Developing Listening

The aim of this work is to enable children to develop their listening skills. Remember that listening is very dependent on good body language and so it is important to remember that this work will need to build on their existing non verbal skills.

If you are unsure whether your child can cope with this work, then go back to your assessment and check that they have good or adequate non verbal skills to enable them to succeed with this (see issue 4).

Here are a few activities that you can do to help develop this skill:

Modelling inappropriate and appropriate listening

I often introduce this topic by using Scenario 24 of the Talkabout DVD which has 3 clips demonstrating listening.  In the first 2, the mum and dad demonstrate poor listening; in the second scenario they start to listen but then take over and give advice without listening fully to the situation, and in the third scenario they show good listening skills. 

Ask the children to identify firstly what is wrong with the situation and then how we need to show that we are listening.  If you don’t have this DVD, maybe you could model inappropriate and appropriate listening yourself and see if the children can correctly identify the skills needed to be a good listener. 

Blindfold game

This is an exercise taken from Talkabout for Teenagers (due 2009). Split the groups up into pairs and ask them to talk about something specific, for example they could be given the prompt cards (see below).

The children take it in turns to tell their partner about what is on their card, but the child talking does it blindfolded (or they sit back to back). When everyone has had a go, get the group to discuss what they found difficult about the activity.

Group discussion should centre on the non-verbal aspects of listening i.e. eye contact, posture, and facial expression.

Sentences:

Tell a story

The group is encouraged to make up a story. One person starts the story off by saying one phrase or sentence and then the children take it turns to add to the story.

You can vary this activity by giving the story a title, for example, ‘the day the dog ate my phone’ or by giving the children an object which they have to bring into their part of the story.

This can help children who struggle to think of things to say and can also be made amusing for higher level children by giving them a strange or random object. Group discussion afterwards will focus on the fact that to make up a good story, we need to listen to what people have said before.

Look and listen

Agree with the children that listening involves a number of different skills: looking at the person, using good posture, making noises like ‘mm’, waiting until they have finished before they speak themselves, and then saying something relevant.

The summary below is taken from Talkabout for Teenagers (2009):

Listening skills – STEPS TO SUCCESS

1. Look at the person
   Face the person and focus on them
   
   
   
   
2. Think about your posture
   Sit or stand quietly. Try not to fidget
   
   
   
   
3. Think about what they are saying, and show this!
   Make noises like mm…. & oh….
   
   
   
   
4. Wait your turn to speak
   Wait until they’re finished before you speak
   
   
   
   
5. Say something relevant!
   You might ask them a question or comment on what they’ve just said
   
   

They can then practise this through role plays or in groups of three. In their groups, they can take it in turns to be the listener, the speaker, and the observer. The speaker tells a story of their choice, while the listener practises their listening skills.

The observer then uses a score chart to assess their listening skills. They could score them using the skills above and a rating scale of ‘not OK’, ‘OK’ or ‘very good’.

The children then swap roles and continue until all have practised their listening skills.

Another good source of resources is the BT Better World Campaign website. There are several DVDs (the Muddles and Crystals are particularly good for younger children) and some online listening activities that you can use, and they are all free!

So hopefully that has given you a few ideas on how you could tackle teaching children good listening skills. In the next issue, we will continue to think about conversational skills.

Alex Kelly
Speech & language therapist and social skills consultant www.alexkelly.biz

Alex Kelly is the author of Speechmark's best selling Talkabout series.

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See the Talkabout online assessment tool at www.alexkelly.biz