Happy 4th of July!
A Message from Lee Rech, Executive Director, LSL Parent
I hope you’re having a wonderful summer. We held our first 2 weeks of summer camp, each met with rave reviews from parents and kiddos alike! Our camp series wraps up with Christmas in July and Rainforest themes. Arena Foundation, longtime donor, visited on June 7 hearing our campers in action and touring our new LSL Clinic. We’re always proud to share our progress and plans with loyal supporters!
SAVE the DATE: Saturday, July 23rd for Fun on the Farm, at the home of Kristen Perkins, All Ears! Team member. Beat the heat, have fun at the farm, and catch up with All Ears! Families. A special thank you to Kristen and her family for welcoming us to their farm!
See you there!
Lee Rech
New to the LSL Team
Welcome Marney Vitthal, SLP, to the All Ears! Team. Many of you know her from her volunteer time with your children this past spring. Marney will lead our Toddler class this fall.All Ears! continues to provide quality education through our specially trained, master’s level teachers.
Camp Kick-off
by Rosie Hirschfeld, M.S., LSL Education Coordinator, Lead Teacher
All Ears! Students and friends kicked off the first of four week- long camps available this summer. Campers stretched their auditory memory while listening for items to make a delicious carnival snack, practiced using prepositions while playing carnival games such as ring toss and cup stacking. Plenty of giggles were heard while campers fine-tuned their sound detection through the childhood favorite, musical chairs.
Say THAT Again!
by Allison Haggerty, M.S., CCC-SLP, LSLS Cert. AVT Director of Speech/LSL Intervention
Why does book sharing matter? Our children need to hear 40 MILLION words by the time they are 4 years of age. Sharing books is one of the BEST ways to build your child’s brain! It doesn’t matter what age your child is – newborn on up. Book sharing allows for bonding and when bonding is occurring, the brain is actually releasing chemicals that make learning possible. Teaching vocabulary must be purposeful for children with hearing loss and done in meaningful interactions. They need to hear words 10-12 times more than their peers with typical hearing to learn new words. Considering there are millions of words out there, books give a reason to use different vocabulary than the same old 1500-2000 words in a typical daily vocabulary. The number of words a child has when entering kindergarten is one of the number one factors in predicting academic success. Book sharing matters!
Learn about Lena
by Brandy DeMesme-Trosclair, M.S., LSLS Cert. AVT LSL interventionist/Parent Advisory and School Transition Coordinator
Parents and guardians, would you like to know the exact number of words your child hears in a day? Would you like to know if they were meaningful, within your child’s listening bubble? What about information on how much conversational interaction your child is receiving throughout the day? How about the number of vocalizations your child uses in day? Want to know how to support your child’s and family LSL journey?
Look no further! We now have the technology to give you all this information and more. It is called the Lena. The Lena device is a small “talk pedometer” that sends audio information to the Lena software to analyze data about the language environment in your home. Want to know more? Ask Brandy of the Parent Support Programs for more information. We look forward to hearing from you!
Pictured here: Our first Lena user!
Parent, Michaela Richard with the Lena DLP and Data Report Stay tuned for our new Literacy Program, rolling out soon!
Did you know?
Conroe Independent School District in some cases may contract with All Ears! to pay for all or part of your child’s LSL AVT? Check with your school district’s special education director to find out if service plans for Speech Language Pathology/LSL Intervention are available.
Save the Date
You won’t want to miss this year’s Clay Shoot! For sponsorship information or to register for the event visit the website.