A Parent's Guide to Hearing Loss

Produced by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Program

PRINT THIS PAGE

Natural Gestures

"Natural gestures" — or body language — are actions that parents normally do to help children understand a message. For example, if you want to ask your toddler if he or she wants to be picked up, you might stretch out your arms and ask, "Up?" For an older child, you might motion with your arms as you call for him or her to come inside. Or, you might put your first finger over your mouth and nose to show that the child needs to be quiet.

Babies will begin to use this building block naturally if they can see what others are doing. This building block is not taught, it just comes naturally. It is always used with other building blocks.

Glossary

Building Block(s): "Building Blocks" refers to the different skills that parents can use to help their child learn language. There are many types of building blocks, and a family can pick and choose the building block (or blocks) that work best for their child and family. The following is a list of many commonly used building blocks.

• Conceptually Accurate Signed English (CASE)
• Cued Speech
• Finger Spelling
• Listening / Auditory Training
• Manually Coded English (MCE)
• Natural Gestures
• Speech
• Speech Reading (Lip Reading)

For more information or to order additional copies of "A Parent's Guide to Hearing Loss" visit CDC's website at www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/ehdi.