Auditory Training for Connected Speech Skills

Audience: Teachers of the deaf, special education classroom teachers, itinerants, pediatric speech-language pathologists

To engage with others in natural environments such as play, school and home, children need the ability to understand phrases and sentences. We call this skill connected speech perception. Auditory Training for Connected Speech is the last in a series of four self-paced courses created to save teachers and SLPs time in helping children from age 2-12 develop fundamental auditory skills using the CID Speech Perception Instructional Curriculum and Evaluation, or SPICE. Comprehension of connected speech is the fourth goal in the systematic application of the curriculum.

This course builds on Courses 1, 2 and 3 of our four-part series on SPICE. After a child who is deaf or hard of hearing can detect speech and perceive suprasegmental features, vowels and consonants, he is ready to perceive and understand connected speech. Even if you don’t have the SPICE materials, you can apply the concepts and principles covered in this series. In fact, in this course you will need to use your own materials for most of the activities that support the connected speech goals.

The course covers strategies for teaching, tracking and collecting data as a systematic approach to helping children learn to understand connected and conversational speech. The goals for the child are to identify key words in sentences, to follow directions, to repeat practiced sentences, to converse with picture context, to converse about a familiar topic and to engage in connected discourse tracking.

The course includes classroom video so you can see effective teaching practices in action.

Learning Outcomes

Participants will be able to:

• Evaluate a child’s comprehension of connected speech.
• Describe considerations for designing connected speech lessons for children of different ages and abilities.
• Describe strategies to teach comprehension of connected speech.

Length:  Approximately 30 minutes

Continuing Education Credits

.5 LSLS CEUs, AG Bell Academy

Disclosure Statement

Financial: At the time this course was produced, Ms. Manley was the Associate Coordinator of the Emerson Center for Professional Development at CID – Central Institute for the Deaf.

Non-financial: Ms. Manley is the author of the SPICE 2nd Edition (Speech Perception Instructional Curriculum and Evaluation) auditory training curriculum. CID holds the copyright to the SPICE 2nd Edition. Ms. Manley receives no royalties or financial benefit from its sale.

CID – Central Institute for the Deaf has developed and published an auditory learning curriculum trademarked as SPICE (Speech Perception Instructional Curriculum and Evaluation). This presentation will focus on the SPICE auditory learning curriculum and evaluation, and will include limited information on similar or related products.