goals as fast as possible.
The idea of this post is, USE THIS GUIDE. Its everything you'll ever need to be successful in your sessions with your kids. And be open and honest with the caregivers. Show them this guide, show them where you're getting your goals, sit down together and choose them each month, give them examples on how they can work on these goals with things that they have in their own home, explain to them that it's perfectly normal to be all over the chart! I crosshatch green over goals that are met, I find that being visual really helps to show the caregivers all the great things that their child is accomplishing. Positivity is key, there's nothing more important than creating a positive and optimistic environment during your sessions. No matter how your session is going, if you keep that warm and encouraging environment for not only your child, but the caregiver as well, you'll always leave knowing that you accomplished something worthwhile.
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