Linguistic Input: Quality over Quantity

Often as parents, we’re sitting in our intervention sessions and being told about things like ‘linguistic bombardment’ and ‘narrating the play’ with our young DHH kids that essentially involves talking / signing about all that is happening to our child, around our child and with our child to provide that consistent and repetitive language input while they play.

And look I get it….

Our deaf and hard of hearing kids definitely need more linguistic input than their hearing peers. There is so much that is missed incidentally, that when we get the chance, we just want to overload them with everything and anything we have, right?!

But let’s not forget quality input vs the quantity of input…

If we simply bombard our kids with a never-ending stream of language input - what can tend to happen is we fall into this one-sided conversation where we just keep talking and asking questions and making statements without taking a breath in between!

But it’s those in between moments we need to be in tune with. Those moments of pause, between the narration and questions and remarks. Those moments where this beautiful and natural form of serve and return in our interactions with our child can begin to evolve and grow.

Many deaf and hard of hearing children require a longer processing time to understand the language they are receiving (signed or spoken!). Therefore, when we provide relevant, quality input that incorporates space and pause - we are actually giving our children the ‘breathing room’ and opportunity to formulate their own thoughts, ideas and understanding of language.

And this sparks the beginning of richer, deeper and more complex interactions between you and your child!

Clare x