Developing communication and language: listening and attention skills

Published

11 December 2024

"The development of effective attention and listening is such a crucial part of language acquisition, listening helps children to expand on their linguistic knowledge and enhances their ability to become better communicators. Why not introduce these tried and tested strategies?"

Active listening skills are vital in supporting us not only to hear but to interpret the messages we receive. If I had a penny for everytime I have asked a child ‘Are you listening?’ - I would be a very wealthy individual. However, just because the child hears the message it doesn’t mean that they have listened or understood - or does it?

As we discussed in the last blog- articulation of sounds, listening is one of the complex folds of developing communication. However, this is crucial to children knowing how to comment or respond either orally or gesturally in a serve and return conversation.

"Listening - attention - understanding - vocabulary - sentence structure - speech sounds"

Modelling listening skills

To be effective in our roles as educators we need to be good listeners as this is one of the key skills required in both ‘learning more’ and ‘knowing more’. Quite often, establishing effective listening in a class of pre-schoolers who all want their voice to be heard, can be challenging and while we generally get to the end of the year establishing listning skills in our cohort, the quicker we are able to develop this active skill the greater the wider learning impact for the child.

But, what are the listening skills that we need to teach? If we ponder for a moment and consider the skills of an effective communicator, which of these are associated with active listening? As adults, we learn not to interupt when others are talking but knowing how and when to interupt maybe needed during conversation, paying attention, asking for clarification, and using appropriate body language

Listening is an active and not passive task. Children need to be taught to be present in the moment. To encourage active listening:

introduce the use of environment sounds
when engaging in an interaction, stop what you are doing and give the child your full attention
when talking to an individual child calling their name ahead of the comment will help them to focus

Listening leads to more talking

Sometimes we might forget that encouraging listening is paramount in encouraging more talking. In any interaction there must be a listener to hear the message of the talker. When I was in class, I used to use an activity ‘tap your head if you can hear me’ to get the children’s attention. I didn’t raise my voice but the message spread across the classroom as children recognised the pattern and looked around for me ready to receive the message. There are many variations of this using action and body percussion. Listening needs to be practised and developed over time. The more consistent the expectation for listening is, with variations provided in time length and group size, the more quickly children will establish an understanding of listening as a form of communication. Might this be a focus for a particular day e.g., ‘Friday Focus’ skill to encourage the revisiting of the skill for both practitioners and children.

Why not try these strategies:

Sing songs – encourage action songs, movement, laughter
Speak with a natural volume
Share clear and simple instructions – be mindful of a list of instructions - focus on verbs
Focus the childs attention on the speaker and use the childs name to get their attention
Check for understanding – are they able to follow/respond or do they look around to follow others

Two girls talking

Troubleshooting:

What do we know about the child’s hearing? When was the last hearing check? Do the family share any concerns for hearing? If there are signs of weakened hearing, ask parents/carers to contact a health care professional.
Are we providing enough opportunities for children to talk? When the balance of talk is outweighed, and children do not feel that they have a chance to share their feelings/experiences, this often impacts their listening.
What are your next steps?

So, I have this knowledge, now what?

How do you support and model listening in your classroom? Do you prioritise opportunities to explore the three types of listening:

Blue boxes full of text

Here are some suggested games and activities that you might use in your provision:

Ensuring time is prioritised both in adult directed and child-initiated time for stories, songs and rhymes,
Listening to others during conflict, puppet play, helicopter stories and drama
Games such as: The shopping game, whisper chain, grandma’s keys

Top Tip: Let’s not forget the importance of giving instructions or communicating messages in varying tones including whispers. When children are all speaking loudly, raising your voice often leads to further volume. Bringing your voice and sometimes moving to a lower position encourages curiosity and deeper listening.

Accessible websites/ideas for further guidance: