Child Listening Essay

720 Words2 Pages

Whenever you talk to a child, it seems like they are never ever listening. You tell them to stop doing something, but they go ahead and do it anyway. There are ways you can get a child to listen, but you must use the right methods. When a child is listening to you speak, there are different factors that allow a child to comprehend what you are talking about. Some of these factors include working memory, inference, grammatical knowledge, and theory of mind. These factors all rely on how the speaker portrays them. If you use big words a child won’t understand, then chances are they will be tuning you out. Some things that will rely on the child and his/her knowledge would be grammar, attention, and comprehension monitoring. These are basically …show more content…

This sends a powerful message that says you mean what you say, and you don’t have to stand there very long, just a minute or two. While you are waiting, give praise for every step in the right direction; no matter how small it seems. Arguing and lecturing your child never seems to work, instead try to give positive feedback. In addition to praising, be a good listener yourself. This will show them that you understand that they might not want to move on to another activity. When they see you doing these things yourself, they will be more likely to imitate those actions.
Another helpful tip for getting your child to listen is to remember not to get sidetracked until your child has cooperated. If your child storms out, don’t follow them, you don’t want them to think they are in charge. Go about your business and wait for them to come out. They will start talking about something else and you say, “I’d be happy to talk about that after you do what I told you.” Don’t lose your temper while you’re waiting. This will only cause you to start to shout and your child will tune you out. Try walking out of the room to calm yourself down and come back into the room when you do.
I believe these methods to improve listening skills with children will help many families who struggle with getting their children to do things. These are effective skills that have actually worked with other families. I think that when I am older and have a family of my own, I will be using these

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