Reading and writing are very important language arts skills. But did you know that listening and speaking are also important language arts skills?
Listening comprehension is a crucial part of communication. So much of our daily life involves actively listening and understanding what is being said to us. However, there is little instructional time at school devoted to this important skill. Here are some suggestions for how you can help boost your child’s listening comprehension.
Storytelling
Anytime you read aloud to your child or tell him a story, you are helping your child practice listening. Your child no doubt loves to hear you tell stories, so why not engage in storytelling as a way to target active listening comprehension? When thinking of the story to tell, focus on a topic that your child really likes. This will make the story more enjoyable to him and will no doubt help him stay engaged. When you first start, try short stories (only a few minutes long). When you finish the story, ask him some simple questions about the characters or the events that happened in the story to test his comprehension. As your child gets better at these basic exercises, challenge him a bit more both by making the stories longer and also by asking more complicated questions, such as specific details from the story or a brief summary. If your child struggles with this exercise, you can break the small story into even smaller sections and ask brief questions throughout the story. This will help train your child to pay careful attention throughout the story.
Visualizing
Some students really respond well to coupling their listening comprehension with visualization strategies. Try this activity: read a short picture book to your child. (This activity works best if you pick a story that is particularly descriptive.) While you are reading, ask your child to close her eyes and listen carefully to the story. When you have read the short book once, provide paper and drawing tools to your child. Ask her to draw a picture of one part of the story. Ask her to try to stay true to the details of the story in her picture. Then read the story another time and allow your child to add more details to the picture based on what she hears. Repeat if necessary.
Practicing Through Music
Change things up a bit by moving away from books and into music. Many of us listen to music without really paying attention to the lyrics. Pick some music with appropriate lyrics. It’s best to pick songs whose lyrics tell a story. First, listen to the song one or two times together just for fun. Then tell your child that you want him to listen to the song very carefully so that he will be able to recall important information afterwards. After this careful listening, ask your child leading questions so that he can start to recall information from the song. Write down all the information that he reports back to you. Challenge him to remember as many details as he can. Listen to the song one more time and then allow your child to add more details to what you have written down. After you’re done, you may want to look together at the song lyrics and see how much he was able to recall.
With targeted practice on listening comprehension, you will notice not only that your child is a better listener but that his reading comprehension improves as well. All of these language arts connect together and working on one will no doubt help the others. Being a good listener is an important skill to have throughout life!
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