Are you familiar with Charlotte Speech and Hearing Center’s APPLE a Day program? For the next 4 weeks on our blog, we are going to break down this program and talk about what APPLE stands for.
APPLE is an abbreviation for Auditory Comprehension, Print Knowledge, Phonological Awareness, and Language Expansion. We offer our APPLE a Day program to children age 3-5 in small groups and whole-group within their classroom. Further, our expert Speech-Language Pathologists use evidence-based strategies to focus on the development of key skills. These skills include phonological awareness, vocabulary development, language comprehension and oral expression.
Auditory Comprehension
Now that you are familiar with the program, let’s talk about the “A” in APPLE, which stands for “Auditory Comprehension”. Auditory comprehension is understanding what we hear and what we are listening to. This is such an important skill for children to develop because it helps them to understand and follow directions, comprehend stories, and engage in conversations.
Through our APPLE a Day program, our Speech-Language Pathologists work to increase auditory comprehension skills in the children we serve by teaching strategies like chunking (breaking down what you hear into smaller parts), visualization (picturing what you hear), and repetition. These strategies are crucial for children to understand and retain information in both in the classroom and in everyday activities.
In short, strengthening auditory comprehension skills will help your child get ready for kindergarten and set them up for success!
To see how our Speech-Language Pathologists target auditory comprehension in the classroom, please watch our short video below! In addition, you can watch more of our helpful speech-language videos on our YouTube channel and Resources for Families page.
Finally, if you are interested in learning more about our APPLE a Day program, please visit https://charlottespeechhearing.com/speech-language-services/community-based-services/.
Blog and video by Michelle Knoud, M.S., CCC-SLP. Michelle is a Speech-Language Pathologist at Charlotte Speech and Hearing Center.