Teaching a child how to be a good listener can enable her to become more successful in relationships and achieve well beyond her academic career. According to Family TLC, good listening skills go beyond simply hearing what someone else said. They include understanding what was said and being aware of and acknowledging emotions. Effective listening can be hard, because children can either become easily distracted by others or focus on the information they like and forget about other things that were said. Teaching listening skills to a child will take patience and perseverance.
Step 1
Educate the child on how to be a better listener. Be aware of the child's age and stage of development. Inform the child of ways to improve listening such as looking at the person who is speaking and tuning out all other noises. Talk about behaviors that make it harder for a person to listen such as interrupting the speaker or being engaged in other tasks while trying to listen.
Step 2
Encourage the child to make eye contact with you when you are speaking to her. Role-play with the child how to make eye contact. Ask the child to look at you as you are speaking to her. Redirect her if she looks away while you are talking. Stop speaking until she makes eye contact again.
Step 3
Ask the child to repeat back to you what was said. It will ensure that you understood what was said and you stored it to memory. Correct the child if he did not verbally express what you said. Praise the child if he was able to restate what you said.
Step 4
Teach the child to ask questions. Questioning is a way to obtain further information and clarify what was said. Offer the child examples of questions she could ask during a conversation. Ask your child questions when she is talking to you. This will help role model how to use questions to become a better listener.
Step 5
Use play behaviors to teach a child to listen. Disney Family Fun recommends engaging a child in a verbal scavenger hunt to help him learn to good listening skills. Have the child listen as you say a list of three or four items he has to find in a room. Never repeat the list. Send him to find the items. As he becomes a more successful listener increase the number of items on the list, suggests Disney Family Fun.
Step 6
Develop a star chart to reinforce good listening skills. Reinforcing a child's listening skills will help increase their occurrence. Include specific listening skills on the chart. When she engages that skill, she will earn a star. Allow the child to add a star to the chart herself and always tell her what she did to earn the star. Provide a larger reward to the child once she obtains a specific amount of stars.
Things You'll Need
- Star chart
- Star stickers
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