‘Touch and Feel Farm' Book Review: A Perfect Book for Teaching Animal Sounds to Babies with Hearing Loss

Why We Love “Touch and Feel Farm”

"Come and meet the animals on the farm!"

We’ve read this tiny board book to our 14-month old hard of hearing daughter for months. Touch and Feel Farm is our go-to for a quick before bedtime read—especially on those nights when the entire family's nodding off with no time to spare.

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How to Use This Book for Sound-First Learning

The book introduces five animals across five page spreads:

• chick—"peep! peep!"
• horse—"neigh!"
• sheepdog—"woof!"
• lamb—"baaa!"
• piglet—"oink!"

Since each spread concerns just one farm animal, the book is perfect for a "sound first" strategy. You can introduce the animal's name—or sound!—before turning the page. (The "sound first" approach means giving baby a chance to hear and process the animal's name or sound before she sees the picture—building the auditory association before the visual one.)

The text is minimal. Each spread introduces the animal in the form of a direction about petting the animal. I.e., "Feel the soft, fluffy chicks."

What Makes the Illustrations and Textures Work

We enjoy the cute, friendly photographs of animals in their farm environment. Each spread has a generous texture panel which holds up well to regular reading.

The text also includes a description of each animal's texture. We love how baby can get some simple introduction to sensory language along with her animal names.

A Book That Grows with Your Child

While the book does not introduce animal sounds, we like to add those into our reading too from time to time.

The chunky pages with round corners make this a great book for a baby or toddler, but we expect to be reading this one all the way into preschool.

Related Reading for Hard of Hearing Children

"Touch and Feel Farm" is perfect for language play. Check out our other book articles if you're looking for stories that feature deaf and hard of hearing characters or hearing device journeys!