Reading Together: Tips for Parents of Children with Hearing Loss or Deafness

Helping your child love books

You’ll find sharing books together is a great way to bond with your son or daughter and help your child’s development at the same time. Give your child a great gift that will last for life — the love of books.

Hearing loss ranges from partial to total deafness. Some children can hear better with a hearing aid, cochlear implant, or FM system. Others cannot. Hearing loss may last only a short time, or it may never go away. Some children are born with hearing loss. Others develop it later in life. These factors affect the challenges your child will face in learning to read.

Tips for reading with your infant or toddler

Each time you read to your child, you are helping her brain to develop. So read to your child every day. Choose books that you think your child will enjoy. Books that rhyme or repeat the same sound are good for helping your child learn the sounds letters and words make.

Since younger children have short attention spans, try reading for a few minutes at a time at first. Then build up the time you read together. Your child will soon see reading time as fun time!

Here are some things you can try:

• Read the same story again and again. This will help your child catch words he may have missed before. Explain the story as needed.
• Make sure your child can see your face and the pictures. This will help your child follow the story, even if he doesn’t catch all the words.
• Have your child turn pages, touch the pictures, and lift the flaps. This will give your child practice using his hands, which gets him ready to sign.
• Use simple sign language as you read.

Suggested books for your infant

Choose board books with simple signs. Some titles include:

• Baby Signs (opens in a new window), by Joy Allen
• My First Book of Sign Language (opens in a new window), by Joan Holub
• Books by Annie Kubler, such as My First Signs (opens in a new window) and Sign and Sing Along: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (opens in a new window)

Suggested books for your toddler

• Books by Anthony Lewis, such as Meal Time (opens in a new window), My First Animal Signs (opens in a new window), and Play Time (opens in a new window)