Using the tool during the consultation session

Possible Process

Unless you have a specific listening or communication environment that you would like to explore, ask the child what they would like to tell you more about, such as home, school, playing outside, or socializing with friends at an often-visited place. The chosen environment should be connected to the goals for the session or the issues and challenges raised by the parents.

Take the selected environment and ask the child to help you make it “just for them” by arranging furniture and selecting characters to represent friends and themselves.

With the child, identify the primary communication partners in the selected environment. Ask the child for, or suggest examples of communication challenges that might arise and ask the child to describe the situations to you.

You can use the child’s responses to start exploring their world, how they cope with challenges, and brainstorm solutions.

Role play the situations with the child through the characters they’ve selected. You may also use the characters in the third person. The goal is to offer a set of characters that mirror the child’s current situation. Suggest a communication environment such as, “This is my friend Johnny, he wears hearing aids. He is seven years old – just like you. This is his classroom. I wonder where he should sit so he can hear and understand the teacher.”

Questions to Ask

Download some possible questions you may want to ask the child when exploring the tool environments.

As you use this tool

  • Be aware of possible anxiety in the child
  • Build trust in the child before you introduce the tool
  • Be sincerely curious and listen carefully
  • Ask open-ended questions
  • Ask "what would you do if...?"
  • Role play solutions and strategies that are discussed with the child
  • Ensure that the child has heard your message or question correctly and understands what to do
  • Convey that there are no right or wrong answers
  • Give the child sufficient time to respond
  • Tell the parents that they will have an opportunity to speak later

Photos for Inspiration

To quickly find out which situations it would be relevant to discuss with the child, you can ask them to bring a few photos of everyday communication situations to the appointment.

These photos can be a starting point for your conversation and may offer concrete situations that it will be helpful to role play using My World.

You may also ask the child to do a photo journey of their life with hearing loss. This journey can show what they enjoy doing, how they cope in those situations, and who their main communication partners are in different environments.Download an example of a child's hearing journey.

My World Quick Tool

The My World Quick Tool can help you start a conversation with a child when using the three environments in the My World tool.  The Quick Tool contains possible questions to ask the child as you explore their daily life at home, in the classroom, and during outside activities.  Keep in mind that your conversations with the child should always focus on the topics and challenges that are important to the child. The questions in the Quick Tool can help start such focused conversations.