LittlEARS Item 11
11. Does your child look for sound sources located at the left, right, or back?
Your child will look for a sound coming from a different direction. Your child may turn their head, move in the direction of the sound, or look for what was making the sound. This is an important step for "LOCALIZATION" or finding the sound- and helpful in paying attention to sounds in the environment.
Example Situation
Your child turns attention away from you to look at a new or different sound.
How to address this skill:
It's really important for us to help show the child the sounds in our environment and help them find where sounds might be coming from. We can take advantage of opportunities for a child to hear a familiar sound, find it, and talk about what they hear.
This might look like:
Adult says, "I hear a car horn. It sounded like BEEP BEEP! Did you hear it outside?"
Child searches for sound. Looks at source of sound.
Adult reinforces, "I hear the car go BEEP BEEP" goes to the window with the child-- "There's the car, it went BEEP BEEP"
OR
Adult: "Did you hear that sound? I think someone is knocking at the door!"
(Someone knocks at the door again)
Adult: "I heard the knock! Did you? Let's go answer the door!"