WHAT METHODS CAN BE USED TO IMPROVE AUDITORY SHORT-TERM MEMORY?
INFANTS – Auditory function can be developed from birth if not before. The brain learns to hear by hearing. The infant in the quiet nursery at the back of the house has little opportunity to hear. The child in the center of the family room with two adults and six children has many opportunities to hear. We begin auditory training with the newborn, by first and foremost talking to them, face-to-face, smile-to-smile, as much as possible. We then play tapes, classical music, heavy on the Bach, repetitions of vowel sounds, tapes of older babies babbling, and nursery rhymes, and sound effects (jets taking off, fire engines, etc.) Any sound that appears to produce discomfort is stopped. As the child appears to be interpreting differences between sounds, the sound effects are cut back, and environmental tapes utilized. Environmental tapes would include sounds of a playground, supermarket, church, traffic, etc. TODDLER – The input, which we provide for the child changes as the child develops.
