Little Ears
Little Ears provides early intervention speech and language services, including direct therapy and parent-coaching, to deaf/hard-of-hearing children and their families within their natural environment to support their overall speech and language development.
Clinician's Stance
Our clinician believe that spoken language and signed language are equally valid languages and forms of communication that can be both be used to support a D/HH child's development.
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Our goal is to ensure that NO child falls victim to language deprivation as a result of not having access to language. A child's method of communication depends heavily on many factors, but the most important factor is...
accessibility to that language.
We also strongly believe that as long as a child has access to robust language models, the child will be successful no matter the language or modality.
It is up to the team (parents, professionals, and CHILD) to determine what language(s) and modality/ies serves them best.
Goals of Intervention
We aim to...
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Work closely with each family to ensure that no child falls victim to in the most critical years for language development.
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Provide children with rich, multi-sensory language options and experiences to ensure they can effectively communicate their wants/needs and determine their communication preference(s).
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Ensure that all language input is presented in a full, robust form by fluent language models.
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Provide caregiver-coaching so that effective and evidence-based language strategies may be embedded into routines and play to facilitate language development outside of therapy sessions.
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To “close the gap” between developmentally appropriate milestones and child's current level to catch them up to their peers.
Early Intervention
If you are noticing that your little one is not quite reaching their language milestones, the best time to seek support is now! Early intervention facilitates the most success for your little one because their brain is the most flexible and primed for language at this time. The longer you "wait and see", the longer your child is not receiving the supports they may desperately need and the more difficult it will become for them to catch up.
Natural Environment
Providing therapy within the child's home or natural environment promotes faster generalization of skills. It also allows caregivers to learn how they can implement strategies into play using toys or materials they already have, or embed strategies into their daily routines.
This may look like providing therapy in the child's home, backyard, daycare center, during daily routines, at the park, or other naturalistic setting!
Child-Led Therapy
Children learn through play. Not only does it have amazing global developmental benefits and facilitate a strong connection with your little one, but it also offers a natural context for communication. This provides multi-sensory experiences, minimizes pressure, promotes repetition, and provides developmentally appropriate access to language for your child.
Ultimately, using play as a delivery model for therapy leads to richer language intervention and greater overall success.
Caregiver Coaching
The opportunity to provide caregiver-coaching is one of the most important factors for facilitating a child's success. While direct therapy from a certified therapist is certainly beneficial, those 60-minutes per week are not enough. That leaves 23 more hours in the week that could be opportunities for implementing language strategies!
Caregivers LEARNING to implement supportive strategies allows for consistent and repetitive intervention within the child's natural setting.
This will lead to faster, more effective progress!
