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We've visited museums with our hard of hearing daughter since she was a baby. It was a fun, low-pressure break from our daily routine full of speech therapy, doctors visits, and all of the other baby stuff.

Looking back, those museum trips probably helped us realize just how influential changes of setting can be when it comes to language learning. New words. Familiar words in new places. Bright shiny objects to talk about. It's good to mix it up!

Go for 20 minutes or 2 hours. Take lots of photos. And watch out for the children's section of the gift shop!

Here are five ways a visit to the museum can be great for your hard of hearing toddler—and fun for you too!

#1 - Shhh...The Museum Is A Quiet Listening Environment

Museums are usually quiet places. Despite noise from crowds and tours, they're often a place to get away from street sounds.

Depending on the time of day, you may find yourself alone in a gallery with your 18-month old.

Okay... so now what?

Our strategy is to set aside expectations about what a museum is for adults and bigger children. This wasn't about learning, in the traditional sense. Maybe it's not even about the art or museum pieces in the room.

Ask yourself... "What's remarkable in this room?" "What can we do here?"

Just one thing is enough. Think about your experience of the space and how you can share that with your child.

Are the ceilings tall? Are there interesting light fixtures? Does one piece of pottery out of a dozen catch your eye because of a certain feature?

Great! We talk about that.

Getting used to all that quiet? Why not bring it home with you? We had to learn this the hard way in our Montessori-style nursery... read more here out how we made it super-quiet with sound panels!

#2 - Museums Are New Places for Words You Already Use

Big tall ceilings! Glass boxes! Giant stairways!

It's not just about learning new words. From grand architectural features to dolls and statues, museums provide a new setting for words a hard of hearing child may already know or be learning. A museum provides a calm and soothing environment to notice things in different ways.

Museums provide a new setting for words a hard of hearing child may already know or be learning. They provide a calm and soothing environment to notice things in different ways.

We talk about buttons and banisters, hallways and tables.

We talk about the colorful animal figurine standing out in a room of beige and grey.

We walk under big tall rectangle sculptures and admire round stones on the ground.

Sculpture parks and museums are so fun for modeling language about space. Once our daughter started walking, we enjoyed narrating as she walked through big tall sculptures at the Noguchi Museum in Queens, NY. If your baby's not yet walking, that's fine too! Stroller-friendly museums offer a great opportunity to narrate your actions with a remote microphone or FM system.

#3 - Museums Help You Use New Words

Running out of ideas? Read the label or caption next to one of the museum objects. They're... wordy... formal... polysyllabic. (A bit too much, probably.)

Once in a while I read an entire 3 or 4 sentence caption to my daughter—just to expose her to some new language. Or I skim it and focus on one word for her, just to introduce some new sounds.

Try describing a museum object in your own words. You can play around here, make it a game. Tell a story about the object—or focus on just one aspect of it, like the color, shape, or size.

#4 - Museum Collections Get Your Child Talking!

I'll never forget the moment when my 18-month old yelled out “squash!” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

We were walking through a gallery of Chinese pottery when it caught her eye—a plate or bowl with a painting of a squash on it. This—out of hundreds of shapes and images in front of her.

One of her favorite toys is an adorable little squash. Gourds were on her mind.

She was interested. We had a jumping off point, shared attention. It was a great moment to talk more about the pottery—its shape, color, size, neighboring pieces, and so on.

A museum is a great place to gauge your toddler's interests and use them as a starting point for discussion.

We discovered that new and novel settings sparked many comments from our daughter in those early months when she was just beginning to speak. It makes sense! Who wouldn't want to yell out something upon walking into a room full of towering marble statues?

#5 - A Museum's Layout Is Perfect for “Sound First”

Say it before you see it! After about two years practicing "sound first" with our daughter, it turned into a (sometimes automatic!) habit.

We love using this strategy at the museum.

There are so many surprises for children at museums—from statues of animals to sparkly jewels and towering suits of armor. A listening first strategy at museums feels like a game full of suspense and delight.

Our local museum has an endless supply of separate rooms and galleries. We briefly tell our daughter what we're going to look at, then enter the gallery.

Back when she was in a stroller more often, we described museum pieces and then turned her stroller. Boom! A big blue horse! A giant stone temple!

There are so many surprises for children at museums—from statues of animals to sparkly jewels and towering suits of armor. A listening first strategy at museums feels like a game full of suspense and delight.

Here are a few tips we learned along the way for practicing sound first at museums:

1. Use a museum map so you know what's coming up next
2. Peek around the corner into a gallery before your child looks—or have your partner run ahead and observe a few things to discuss
3. Talk about objects behind her stroller before you turn it for the big reveal
4. Pay attention to her eye and head movement to see what she's currently looking at—then you can practice "sound first" on other things in the room before they have her attention
5. Use a remote mic/FM system so you can walk up to objects and interact with them while she watches

*BONUS* - Other Stuff We Think About At Museums

In our museum travels, we noticed some interesting accommodations for deaf and hard of hearing people. Some museums have audio guides or telecoil/hearing loop technology to accommodate DHH visitors at check-in counters and audio tours. Our toddler was too young to need these services at the time, but we'll keep them in mind for the years ahead.