Early Listening Skills
Teaching Your Child Active Listening
In the next few years, your child will be starting school where about 50-75% of their average day will be spent listening. The importance of good listening skills now equates directly to their academic success. Think about how a child learns to read. The first steps in reading are when we read to them, and they eventually follow the printed text. When a teacher gives instructions on how to complete an assignment, or even how to evacuate the building (in case of an emergency), we are all hoping that our kids are “actively listening” and thinking about what they are hearing.
How can we teach our children to become “active listeners”? How can we teach them to focus their attention? By the time they are in school, it seems that your influence and guidance for them may decrease in effectiveness. So now they are babies or toddlers, what can you do? Here are some basic suggestions.
Model good listening
To be specific, if you are in an educational class with your child, listen to your instructor, listen to examples on the CD, and listen to your child’s voice and body language.
Repeat
Shinichi Suzuki, a violinist famous for teaching young children and the founder of the “Suzuki Method” for instrument learning, taught the parents to play the recording of the piece for the child many times before their next lesson. He stressed the importance of listening practice above the repetitive muscular practice, although both are tools to learning.
Talk to your babies
When you are in the grocery store, talk about the fruits and vegetables and tell them the names of things you are touching or looking at. Take every opportunity to build their vocabulary and be their “teacher”. They are listening to you because you are the most interesting and influential person in their life!
Take your little tot to a concert
Yes, a concert! Give them an opportunity to learn where we are quiet and listening and where we are playing and making noise with our own voices. There are many concerts for children designed for you to be able to take your kids in and out as you need to. Take your children to hear other children play their piano, violin, and saxophone recitals. At these concerts, there is not the pressure of an adult setting where excess noise is prohibited.
You cannot listen to someone when you are talking
My mother once said, “The words ‘listen’ and ‘silent’ have the same exact letters in them, just in a different order.” Your children are constantly learning from you. You are their best, and most influential teacher. Take advantage of your beautiful time to learn together.
In the fourth grade, when they are supposed to listen to their teacher and their friend is poking their arm to chat with them, let’s hope your good modeling of listening in music classes paid off!