Listening Skills

Did you know that communication is 70-75% of what we do at school? This means that listening skills are vital to our kids development with a whopping 45% of that just from listening. Listening is more than just hearing, it is actually very complex and is the process of receiving, focusing, deciphering, accepting, and storing information.

Teaching your child to listen from an early age, can save a lot of headache in the long run. Here are 10 techniques for effective listening:

  1. Focus your attention- This means to provide eye contact as appropriate.

  2. Listen to understand not refute- Help your child to be open minded and ready to hear what you are telling them.

  3. Fight distractions- If your child is doing something else while you talk to them, it is not going to be understood as easily until they are able to fully focus on you.

  4. Don't interrupt- Teach your child that interrupting is not being able to listen fully and correct them as often as necessary to avoid this mishap.

  5. Maintain eye contact- So even once you have their attention, it is important to keep them with you until you have completed what you needed to say.

  6. Be positive- Your child will really hear and understand you better, if you have a positive attitude and tone when speaking with them. Even if you are mad, wait until you are come to discuss what you need from them.

  7. Ask questions- Questions can let you know if your child actually processed what they heard from you.

  8. Take notes- Teach your child to write down important things. If there is a list of things you need for them to get for you or do, ask them to write what you want from them.

  9. Provide feedback- Take a moment to appreciate the positive attention they have given to you and/ or let them know what areas they might need to practice more without ridiculing them.

  10. Summarize and Evaluate- When the discussion needs to be completed, you may summarize or have them summarize what was said so that you are both understanding of one another.

Tip: Remember that listening is a two way street and it is just as important to listen to your children as it is for them to listen to you.