Improving Sound Blending and Word Memory Difficulties in Children with CAPD

Question

What type of remediation approach(es) would you suggest for the child with auditory closure, sound blending and word memory problems? 

Answer

Auditory closure and sound blending are often used synonymously and can involve problems with combining the different parts of words or phrases to understand what was heard. Said another way, it’s the ability to close up or fill-in the missing parts of familiar or unfamiliar words.

Word Memory or auditory memory relates to the ability to recall something that was heard either recently or heard some time ago. Persons with auditory memory problems will have difficulty recalling the names of things, or difficulty pronouncing letters, words, numbers, etc.

I would recommend “Bottom-up” auditory training activities that focus on basic or developmental auditory skill development (i.e., sound localization, sound discrimination, phoneme recognition, word recognition, etc.).  Also games such as “Simon Says” (auditory attention game involving listening for the phrase “Simon says” before following a command), and  “Key-word” training (teaching of new vocabulary focusing on the phoneme placement in age appropriate key words), also, preferential seating in classrooms, and the use of visualization cuing while speaking. 

For auditory memory have child, while in training sessions, to re-verbalize instructions and directions.  Also, have child to repeat key words heard in conversations (i.e., names, colors, verbs, adjectives, etc.). Have child confirm what was said/heard before performing the task.

Dr. Ronald Jones, Ph.D., CCC-A, COI is a professor in the Department of Nursing and Allied Health, College of Science, Engineering and Technology at Norfolk State University, Norfolk, Virginia.  He is also the Coordinator of the Department's Communication Sciences and Disorders Program and Director of the NSU Hearing, Speech, Language, and Literacy Center. Dr. Jones' current research and teaching interests include aural rehabilitation management of deaf and hard of hearing children, auditory processing performance of young adults, voice science, and literacy acquisition, particularly, by racial and ethnic minority children.