The Moog Center will again present a series of virtual learning sessions for professionals and parents
throughout the 2025-2026 school year at 7:00 p.m. CT.
This series of workshops is a great opportunity for professionals, parents, family members, and general
community members to learn about a variety of topics related to supporting children who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Language Sampling for Goal Setting
October 22, 2025
Presented by Betsy Moog Brooks and Liz Fales
Language sampling is essential when working with children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Language sampling allows one to identify strengths and weaknesses and long- and short-term goals. This session will include a discussion on ways to improve language collection and analysis. Strategies for parents and professionals as they assess a child's language skills will be included as well as practical ways to understand a child's strengths and weaknesses.
Using Games to Target IEP Goals
December 3, 2025
Presented by Liz Fales
Are you stuck planning the same activities for each therapy session? Children who are deaf or hard of hearing benefit from drill and repetition of skills to build automaticity and transfer skills outside of the therapy setting, but that drill work does not have to be hard or boring. Students love to play board games and card cards, and much learning can happen while doing so. This presentation will highlight a variety of skills that can be targeted while playing traditional board games and card games, including vocabulary, language, pragmatics, speech, auditory skills, and academics. Time will be spent sharing teacher and student favorites. There will also be time for participants to share their favorite games. This session will also include discussion around the pros and cons of using the same materials repeatedly. Attending this session is sure to boost student motivation in your next therapy session.
Understanding Why Syntax Lessons are Important
February 19, 2026
Presented by Adrienne Stewart
Children with hearing loss often struggle to acquire new grammatical structures without specific instruction focused on the development of those structures. To be a successful reader, it is critical to have well-developed language skills. Incorporating syntax activities into one's therapy sessions or group lessons will provide the child with hearing loss the repetition needed to learn new language structures in the context of games and other activities. Ideas for selecting specific language structures will be provided. This presentation will include suggestions for planning language activities that promote spoken language development.
Reading Comprehension: Its Importance and Challenges
April 7, 2026
Presented by Liz Fales
Research over the years repeatedly highlights the difficulties associated with the development of age-appropriate reading comprehension skills for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. This presentation will explain why that is true and how to overcome challenges. The session will include highlights from recent research studies, strategies for working with young students at the beginning stages of reading, and strategies for improving comprehension skills of older students who continue to struggling to understand what it is they read.
Comments From Participants
Supporting the Development of Reading Skills
“Wonderful presentation! Such valuable information and so well explained for families and professionals! Looking forward to the next one.”
“Great material and content provided in well thought out and succinct ways. Good detail of background info and barriers to access as well as discussion of specific techniques and activities to help support and foster improvement in reading skills of student who are DHH.”
“I enjoyed the anecdotes from personal experiences shared by the hosts of the presentation. The resources shared were also helpful.”
“I loved how informative this was for an hour session!”