Teaching Active Listening to Children

Listening is defined as a way of communication that involves hearing, interpreting, and constructing a meaning as a learner. ‘Listening’ to something and ‘hearing’ something is two different concepts. For instance, we hear so many things around us such as birds chirping, refrigerator humming, baby crying, cars honking etc but these sounds does not mean that we recorded in our brains. Thus, it sounds pivotal that we teach our children listening skills by reading to them everyday, and training them in the art of active listening. The studies on listening skills have identified five stages for active listening e. g. receiving, understanding, evaluating, remembering, and responding. So keeping the importance of active listening in mind, we need to be good listeners as parents. If we model active listening skills, children will always follow that pathway. So let us demonstrate active listening skills and be a role model for our children.