Listening and attention skills are essential for children to learn from an early age as they support the development of your child’s language and communication skills.

As your little one grows, they are introduced to different sounds and learn to discriminate between them as well as recognise voices and understand sounds from the world around them, for example when they play outside, and their attention is drawn to the sound of an aeroplane flying overhead or the siren of an emergency vehicle. Often, they will look for the source of the sound to understand what it is, and older children will ask their peers or an adult what made the sound and why.

The ability to tune into sounds is crucial for the development of your child’s speech and to build their phonological awareness, which is essential for them to learn how to read and write.

Be a good role model to your child by demonstrating good listening skills yourself, actively listen to what your little one tells you, their opinions and show an interest in what they have to say.

Similar to every development opportunity at a young age, the best way to encourage your child to learn how to listen and follow instructions is through play! So, why not try some of our fun activities with your whole family to help improve their listening and attention skills?

Activities: Interest in the World

To enable your child to develop the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to make sense of the world they live in you can provide them with opportunities that stimulate their curiosity and interest giving them first hand experiences to think critically, solve problems, explore and make decisions:

Listening Walk

You can support your child to further develop their listening and attention skills whilst at home and when out and about. This includes ensuring there are periods throughout the day where you turn off background noise, for example television and radios, to allow your child the time to focus and tune into the natural sounds they can hear around them. As well as, making the most of your time outside on a walk or in the garden.

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Match the Sound

It’s a classic pairing game – but with focusing on matching the sounds. If you child enjoys this game, you can make more bottles with different objects inside to match.

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Musical Bumps/Statues

A game that is normally reserved for parties but why not enjoy this game with the whole family to encourage your child to move, groove and listen.

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My Box

Music has a great impact on your child’s learning – and it makes everything fun! So, why not create your own ‘My Box’ to use over and over with different items for your little one to guess the sounds. You can even give them the responsibility of being the one to hold the box and you to guess the sounds.

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Nature Scavenger Hunt

This activity will develop your child’s listening and understanding skills which are crucial for the development of speech, phonological awareness and ultimately learning to read.

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