Poorly developed listening and attention skills can lead to a drop in the child’s level of understanding. In order for you to help the child with listening and attention difficulties, consider:
- There may be time when it is necessary to give instructions to a child 1:1 as well as the group instructions
- Stop what the child is doing before giving instructions
- Always call his/her name first to gain attention
- Look for direct eye-contact with the child
- Visual cues and gestures can be used to support what you say to the child
- Give short instructions
- Don’t overload understanding/memory by giving long instructions. If necessary, simplify your instructions.
For example:
- Hard: “go and put on your coat and go outside to play”
- Easy: “go and put your coat on” – wait until the child has done this – “go and play outside”
- Try to avoid using words like when, if, before, after unless these are well within the child’s level of understanding.
- Some specific listening games can be integrated into music, P.E. and other lessons within the targets of the national curriculum