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.

Bring abundance, variety and richness of experiences into every day. This positions your child to build new connections in language and thinking.

Observe your child and trust her. Resist pre-judging your child. 

Use Sabotage wisely. Intentional interruption invites natural language use and sustains attention.

Keep Modelling. This accelerates the development of receptive and expressive language in your deaf or hard of hearing toddler.

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