Champaign/Urbana

Programs

Toddler Groups

Toddlers with hearing loss and their parents may choose to attend the toddler group, one to three times weekly, depending on need and availability. Components of the toddler group program include: individual therapy, parent education and developmentally-appropriate activities designed to encourage and assist in the development of listening and spoken language skills. All toddler group sessions are conducted in a sound treated room to maximize learning opportunities for new listeners.

During the group session, structured activities demonstrate strategies for creating opportunities to develop spoken language and listening skills in a playful context. Non-structured activities demonstrate strategies for imbedding spoken language and listening opportunities into everyday activities.

During individual sessions, parents, child and therapist participate in structured and non-structured activities designed to develop the child's speech, language and listening skills. The main objective of individual sessions is to ensure that parents are comfortable implementing modeled strategies at home with the child.

Parent education sessions consist of lectures, videotape analysis of therapy, classroom and play interactions, the creation of materials used to develop children's spoken language and listening skills at home and opportunities to ask questions and discuss topics important to toddler parents.