Yours in Partnership,
Mrs. Coulson and Mrs. Beck
Listening Skills Learning to listen and pay attention are essential skills for everyday living. Some children often experience extreme difficulties with these important skills. Some children are not able to screen out what is unimportant from the many sounds they hear, and so they listen to everything or seemingly nothing. Listening and an increased ability to pay attention are skills that need to be taught. To build a foundation of effective listening skills, children need to develop the following:
What can I do at home? Turn a favourite TV show into a listening game. Watch the show for a few moments together. Then, ask your child to close his eyes and listen carefully. After a character from the show speaks, ask the child who is speaking. Take turns. Traditional 'Simon says' game. Talk, Talk, and Talk some more! Whenever and wherever you are - talk with your child. When you are shopping or working around the house etc, discuss what you are doing or tell stories about when you did these same silly activities as a child. Story time cam help improve listening and attending skills. Ask them questions before, during, and after the story. For example, what do you think will happen in this story? What is happening in the pictures that give extra information? Did you like how it ended? Did it remind you of anything? Providing children with questions and conversations will help them become active listeners thereby improving their abilities to pay attention and concentrate.
Focus and Concentration Many children have trouble with learning how to focus and concentrate. Today's advanced technologies have given this young generation so much stimulation that children often expect the world to move rapidly; they do not appreciate that fact that sometimes people must slow down in order to think hard about something. Some of the many activities that children enjoy and that will improve concentrations include putting together puzzles, making models, learning how to dance or how to do karate, drawing and painting, and learning how to perform special chores around the house. This is also a place to note that some children actually experience periods of 'overfocusing' or also called 'hyperfocusing'. This is most likely to happen when children are playing a video game or watching TV. Unless an adult intervenes or somethin else happens to disrupt the child's intense concentration, hours can pass without the child even realizing it. |