How To Improve Your Preschooler’s Listening Skills

It is infuriating when it feels like your child ignores the directions that you have given. As a parent, it’s frustrating to feel like your child doesn’t have the listening skills that she needs to be able to understand, remember and act upon what you have told her. But this is a normal part of the development process and one of the reasons that parents of preschoolers require wells of patience in order to assist their children in growing up with normal, healthy development. You not only want to teach your child good listening skills so that she can do what you say needs to be done but you also want to make sure she has those skills so that she will do well in school, get along with peers and be able to engage in appropriate social behavior in groups.

Here are some tips to improve your preschooler’s listening skills and to get her well on the way to being able to understand what’s said to her and to act upon it appropriately.

Encourage your preschooler to repeat your directions. For example, when you say, “please pick up your toys” and your child doesn’t move, ask her what you just said. This will eventually became a habit that your child does internally, repeating instructions in her mind once they are said and then acting on them.
Engage your child in step-based activities like cooking or origami. You can read directions to your child and then show her how to act them out. This can hone listening skills in the context of every day activities, such as cooking.

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Model good listening skills. Often, when our preschoolers babble on about their days, we go on automatic pilot with our responses. Model good listening skills by paying attention to the stories that your child tells you and asking engaging questions about them.
Play listening games with your child. Simon Says is a common listening game which requires children to pay attention to the words being said. Many computer games are now available which can help you with this.
Play rhyming games. Rhyming is something which requires listening skills because your child has to work to identify sounds that sound the same. As your preschooler gets old enough to recognize rhymes, rhyming games will help with developing those listening skills.
Read aloud to your child every single day. Reading to your children helps them on many different levels, including improving their listening skills. Engage your child in the reading process to make sure that she is actively listening. You can do this by asking questions, having her add on to the story or seeing if she can memorize parts of her favorite tales.
Show your child how to use all of her senses. Explain about the five senses and give her ample opportunity to use each of them. For example, at the zoo you can ask your child what she sees, smells, and hears from certain animals. This will not only give her good listening skills but will hone her other senses and help her to develop a greater capacity for attention to details.
Talk with your child. Simply engaging in regular conversation with you on a regular basis will teach your child listening skills.
Use multi-step directions. When your preschooler is young, you often have to direct her with single-step tasks such as “pick up your toys”. As she gets older, you can add multi-step tasks (“pick up your toys and then put your shoes on”) so that she can develop the attention to listening to multi-step directions and following them.

Listening skills are something that your child is going to use for the rest of her life. They will be the cornerstone of communication in positive relationships, the basis for strong academic skills and the foundation of her ability to work with others in all situations. Bear in mind that it’s part of your job as a parent to exercise patience in teaching her these skills so that she can be a better listener for the rest of her life.