Listening refers to when someone attaches meaning to verbal messages. Children's listening skills are a vital part of everyday communication, especially in an academic environment. Adequate development of these skills, through proven learning strategies and practice, will prepare children for success in school and future employment.
The Facts
Traditionally, there have been four forms of language taught in the classroom: reading, writing, talking and listening. Children's listening skills make up 50 percent of their time spent communicating with others. It should be noted that viewing and visually representing are the two newer language arts, as brought forth by the International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English.
Function
Children's listening skills are used to communicate with others. These skills are employed whenever a message is heard and converted to meaning by the listener. Children need listening skills to decode messages directed at them from parents, teachers and peers. Without this ability, the child has an academic disadvantage in the classroom.
Types
Children's listening skills can be divided into four categories: discriminative, aesthetic, efferent and critical. Discriminative listening is used for nonverbal communication and for the deciphering of sounds. Aesthetic listening refers to listening that is done for enjoyment purposes. The role of efferent listening is to make sense of messages, especially those found in an academic environment. Critical listening occurs when messages are designed to be evaluated by the listener; TV and radio commercials are two examples of this.
Considerations
Children's listening skills are composed of two parts: hearing and thinking. It is not enough for a child's ears to simply hear the verbal message; the child must actively think about what is being heard in order to absorb the information.
Listening skills can be particularly tricky to master for a child who is in a classroom environment with background stimuli in the form of conversations and movement. In situations like this, the listener must apply three steps in order for meaningful listening to take place: receiving, attending and assigning meaning. Receiving occurs when the verbal message is heard. Attending is the important step of being able to filter out stimuli that distracts from what the listener needs to hear. Assigning meaning is the process of critically thinking about the speaker's message.
Improving Listening Skills
If a child's listening skills are poor, especially at school, there are ways to combat this. Having the child actively participate in a discussion with the speaker will help prevent his mind from wandering. Likewise, the speaker can start out by asking questions that will engage the child's prior knowledge about the topic. The child will be able to relate to the topic and to better organize the verbal information in his mind.
References
- "Language Arts: Patterns of Practice"; Gail E. Tompkins; 2005
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