Listening and spoken language professionals work in a variety of settings. Some professionals work in private practice, others in a school and still others in busy clinic, hospital or non-profit environments.

Professionals who work with families in the critical early years of life act as coaches and guides to parents and caregivers to help facilitate their child’s development of the family’s home language(s). Recognizing that parents and other family members act as their child’s fluent models of language, listening and spoken language professionals assist parents and caregivers in meeting their family’s desired outcomes. When provided with appropriate hearing technology and other supports, children can hear language and engage in developmentally-appropriate play and other learning activities that fuel the brain and result in the development of listening, speech and language. During early childhood, listening and spoken language professionals guide families on how to share and make spoken language fully and naturally accessible to their child as a regular part of daily routines and activities.

Listening and spoken language can be also be learned and cultivated at school. Similar to the early intervention period, specific attention is needed. Special education personnel (which include educators of the deaf, speech-language pathologists, audiologists, psychologists and other professionals.) should be involved in designing the education plan for the child to ensure access to language and learning in the classroom. Children who arrive to school with language skills similar to same-age peers may do quite well with accommodations such as an FM/DM/RM system and with supportive, aware classroom teachers. Children who enter school with significant language delays will generally need significant supports to develop language and modifications and accommodations that will provide access to the classroom curriculum.