Speech and Language Therapy Advice

ATTENTION AND LISTENING GAMES

Top Tips:

Keep your language simple. Try to speak slowly and calmly and make sure that the child can hear you.

Call the child by name before asking him/her to do something. This will help to make sure that they are looking at you and listening.

Make sure that the child is ready to listen. Check they do not need the toilet, food or drink, a rest, or are over excited.

Try to keep the environment as quiet as possible. Turn off the television or radio or try to find a quiet room.

Fun games to try:

1. Hide a loud ticking clock. See if the child can locate it by listening for it. You can try this with different objects that make a noise. Trying to find an adult that is hiding and making an occasional noise can also be fun.

2. Sit and listen. Sit quietly in a room and see how many different sounds you can hear. eg. your breathing, traffic outside, clock ticking, etc. Can you make a picture together by drawing the things that you can hear?

3. Go for a walk. Listen to all the different sounds. Ask the child where the sounds are coming from. eg. Where are the dogs you can hear barking? Whose footsteps do we hear? Stand in the park or playground and see if you can point to the different sounds with your eyes closed. You could take a tape recorder with you and see if the child can recognise the different noises when you get back inside.

4. Talk about differences in sounds.

  • Noisy/quiet and loud/soft e.g. dropping a saucepan/dropping a teaspoon, lorry/push bike. Changing the volume on the stereo.
  • high and low e.g. voices,piano,penny whistle, etc.

5.Same and different sounds. eg. bang together 2 wooden spoons. Listen to the sounds they make. Then find another pair of sound makers, eg. metal spoons. Cover the sound makers with a cloth and use one set to make a noise. Ask the child to show you what you used.

6.Find or make noisemakers. These might be rattles, squeaky toys, beans in a tin, musical instruments etc. Make sure the child is familiar with the sound each thing makes. Hide the noisemakers (eg. under a cloth) and make a sound with one of them. See if the child can show you which noisemaker you used. Slowly increase the number of sounds you make and see if she can identify them in order.

7. Sound lotto and structured listening games. There are lots of different sound lotto games and workbooks available that can be fun to play. To begin with try and keep the games simple and perhaps share a board to help identify the noises. Orchard Toys, “Soundtracks” and some of the big toy chains and specialist educational catalogues have fun resources. You might want to have fun making your own game by taping or making familiar sounds and finding pictures to go with them.

8. Animal sounds. Collect 5-6 model animals and make sure the child is familiar with the sound each makes. Hide the animals under a cloth, or box. Make the noiseof one of the animals. Lift the cloth and see if the child can identify which animal you were being. Repeat with 2/3/4 animals if he can manage this and see if he can identify them in order by asking: “Which sound did I make first?” etc.

9. Shopping game. Put 6 - 8 food items on the table. Sit the other side of the room, give the child a basket and ask them to go and “buy” e.g. some beans and a cucumber.Increase the number of items when the child can manage it. If the child tends to forget by the time they have got to the toys, then change the game to make the child a shopkeeper who has to hand you what you ask for.

10.Treasure Hunt. Give the child a bag or box and go and ask her to find something to put in it, eg. a leaf or a book. Remember to tell her just once. To begin with you might want to lay a collection of objects out near you to make it easier. If the child can manage one item, repeat with two eg. a stone and a flower or a book and a shoe. Slowly increase the number of items as the child is able to remember more. You can also make this game harder by asking the child to go further to get the treasure.

11. “Go” Games. The child has to wait until the adult says “Go!” before carrying out an agreed action, eg. Putting a brick on a tower, or knocking it down;rolling the ball in skittles; taking their t-shirt off when getting ready for bath. This activity can be varied by changing the prompt, eg. The child has to wait for a clap or a tap on the table.

12. Action Rhymes. There are lots of CDs and good books with rhymes in. Sing or say these with the child, acting out the words together. For example:

  • The wheels on the bus
  • Miss Polly had a dolly
  • Head, shoulders, knees and toes
  • Here we go round the Mulberry Bush

You could try changing the order of the verses to encourage the child to listen carefully.

13. Simon Says. You can play this game simply by asking the child to do different movements, eg. “Touch your toes.” If you want to make it harder then ask them to do two actions. Finally, make them listen to see if Simon Said.

14. Playground games. “Grandmother’s footsteps”or “What’s the time Mr Wolf?” can be good fun and encourage listening. “Cookoo”can be fun with older children. In this game one child is blindfolded and the other children walk around them. The adult points a child who says “Cookoo”. The blindfolded child listens hard and tries to identify the speaker. You can make this easier by just asking them to point to where the sound is coming from.

15. Music games. Musical statues and similar games can be a good way to help children learn to listen. Start with something relatively calm like listening to music and putting your hand up when the music stops, as it is much harder to listen when you are excited or being very active. You do not need music to play active games, as you can ask the child to listen out for any noise (a clap, something you say, keys jangling) and then do something when they hear it. If the child is good at listening then you could try getting them to do different actions for different sounds, eg. “Stand up when I clap, touch your toes when I bang the drum,” etc..

16. Circle games. Once children are able to sit in a circle you can extend their listening and attention through simple group games.

Piggy – The adult touches one child on the back and makes them the Piggy. The Piggy waits for a few minutes and then quietly touches their nose. The other children have to watch carefully and touch their noses when the Piggy does. How long does it take for all the children to notice the Piggy?

Fruit Salad - Each child is given the name of a fruit. The adult calls out 2 fruits and the appropriate children change places. You can change the category to fit in with class topics, eg. animal names or sounds, occupations.

Keys of the Kingdom - One child is blindfolded and sits in the middle of the circle. A bunch of keys is placed under their chair. The adult points to a child to creep up, remove the keys and return to their seat. The child in the middle has to listen hard and stop the keys from being stolen by pointing at any thieves they hear.

Add About - One child is chosen as the Leader and does an action. The child next to them copies the action and adds another one. The aim is to try and get all the way around the circle with each child adding a new action to the list.

17. Act out a simple story– you can either make it up as you go along, or work through a favourite book.

“It’s time to get up; we climb out of bed and stretch. We get dressed. Mummy says ‘breakfast is ready’. We eat our breakfast. Now we wash our faces and clean our teeth.”

Using toys and props to retell stories can be very motivating and children often respond well to pegging up the correct sequence of pictures on a story line.

18. Sound effects. Read or make up a story and ask the child to listen and help with the sound effects. Animal stories can be good for this, eg. “moo” every time the cow is mentioned. If the child finds this hard to begin with you could use puppets or model animals to help give a prompt. Some children like to make all the animal noises. This encourages them to listen carefully to make sure that they make the right one.

Another version of this is to make up a simple story using family or friends names and ask the child to clap or put a brick in a box every time they hear a name they know. You can make this harder by using some unfamiliar names.

19. Yes/No Game. Give the child an object or picture and ask them simple questions

that have a “Yes” or “No” answer. For example, give the child a toy dog. Question - Have you got a cat? Answer - No. Question - Does a dog fly? Answer - No. Question - Does a dog like bones? Answer - Yes.

20. Give Me A Clue Game. Display 4 large clear pictures. Then describe one - “I’m thinking of something we eat.” “It is yellow”. Can the child find the picture you are describing?

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