15: Firing Imagination Through Play in Your Deaf or Hard of Hearing Child

Play offers children a safe and imaginative space to explore, express emotions, experiment, and fail, all without consequence. It is the perfect stage on which your deaf or hard of hearing child can practice talking, thinking, problem-solving and learning.In this fifteenth episode, Shefali Shah shares a delightful conversation with a young couple from her online AVT practice: parents of a cochlear implanted toddler, as they reflect on how their play epiodes have evolved. Through real-life play sequences, Shefali coaches them to move beyond factual exchanges, to expand play themes, embrace unpredictability, and fuel their child’s imagination.By modelling new ideas, introducing “Sabotage” to disrupt predictable patterns, and allowing space for their child to resolve play scenarios, the family discovers how imagination and language take flight together. They laugh, learn, and marvel at how creative their child has become!Move away from realistic routine and take flights of fantasy! Once you open up those doors you’ll be amazed by how quickly your child grabs these opportunities and flies with them, so that you can fly together! This is The Sound Steps Podcast.🎧 Top Tips from Episode 15 Play sets the stage. Play provides a secure, low pressure environment to grow your child’s expressive and cognitive skills Talk as you play. Extend conversations as you describe events, express emotions and explore feelings. Move away from predictable play patterns. Play does not have to be realistic: go beyond the routine!. Keep play going. Use open ended responses to extend both the game and conversation. Use Sabotage to introduce disruptions. Disrupt predictable play to provoke problem-solving and invite creative responses.  Wait for resolution. Give your child the space she needs to propose solutions and direct next steps. ·The unexpected fuels imagination and higher thinking. These moments foster inventiveness. Time Stamps:00:00:00 Introduction00:01:17 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents00:01:26 Choosing Auditory-Verbal Therapy for your deaf or hard of hearing child00:01:58 AVT facilitates age-appropriate development00:02:28 Abundant choices open up through AVT00:02:54 Early identification and the fitting of early and optimal amplification.00:03:01 A life free of limitations00:03:11 Show notes, Top tips and Time Stamps00:03:20 Links and contact details00:03:28 Resources00:03:34 Auditory-Verbal Techniques00:03:50 Auditory-Verbal Techniques: Sabotage00:04:15 Auditory-Verbal Techniques: Modelling00:04:47 Engaging your child in play00:05:16 Introducing our guests in this episode00:05:44 Pretend Play00:06:05 Keeping Conversation alive through play00:07:35 Firing imagination00:09:05 Young children playing together00:10:00 Exploring non-factual themes00:10:53 Pure imagination in play00:14:12 Sabotage: Disrupting play with a disaster00:14:38 Variations in the same play theme00:20:24 Play out play sequences in dreams00:21:47 Reflection00:22:15 Our next episode: Reading: Beyond WordsResources: 💬 Submit your question to the show: https://www.soundsteps.uk/podcast-ask-question/ 👩‍⚕️ Face-to-face AVT with Shefali Shah (London): https://soundsteps.uk 🌐 Online AVT sessions available via AVT Direct: https://avtdirect.com 🎓 Train online as an LSL professional in AVT: https://learnavt.com 📧 Contact Shefali directly: [email protected] 📚 Resources Elkind, D., (2006)The Power of Play: How Spontaneous, Imaginative Activitites Lead to Happier and Healthier Children, Perseus Books Estabrooks, D., Morrison, M., & MacIver-Lux, K. (2020). Auditory-Verbal Therapy: For Young Children with Hearing Loss and Their Families, and the Practitioners Who Guide Them (2nd ed.). Plural Publishing. Schwartz, S. (2004). The New Language of Toys: Teaching Communication Skills to Children With Special Needs, a Guide for Parents and Teachers. Woodbine House. Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University. (n.d.). Serve and Return Interaction Shapes Brain Architecture.  https://developingchild.harvard.edu