Speechreading in Context:
A Guide for Practice
in Everyday Settings

Choose a topic area from those provided or from a classroom theme, activity, upcoming field trip, or recently-read storybook. If the clinician is planning the activity, it's important to be in touch with the classroom teacher, or better yet to spend time with the class as a whole to observe individual children's interests, interactive language skill in that environment, and literacy development. This kind of attention will help the clinician tailor the activities to the needs, interests, and aptitudes of each child.

Predict:

Discuss with the student(s) when the vocabulary related to the theme or topic might be used. Encourage the students to generate possible situations, discuss who might say what phrases, recall their own experiences with such interactions, etc.

Ask the students to generate specific vocabulary related to the topic. (Unless the children have a very high degree of intelligibility and comprehension in spoken language, it may be best to address vocabulary through spoken language only after the children have been exposed to it through sign language or reading. In other words, it is important that the children have a firm grasp of the concepts before focusing on speechreading the words/phrases.)

Include any vocabulary from the lists provided in this guide, from the classroom teacher, or of your own that you believe to be critical and appropriate for the particular students involved.

Write the vocabulary/phrases on the board or a flip chart and have them available in print form. If it is an age-appropriate goal, children may also write them in their own notebooks. Be sure to include any carrier phrases in written form, also.

Practice:

New vocabulary/phrases should be practiced with the student(s), thus introducing the target words/phrases in a controlled manner. It is also suggested that the student attempt to imitate the spoken word/phrase with or without voice depending on the skills of the child. This is not a good time to spend on correct articulation; however it may help some children internalize the form of the word if they attempt to repeat it. One possible progression for receptive practice is shown below:

• Present the target (word or phrase) in sign language and write it.
• Present it again in spoken English without signing and encourage the child to imitate it.
• Present it a third time in spoken English, indicating the print form.
• Present the phrases for the student to choose from a group of options which is appropriate, but challenging, to the student's ability (i.e., choose from a set of two or three).

The clinician and student(s) should brainstorm a role-play situation as it might happen, then role play it with props and physical actions if possible. For beginners, the role-play might only include the carrier phrase and the target. More advanced students might act out a trip to the store or another event that would generate a series of phrases. Some examples of role-plays follow:

• Explain to "Emily" that you are her parent and that you have just arrived to pick her up from after-school care. A number of words/phrases would be likely to come up that would fall under that categories of Family Vocabulary or Greetings.
• Create a restaurant with menus, tables, chairs, and fake or real food. The children would take turns being the patron, the waiter, the hostess, etc. The children would actually "experience" going to a restaurant in a safe learning environment.

When conducting the role-play situations, you may notice that a student is already able to speechread much of the basic vocabulary. If this occurs, use one of the options to increase the level of difficulty or add noise to challenge a child with more hearing. If, however, you notice that a child is not yet able to speechread some necessary vocabulary, or does not seem to grasp the concept, then back up and add a lesson to build concepts or practice those words and phrases.

Communicate:

Let the parents know what the theme is and some of the vocabulary. Ask for the family's assistance. The family will actually experience many of the role-play situations in real life. A real life experience for a prepared child is more effective and has more potential to build confidence than a therapeutic experience. Again, it is important that parents have been given a clear orientation to this concept and ideas about how they might incorporate practice in a way that is fun, comprehensible, and non-threatening for the child.