Why is it important to teach your child good listening skills?
Developing your child’s basic listening skills involves building an awareness of sound, distinguishing between environmental sounds and human speech, and practicing the process of hearing. In order to master adequate literacy skills, your child must be a good listener.
Auditory abilities such as locating sounds, memorizing sounds, recognizing voices, and noticing rhythmic patterns provide the basis for oral language and early literacy development.
A child’s ability to listen involves a variety of subskills and auditory processes, including:
Auditory Acuity: How well does he hear?
Alertness: At what level is his awareness of sound?
Discrimination: Can he find similarities and differences in sound?
Memory: Can he remember what he hears? Is he able to recall that information?
Sequencing: Is he able to identify the order of what he hears?
Figure-Ground: Can he isolate one sound from a background of sounds?
Perception: Does he comprehend what he hears?
Sound-Symbol: Is he able to connect a sound to a particular written symbol?
(Adapted from Pamela Strickland, 1993, Auditory Processes, Revised Edition, Academic Therapy Publication.)