REPORT 2010 - Telethon Speech and Hearing

Telethon Speech + Hearing 2010 Annual Report
Topics included management of hearing aids,
pausing and waiting for your child, introducing language
appropriate for your child’s age and stage of development
and how to extend that language. The children had fun
exploring different toys and engaging in activities which
included the farm, Easter bunnies, transport, meal times
and hospitals to name a few.
Throughout the year, the groups were supported by
psychologist Cath McPhee and occupational therapists
Bree Harmsen and Angie Coleman. Cath discussed
parent-child attachment, interaction and behaviour,
while Bree and Angie ensured our children’s sensory
skills and fine and gross motor development remained
on track. This included some messy play with shaving
foam, hand cream, water and pasta.
Chatterbox 2 and 3 playgroups were jam-packed with
different learning experiences. The children kicked off
the year by learning about themselves and their friends.
They also spent time discovering what is in their homes.
The children did some baking in the kitchen, had
a pyjama party in a bedroom setting and planted
seedlings in our garden.
They also enjoyed their time in the OT gym where they
explored obstacle courses, jumped on trampolines, threw
bean bags, scooted around on scooter boards and flew
down the flying fox. This year was full of fun with lots of
language learning experiences for the children.
Chatterbox Kindergarten
In 2010 eleven hearing impaired children graduated from
Chatterbox Kindy after having fulfilled and exceeded the
expectations of both teachers and parents, to become
independent and social ‘chatterboxes’.
The focus this year was to create a communicative
environment where the children were given many
learning situations and opportunities to talk and
interact with others.
As a dynamic program which works to meet the needs
of each child, a variety of interesting experiences were
offered including science experiments such as making
a paper helicopter, play dough boat and magnets.
These activities were highlights of the year and great fun.
The playgroups also learnt about different forms
of transport. The children and their parents had
fun making train carriages from cardboard boxes,
boats from milk cartons, buses from egg trays and
aeroplanes from cardboard rolls and popsticks.
The children also enjoyed dressing up as postmen,
chefs and doctors while learning about what each
person did. While the children were enjoying playing,
the parents were supported by psychologist Kathryn
Monaco in order to help develop their children’s
independence and social skills.
Gino, Annie and Owen making tool boxes for Father’s Day gifts
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