Teaching child to be a good listener

Contributed by : Palak Vyas

Children model their parents the most. Develop the listening skill yourself and then help the child to achieve the same.

Keep the following things in mind while inculcating the listening skill in your child:

Be a good listener yourself: Avoid interrupting your child when (s)he is talking or saying something.
Try and give simple and easy instructions.
Whenever your child listens carefully, always praise them.
Teach them why it is important to be a good listener.
Model good communication skills.
Ask them to repeat what you said after they have heard you completely.
Read stories to them and let the child predict the ending.
Listen to audio stories as family time.
Play games like Simon says, add-on stories (where everybody adds their own sentences and the story moves forward), Copy cat (where you say funny rhyming words which the child has to repeat), and many such.
Listen patiently whenever they talk to you and teach them the same.
Help your child build vocabulary so they can convey easily and understand what is being said.
Always remember that young children have short attention span so never say multiple things at one go.

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