learning to use a spoken language 107
How to help your child learn his first words
Your child will have to learn to watch your lips
and listen very carefully. So it is best to teach
only a few words at a time.
Watch your own lips in a mirror, or watch
other people’s lips when they talk, to see what
kinds of sounds can be seen on your lips.
Sometimes different sounds look the same on
the lips. You will soon see how hard it can be
to read lips.
the words ‘baby’, ‘maybe’,
and ‘pay me’ all look the
same on the lips.
To help a child learn a word:
1. Choose a few words that are easy to see on the lips. Some sounds
are easier to see than others. Sounds like ‘b’ where the lips start
to close and then open
are the easiest to see.
2. Choose words that are
Let’s play
ball. Give me
the ball.
easy to hear. Some
sounds are louder
than others. Some
of the loudest
sounds are ‘ah’
like in ‘mama’ or ‘papa’, ‘oo’ like in ‘book’ and ‘ee’ like in ‘street’.
These are good words to begin with.
3. It is easiest to hear a word if it is at the beginning or end of a
sentence.
4. To teach words, you
will have to use them
hundreds of times. So
choose words that can
be used in conversation
many times every day.
Now I’ll roll the
ball.
Ba.
Helping Children Who Are Deaf (2004)