Sound Foundation for Toddlers
These listening activities, designed for toddlers and young children with cochlear implants, will help build vocabulary and expand language complexity week-by-week.
Learning to hear, listen, speak, and use language to express yourself is a lifelong journey. For children with cochlear implants, these skills are an important building block in learning to communicate with the world. The Sound Foundation for Toddlers listening activities are designed to help children continue to develop their listening and spoken language skills with cochlear implants. For children who are new recipients of CochlearTM technology and have not been exposed to spoken language, regardless of age, Sound Foundation for Babies is the best place to start with developing initial language skills. For children who have mastered the skills and listening activities in Sound Foundation for Babies, the 40-week lesson plan in Sound Foundation for Toddlers will help continue to develop those skills and abilities with fun, kid-friendly listening exercises.
Weekly activities to do with your toddler
Your child will continue their listening journey with hearing and speech activities for toddlers. Lessons focus on identifying toys and animals by name, using words and greetings with familiar people, and understanding and answering common questions. Using themes like weather, a walk in the park, and preparing food, your child can interact with the language we use to describe common events.
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Week 1 |
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Week 2 |
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Week 3 |
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Week 4 |
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Week 5 |
The listening activities in these lessons are designed to help your child with auditory discrimination, understanding and using plurals, imitating animal sounds, and understanding and answering yes or no questions. These lessons can also help your child to recognize patterns around when certain sounds can be heard, during activities or at different times of the day.
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Week 6 |
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Week 7 |
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Week 8 |
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Week 9 |
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Week 10 |
These listening lessons will help your child learn to use language in new ways, including introducing new vocabulary words, listening games, and hearing contexts. Another important component of these activities is teaching your child to indicate when their cochlear implant or hearing device is not working. At this stage, your child should be able to communicate to you when they cannot hear sounds, so you can adjust any settings or change the batteries.
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Week 11 |
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Week 12 |
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Week 13 |
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Week 14 |
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Week 15 |
The auditory habilitation exercises in these lessons are designed to help your child practice common speaking patterns, including sorting by color and size, understand what words go together, and auditory memory for items and sequential order. Using household items, sound games, and singing, your child can continue to develop their spoken language skills.
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Week 16 |
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Week 17 |
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Week 18 |
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Week 19 |
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Week 20 |
In weeks 21-25, the listening activities will emphasize speaking four- to five-word sentences, listening to music for enjoyment, and listening to and comprehending age-appropriate books. These lessons also include prompts and ideas for talking to your child about emotions, how to express their feelings with words, and to understand early math concepts like counting.
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Week 21 |
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Week 22 |
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Week 23 |
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Week 24 |
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Week 25 |
These active listening exercises for children include listening to longer stories, identifying and using new vocabulary, and practicing the use of prepositions, possessives, and pronouns. Using themes like a trip to the garage, common playground scenarios, and differences between day and night, your child will practice using words related to less-common activities.
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Week 26 |
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Week 27 |
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Week 28 |
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Week 29 |
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Week 30 |
During these listening exercises, your child will begin practicing the comprehension of words and phrases in noise, more advanced counting activities, overhearing spoken language, and responding to correct you when you present incorrect auditory information. These activities indicate your child is advancing beyond learning to hear and understand language and beginning to use it to understand and interact with the world in social situations.
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Week 31 |
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Week 32 |
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Week 33 |
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Week 34 |
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Week 35 |
In the final lessons of Sound Foundations for Toddlers, your child will have practiced more advanced elements of early spoken language and may even have a vocabulary of up to 1,200 words. They should be practicing having two-way conversations with adults and learning new words each day, even when not specifically taught them.
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Week 36 |
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Week 37 |
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Week 38 |
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Week 39 |
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Week 40 |
After completing Sound Foundations for Toddlers with your child with a cochlear implant, you’ll be amazed at how far your child has come. Learning through familiar themes like playgrounds, nursery rhymes and field trips, your child will be practicing the skills of understanding and interacting with the world through spoken language.
If your child has mastered the lessons, vocabulary, and language use in Sound Foundation for Toddlers, we recommend advancing to Sound Foundation for Children to continue your child’s growth and mastery of listening, language, and speaking with the use of their cochlear implant.
Disclaimer
Please seek advice from your health professional about treatments for hearing loss. Outcomes may vary, and your health professional will advise you about the factors which could affect your outcome. Always read the instructions for use. Not all products are available in all countries. Please contact your local Cochlear representative for product information.
Views expressed are those of the individual. Consult your health professional to determine if you are a candidate for Cochlear technology.
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