Parents and toddlers at The Elizabeth Foundation for preschool deaf children

Let’s Listen and Talk celebrates 1000 users with the launch of new music activities

More than 1000 people have now signed up to The Elizabeth Foundation’s unique online learning and support programme Let’s Listen and Talk. As the charity marked this milestone, it released a new part of its “Learning through music” resource on the website helping young deaf children develop their communication skills.

Supporting deaf children all across the UK

Let’s Listen and Talk (available at https://www.letslistenandtalk.org) is a crucial element of the support The Elizabeth Foundation offers to deaf children across the UK, their families and the professionals involved in their care.

This innovative online service complements the face-to-face preschool provision the charity provides at its Family Centre in Portsmouth. It provides information, advice and tailored guidance to parents, carers and professionals supporting young deaf children from birth to 5 years.

Enrolment on the online programme has significantly grown since The Elizabeth Foundation waived subscription fees in March 2020 in response to the first pandemic lockdown. Since then, the number of subscribers has increased by more than ten times and the 1000th user has recently signed up.

Let’s Listen and Talk truly has a national impact, with users located all across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Alongside families of deaf children, a wide range of professionals involved in their care are also using this unique online programme – including Teachers of the Deaf, Speech and Language Therapists, Audiologists, and Nursery workers.

New music resources to promote language and listening

At the same time as passing the 1,000 subscribers’ milestone, The Elizabeth Foundation has released a new set of “Learning through music” activities on Let’s Listen and Talk – the Toddler Songs section.

Building on the success of the Baby Songs section launched in 2021, the new Toddler Songs section provides 10 catchy and specially-written songs. These songs are designed to promote language and listening skills for deaf toddlers (aged from around 1½ to 2½ years). There are demonstration videos to show each song and its associated actions, and also music files to download and play on phones, tablets or computers. 

The Elizabeth Foundation developed the “Learning through music” resources in conjunction with the expert creators of the popular BabyBeats™ programme. The resources provide a series of songs that families can use at home with their deaf babies, toddlers or preschoolers to help develop their communication skills.

The Preschool Songs section of “Learning through music” is currently under development. This will include a further 10 songs and activities designed to help preschool deaf children (aged 2½ to 5 years) learn to listen and talk.

How to access the new music resources

“Learning through music” is available to all subscribers of the Let’s Listen and Talk programme. If you are not yet a member, you can sign up for free to access these new resources and all other parts of the programme.

To find out more about the new music resources, visit the Let’s Listen and Talk website.

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