Homes with multiple children and pets can be hectic and loud, requiring extra attention to everyone and stressful for families. Especially being at home at this time, being mindful of your child’s ability to hear will be especially important.
Infants
Ear infections are more frequent in babies who have hearing aids because fluid becomes trapped in the middle ear due to the earmold. Consider that it will be helpful to have a prescription for alleviating eat pain and infection.
Preschool – School Aged Children:
With older children, who are remote learning, are the batteries working? Have extra ones on hand. because without working these may be affecting a student’s ability to concentrate and complete their work. A number of different ways of enhancing hearing function are detailed in a scholarly article published in ASHA’s American Journal of Audiology. Consider that there are headsets with a feature to help them. Your child may not necessarily tell you; but in this state of crisis at home and in the community this isn’t something to forget. If you are stressed and your child is not looking at you or responding to you for example auditory function may be compromised. Are they pulling at their ear and fussy? Consider that hearing may be a factor.
ASHA encourages everyone to enjoy these devices safely by taking three basic steps:
- lower the volume
- limit the time spent listening
- wear earphones that go around the ear or fit deeper into the ear to better isolate wanted sound and reduce the need to increase the volume
Referenced in articles published by the American Speech Language Hearing Association, Alexa Skill Blueprints may be helpful for your school aged child who needs to complete homework. https://blueprints.amazon.com/home As an example, the program can create a spelling test
The Spelling Bee
Create an interactive spelling bee themed tale.MAKE YOUR OWN
Hear a sample of The Spelling Bee
“Alexa, open the Spelling Bee”
Alexa: Welcome to the Spelling Bee. This story has three blanks in it. To change a blank, say ‘Alexa, undo.’ Let’s get started. Please say a child’s name.
“Aloise”
Alexa: You said Aloise. Ok. […] Are you ready to hear your story?
HOW TO CREATE
- Get inspired by the sample story
- Customize it, or start from scratch
- Drop in sound effects, fun expressions, and pauses
- Create interactive “blanks” to fill in while you listen
- Pick a name for your skill
- Give your child access to this skill in FreeTime. Go to Amazon Parent Dashboard, tap on the settings icon next to your child’s name, select Add Content, go to the Alexa Skills tab, and then toggle your Blueprint skill on
HOW TO USE
Gather your audience. When you play the story, Alexa asks listeners to fill in the blanks and then reads the story.
Resource:
