Target Group 

 

Listen-Hear is intended as an aural habilitative tool to assist professionals and parents working with hearing impaired children aged three to ten. It is intended for use with children who have been fit with hearing aids or have received a cochlear implant. However, any child who needs help with listening skills or general language development should benefit from this program.

 

 

Configuring the Program and Selecting Tasks< name="config">
 

Before beginning training with Listen-Hear, the first step is to configure the program to suit the needs of the individual child. Following the initial welcome screen, click on the Player button on the left to enter the child's name. The therapist's name, the desired number of repeats, and the feedback option can be configured using the Options button. This information can be entered by the parent or therapist prior to the session and will be used by the program until it is explicitly changed.

Next, click the Activity button on the side menu to select the tasks the game will play. The first selection to be made involves three choices: Ling-6 Sound Task, Familiarize, and Practice (or Training) Activities. The Ling-6 Sound Task should be done initially to ensure that the sound level is adequate for the child.

The Familiarize Task should also be completed when you first use a task, as this introduces the child to the items that will be presented in the games.

The Practice Activities/Training Selections are the actual tasks or levels of the program. Select the desired activities by clicking the boxes before them. If you choose more than one, Listen-Hear will automatically queue the next selected task after the previous one has been completed. If you do not configure this option manually, all tasks are selected by default. 

 

Game Options

The characters displayed on the main screen will each play a different game. Games will be based on the specific activities previously chosen within the side menu of the main screen. The characters will allow you to play a list of the following games:

 

A Day at the Zoo

In this game, a girl has bought a bunch of balloons at the zoo, and they have carried her up into the air. She is suspended above a skunk pit. For each correct response, one skunk is removed from the pit. Once all eight skunks are gone, she is safe from their smell and the player wins. However, for each incorrect response, a balloon pops and the girl drops closer to the skunks. If all the balloons pop, she falls into the skunk pit and the game is over.

Humpty Dumpty

Humpty Dumpty is sitting on a wall. Following each incorrect response, Humpty falls a bit further. After six incorrect responses, he will reach the bottom of the wall and break. To prevent Humpty from breaking, a correct answer will win a pillow, which is added to the bottom of the wall. If eight pillows are won, Humpty is safe and falls safely onto the pillows without breaking.

A Fairy's Tale

In this game, there are six children asleep on a big bed. The tooth fairy arrives to collect the teeth that the children have lost and to leave money behind. However, she cannot complete her task if the children are not sleeping. Correct responses permit the tooth fairy to collect the sleeping children's teeth. For each incorrect response, one child wakes up. If six incorrect responses are recorded, all children will awake and the tooth fairy cannot collect their teeth

Deepwater 2

A pirate provides instructions at the beginning of this game, which involves a search for hidden treasure in a sunken ship. For each correct response, "treasure" (in the form of a gold coin) is found in the underwater ship. Finding eight coins wins the game allowing the diver to swim to shore with his treasure. For each incorrect response, a shark arrives to block one of the exits. With six incorrect responses, all exits will be blocked and the diver becomes

Alien Escape

The background to this game is provided in print and verbally before starting the game. A mother tells her son, Billy, that aliens have just stolen his birthday presents. He says that he will go on the spaceship and get his presents back. Billy is zapped up to the spaceship and for each correct response, he gets one present back. When all eight presents are returned, the player wins the game and Billy and all his presents are zapped home. For each incorrect response, an alien arrives to block an exit. After six incorrect responses, all the exits are blocked and Billy becomes trapped on the alien spaceship.

Bob of the Jungle

In this game, Bob has lost his clothes and is wearing a banana peel. The object of the game is to win back his clothes. For each correct answer, an article of clothing is displayed on a star along the side of the screen. If Bob gets all of his clothes, plus a key to the change room (eight items in total), he is safe. However, Bob has another challenge - on the other side of the bridge stands an ape that is hungry for bananas. For each incorrect answer, the ape will eat a banana on the trail across the bridge and get closer to Bob. If six incorrect responses are made, the ape reaches Bob and the game is over.

Running the Tasks

Practice exercises consist of games during which a sound is played and the child selects the image on the screen that matches what was heard. Choices are displayed in the form of cartoon images. The child uses the mouse to select the appropriate image. If the child chooses correctly, the word "Correct" appears and the image is highlighted by a blue box. If the child chooses incorrectly, "that's not it" appears and a red X crosses out the image chosen, while the blue box appears around the correct choice.

  

After the exercise has been completed, the child's score is displayed on the lower right portion of the screen as percent correct and the number of correct responses out of the total number of responses.

To quit the game at any time, simply click the Exit button located at the bottom of the screen. You can access the performance data that is automatically stored by the program. It is a Microsoft Access Database located wherever the program was installed, usually c:\Program Files\listen-hear\, and is named aural.mdb.

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