American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults
Future Reflections       Winter 2019      EARLY CHILDHOOD

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Helping Your Blind Child Develop Good Listening Skills

by Lesley Potgieter

Reprinted with permission from www.wonderbaby.org.

From the Editor: People often assume that blind children automatically have superior listening skills. However, like any other skill, the ability to listen attentively improves with practice. In this article Lesley Potgieter suggests games and activities that can help children learn effective listening. Lesley Potgieter is a teacher and parent who lives in the UK. You can visit her website at http://www.awarebears.co.za/

Listening refers to a child's ability to attend to and distinguish environmental and speech sounds from one another. It is crucial for a child, especially a blind child, to develop good listening skills in order to cope with the academic demands of school and to learn adequate literacy skills.

A child's listening skills include determining the direction from which a sound comes, recalling or memorizing auditory information, recognizing intonation of voice, and awareness of rhythmic patterns. These skills provide the basis for the development of expressive language and are important in the acquisition of early literacy.

Listening involves many different aspects:

• Alertness: At what level is your child's awareness of sound?
• Auditory acuity: How well does he or she hear?1
• Sequencing: Is your child able to identify the order of what he/she hears?
• Discrimination: Can your child distinguish similarities and differences in sounds?
• Figure-Ground: Can your child isolate one sound from a background of sounds?
• Memory: Can your child remember what she/he hears? Is your child able to retrieve that information?
• Sound-Symbol: Is your child able to connect a sound to a particular written or tactile symbol?
• Perception: Does your child comprehend what he/she hears?2

Developing Listening Skills at Home

There are many activities and games you can play with your child to develop the skills, concepts, and abilities necessary to meet the auditory requirements of listening activities:

• Play listening games to identify animal or environmental sounds, i.e., using CD's with animal noises or everyday sounds that occur at home or at school.
• Play guessing games, i.e., fill a bag with objects that make different noises, such as a bell, clock, drum, etc. Allow your child to guess which object is making the noise.
• Play musical instruments and allow your child to copy different rhythms.
• Play clapping games and have your child copy your clapped rhythm.
• Demonstrate high- and low-pitched sounds, fast and slow rhythms, and loud and soft sounds.
• Play games such as "Simon Says," using three or four instructions, i.e., "Clap your hands, snap your fingers, and then stamp your feet."
• Read stories to your child and ask her to listen for a certain word. For example, every time she hears the word "dog" she must make a sound like a dog, or every time you say the word "happy" she must clap her hands.
• Read a familiar nursery rhyme to your child and leave out a word. He must recognize which word is missing and fill in the blank.
• Play games where blindfolds are used. This can help children develop a sense of the directionality of sounds.
• Say two words to your child and ask her to tell you whether the words sound the same or different, i.e., pop/bop; dog/dock.
• Read to your child as often as you can. During the story, pause and ask questions to ensure that your child is listening to specific details of the story.
• Play story CD's in the car, without pictures, to encourage active listening.
• Play auditory listening games in the car based on the traditional game "My grandmother went to the market, and she bought. . . ." You can change the format and make it "I went to the shops and bought some bread." The next person repeats your item and then adds his own. See how many words you can remember together.

Good Listening Strategies

• Teach your child to listen to you the first time you speak.
• Be clear and concise when giving an instruction.
• Give your child your full attention when she addresses you. Stop what you are doing to reduce any distractions for you and your child.
• Tell your child how many things you need him to remember, i.e., "I am going to ask you to do three things. Put your lunch box in your room, pick up your shoes, and hang up your jacket."
• Repeat the important words to help your child remember, i.e., "lunch box, shoes, jacket."
• Praise and reward your child for good listening strategies and for responding after the first instruction.

REFERENCES

1. See "A Visit to Audiology," www.wonderbaby.org/articles/audiology.
2. For more information, see Gillet, Pamela. (1993) Auditory Processes. Academic Therapy Publications.

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