2025 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 9-11, 2025 • Pittsburgh, PA
DAVID L. LAWRENCE CONVENTION CENTER
| Turning Snack Time into Language with Food
Turning Snack Time into Language with Food
Most children love snack time. For many preschool teachers, snack is an opportunity to provide children with nourishment and to take a break from the academic curriculum. Snack time also provides a natural opportunity to reinforce social interactions with peers and practice other social language constructs, such as requesting or making choices. However, utilizing snack time to also embed rich language-focused goals can maximize children’s learning experiences, and minimize lost critical learning time during the school day. Children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) are at risk for speech, language, and academic delays and benefit from targeted and explicit language instruction throughout the day and across the curriculum. This can be particularly valuable when facilitated within natural routines and environments to promote more meaningful integration and generalization of skills. By utilizing natural routines for language goals, the language is given semantic, pragmatic, social, and syntactic foundations in which to apply to real-world experiences. Preschool routines generally have a common snack component and provide natural opportunities to enhance or reinforce auditory perception development, language, or other academic targets. Snack activities need not be elaborate or expensive to be an effective, goal-oriented activity. This poster presentation will 1) facilitate discussion with educators and parents regarding the importance of embedded learning, 2) provide participants with practical suggestions for developing targeted and goal driven snack routines, whether simple or more elaborate, and 3) discuss suggestions for connecting weekly preschool themes with the snack activity. Although discussed in the context of preschool classrooms, this presentation will be relevant to parents and implementation of language-focused snack opportunities in the home.
- Participants will discuss the importance of creating embedded learning opportunities within a daily snack routine for children with language delays or who are DHH.
- Participants will discuss practical ways to facilitate language as part of a snack routine, including suggestions for both simple or more elaborate snack activities.
- Participants will discuss the importance of utilizing each segment of the day as a rich language-learning opportunity by connecting weekly preschool themes to the goal-focused snack activity.
Presentation:
3545975_18219LauriNelson.pdf
Handouts:
3545975_18219LauriNelson.pdf
Transcripts:
CART transcripts are NOT YET available, but will be posted shortly after the conference
Presenters/Authors
Kaitlin Dean
(Primary Presenter), Utah State University, a02402381@usu.edu;
Kaitlin Dean is a graduate student in the Listening and Spoken Language Interdisciplinary Deaf Education graduate training program at Utah State University.
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
Nonfinancial -
AAA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
Nonfinancial -
Ashley Parry
(Co-Presenter), Utah State University, a02311322@usu.edu;
Ashley Parry is a graduate student in the Listening and Spoken Language Interdisciplinary Deaf Education graduate training program at Utah State University.
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exists.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.
AAA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exists.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.
Lauri Nelson
(Co-Presenter), Utah State University, lauri.nelson@usu.edu;
Lauri Nelson is a Professor in the Department of Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education at Utah State University. She is the Director of the Listening and Spoken Language Deaf Education graduate training program, the Director of Sound Beginnings, and the Deaf Education Division Chair. She has a dual background as both a pediatric audiologist and LSL deaf educator.
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exists.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.
AAA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exists.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.