What is Listening and Spoken Language?

Little Brains Grow Based on What They Experience

Babies are learners from day one. Your baby learns by absorbing information through their senses and through meaningful interactions with you and other caregivers. What they experience, especially what they hear, builds new connections in their brain.

As a parent, you need to know the status of your baby’s hearing first so your baby can access the sounds they need to build connections in their brain. If your baby is deaf or hard of hearing, they need properly fit hearing devices, such as hearing aids or cochlear implants. When they hear you talking and interacting with them, it helps build their brain for listening. Listening helps little brains make the connections that build understanding, vocabulary, literacy, problem solving, social skills, and more.

The first 3 ½ years of your baby’s life is a key time for learning language. LSL matters if you want your baby with hearing loss to listen and talk.

What’s Possible?

Most children with hearing loss can and do develop great listening, spoken language, and literacy skills – just like children with typical hearing. Parents often imagine singing their baby to sleep, being able to share family stories, and hearing their child say “I love you.” With LSL, this is possible for children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

We’ve created a moving docuseries, an inspiring podcast, and more to bring you real-life examples of how parents are helping their children with hearing loss do it all.

Know What You Want for Your Child’s Future

The diagnosis of hearing loss is often unexpected for many parents. In fact, over 95% of children with hearing loss are born to hearing parents so the diagnosis is often a complete surprise. There may be a lot of strong emotions in your family. On top of that, there are also a lot of new terms, procedures, people, and services to learn about. It can be hard to decide how to move forward.

With all the possibilities available to children with hearing loss today, the first step is to start with what you want for your child’s future. If you start with your dreams, the roadmap for the journey ahead becomes clearer. Think about all you want them to be able to do and accomplish throughout their life, like tell you they love you, make friends at school, and graduate from college. LSL makes those dreams possible.