Teaching Children to Listen: A practical approach to developing children's listening skills

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These can all be practised and improved through various fun activities and exercises, as you'll see in a minute. Importance of listening skills Remember that “not listening” should always be a wakeup call for us. While it might seem like defiance or inattention on their part–it is more than likely a way to get our attention or express their need for power. Everyone starts in a box, and the adult says a number of steps they can take out of the box, for example, ‘2’. They stride twice out of the box. Then say another number, and they take that number of steps extra.

Put some music on and the children all dance. When it stops, they sit down straight away. The slowest person is eliminated (if you are doing the competitive version.) For non-competitive, just have another go. The winner is the first person to ‘tag’ the mother. The ‘mother’ is very much in control of who wins in this game, so it’s good to share it around (obviously) if that’s you. 11. Musical Statues Hence, promoting listening skills in children is so important to help them build personal relationships, become more empathetic, and offer real support to their peers. How to improve children's listening skillsSix Drawing Challenges– Can your children follow the audio instructions to draw the correct shapes and symbols in the correct boxes? You can go ‘round the circle’. In this, the adult makes the noise to the first person in the circle. They copy and pass it on to the next person, and keep going like this all the way round. Then everyone tries to guess what it is.

Another important aspect of listening is the ability to distinguish the sounds in words. Children need to be able to hear the different elements of a word such as syllables or phonemes. And then it happens–the fuse blows. In a moment of utter defeat, you’re left screaming the same demands you had requested calmly just minutes ago. The energy escalates and everyone is left frustrated and discouraged. List all the sounds that were heard and count how many different sounds there were. With time, increase from 30 seconds to a minute of focused listening. 9. Listen to Stories I have used these kinds of activities and played all these games in the classroom and the children thoroughly enjoyed them. Adding more instruments and animals. When you shake the tambourine, that is the friendly snake. The children will just carry on. A maraca is a monkey. He’s your friend, so when you hear that you’re going to wave. The drum is still the fox, and that still means hide.

If your students are listening to a speech, watching a documentary clip, or hearing a story read aloud, break it up by stopping a few times and having students write a question or two about what they just heard. This way, students actively listen for any confusion or wonderings they may have -- this takes a high-level of concentration. It's important to provide models for this since we are typically trained in school to look for the answers and information rather than to focus on what is not understood or is still a mystery. Motivating Words They may struggle to identify different elements of sounds such as loudness or tone which makes the difference between an angry voice and a happy voice. This is an enlightening exercise that often clearly shows if listening skills are in place or require some sharpening.

There are many other ways to break up sounds but these are a few ideas to start with. 14. Sing Action Rhymes Teaching your child to listen is a process that relies heavily on communication and consistency. Here are some tips to help you successfully teach your child the importance of listening, the first time:Take your child for a walk in the garden, down the road or to the park. There are usually enough sounds in your garden! Topic Guides – Explore our topic guides and discover teaching ideas, resources, facts, videos and books that will help you to teach your children about a wide range of topics and themes.