This article is reprinted from Texas Child Care, a quarterly newspaper published by the Texas Workforce Commission. Subscriptions may be placed by calling 512-441-6633, or writing Editor, Texas Child Care, P.O. Box 162881, Austin, Texas 78716-2881.

Are You Listening?

By Jane Saul and Betsy Saul

Following directions, acquiring information, avoiding danger, and learning about the world are just a few of the ways children use listening as part of everyday life.

Actually, listening skills are critical to developing language. From infancy, children listen to family members and caregivers and model their language. Listening is also critical to learning to read. Children must discriminate individual sounds before they can put letter sounds together to build words.

Educators have long known that listening and paying attention affect a child's success in school (Mayesky, 1986). The ability to listen and remember affects a child's ability to learn throughout all curriculum areas. Listening skills begin developing early. At birth, babies turn their heads toward comforting sounds. According to Klaus and Klaus (1985), research with ultrasound indicates that infants hear and respond to sounds while they are still in the womb.

Listening is not the same as hearing. Hearing is a physical process in which sound waves create vibrations that are transmitted as nerve impulses to the brain.

Listening is more complex. According to Grunkemeyer (1992), listening includes hearing as well as the mental processes of interpreting and absorbing message and storing and retrieving information. Hearing is a sense most people are born with, but listening is a learned behavior (Machado, 1990).

Listening skills do not develop automatically. "Effective listening is a communication skill that must be taught to and nurtured among our students," says Grunkemeyer (1992). As educators and caregivers, we can provide many opportunities to promote listening skills in our classroom. "Learning to listen is a prerequisite to listening to learn" (Mayesky, 1986).

DO YOU HAVE THEIR ATTENTION?
Grunkemeyer (1992) defines attention as focusing the mind on listening. To help develop this skill, we can use the following techniques when talking to individual children in the classroom.

WHAT ABOUT GROUP TIME?
Group time poses its own problems of getting and keeping the children's attention. You may have heard teachers constantly saying, "Sh! Sh! Sh!" Shushing is rarely effective. Instead, start with a familiar song or finger play, such as "One of my favorite wishes / It to play in mud that squishes..." A soft voice and an engaging subject will have everybody quiet at the end and ready to listen for the next activity.

Designate space.
Give children a designated space in which to sit. It might be a carpet square on the floor or a taped line around the circle. You might have the children sit in their "ready position," cross-legged on the floor, with their hands in their laps. You can add a little chant, "Criss-cross applesauce, hands in your lap."

Use puppet helpers.
Start group time with a puppet. A rabbit, queen, dinosaur, or other puppet will capture the children's attention. Puppets can be made from almost anything - Paper bags, socks, and stove mitts, for example. They don't even have to be the kind you put your hand in. A stuffed animal that sits on your lap, a sticker attached to a tongue depressor, or a decoration retrieved from a flower arrangement can create interest for the children.

Keep books in clear sight.
Make sure that all children can see the book you are reading. Often teachers arrange children in a semi-circle so that children sit to the left and right. Unless you back you before beginning a book, the children on the sides will not be able to see the pictures. The inability to see invites children to find their own amusements.

Minimize interruptions.
If a child begins talking during a story, you might weave that child's name into the next line of the story. "Jack started to climb the beanstalk. He looked around for Michelle but couldn't see her anywhere..." If several children start talking, avoid raising your voice louder then theirs. Simply stop reading, have complete silence for a few seconds, and then return to the story. Sometimes speaking s-l-o-w-l-y and more directly will help the children to listen.

Ask one child one question.
To encourage discussion, call a child's name first, and then ask a question. "Johnny, can you name one farm animal you know?" What would happen if you said, "Who can name a farm animal?" Everybody has a story to tell. Avoid creating a situation that invites disruption.

Keep group time short.
Fifteen minutes is a maximum for most preschoolers in a large group activity.

IDENTIFYING SOUNDS
Apart from group time, you have many opportunities during a typical day to promote effective listening skills. The following games and activities can help children to recognize different sounds and distinguish between them.

Make listening shakers.
Use 10 plastic film canisters to make five pairs of listening shakers. Place materials that make a different sound in each pair. You might use such things as rocks, pennies, sand, and paper clips. If you want to make them self-correcting, place an identifying symbol on the bottom of each pair - yellow dots on the penny shakers and green dots on the sand, for example. After shaking each container and matching them, the child can turn them over to see if they are correctly matched.

Play the master game.
Choose three items that make different sounds - perhaps a wooden spoon, a string of beads, and a sponge. Have the children sit in a circle and play a game. One child is the "Master" and sits in a chair with eyes closed. Other children chant:

"Master, Master, do you hear?
Someone's coming very near!"

A child designated by the teacher picks up one item and drops it on the floor. After hearing the sound, the "Master" tries to guess which item was dropped.

Identify sounds in the room.
Open and close a window, flip the light switch, run a toy truck across the floor, drop a pillow, or cut paper with scissors. Have children close their eyes and take turns guessing the sound.

Make hard and soft sounds.
Let children experiment with many different items by dropping them or tapping them on a table. Which ones make louder sounds, and which ones make softer sounds? You might use cotton balls, keys, blocks, cotton swabs, a crayon, and a metal spoon.

Take a listening walk
Read The Listening Walk by Paul Showers, in which a child takes a walk through the neighborhood and listens to different sounds. Take your children on a "listening walk" around your school both inside and out. What sounds are in the office? Do you hear different sounds in the kitchen? What sounds are outside?

MUSIC AND RHYTHM
Music and rhythm instruments lend themselves to many types of listening activities. Enjoyment of listening is in itself a desirable goal.

Experiment with bells.
Place different sizes and kinds of jingle bells in the music center and allow children to experiment with the sound they make. Does shaking a bell in your hand sound different than shaking it on a string or a paper clip? Which bells make high sounds? Low? Can you put them in order? Slip several bells on a pipe cleaner, and attach the ends to make a circle. Now you have a bell bracelet to ring while singing songs. Let each child make one to use with movement songs such as this one to the tune of Mary Had A Little Lamb:

Ring you bell and clap, clap, clap,

Clap, clap, clap-clap, clap, clap.

Ring your bell and clap, clap, clap.

Sing with me today.

Make up other verses by substituting movements for "clap, clap, clap." Some examples, are "wave, wave, wave"; "stomp, stomp, stomp"; and "twirl, twirl, twirl."

Hang a noise mobile.
Look around the room for items that will rattle together such as pencils, mails, children's scissors, large paper clips, spoons, and tin cans. Tie fishing line around the items, and attach them to a clothes hanger. Hand the mobile outside a window where it will blow in the breeze.

Do the hand jive.
Have children listen to the differences in sound when they clap their hands and slap their thighs. Make up a rhythm pattern - for example, two claps and one slap - and encourage everyone to do it together 10 or 20 times. Let children make up their own rhythm patterns. Try making other sounds using only body parts - snapping fingers and clucking tongues. Incorporate these sounds into rhythm patterns.

Make band instruments.
Make instruments form common household objects. For shakers, have children drop pebbles into an empty soft drink can and tape the opening shut. Shakers enhance hand-eye coordination and are lots of fun to use in a parade. Have you ever made a shaker by putting dried beans into two paper plates stapled together, only to have the beans fall out? Place them in a zipper-type plastic bag first.

Stretch rubber bands around an empty tissue box to make a banjo. Decorate the outside of a coffee can or oatmeal box to make a drum.

USING RHYMES AND LETTER SOUNDS
The ability to hear differences in closely related sounds is critical to reading. Use plenty of nursery rhymes, poems, finger plays, and songs in language and music activities.

Chant rhymes.
Encourage children to make up their own rhyming chants. For example, begin by chanting and clapping:

I had a cat, the cat wore a __________. (hat).

I had a cat, the cat sat on a __________ (mat).

I had a cat, the cat chased a __________ (rat, bat, gnat).

Continue the chant but let children make up other actions for the cast such as "...asked for a pat" or "...meowed at Matt." Substitute different words for "cat" such as the following:

I had a car, the car was covered with __________ (tar).

I had a car, the car ran into a __________ (star, bar).

I had a car, the car traveled __________ (far).

I had a car, the car won't fit in a __________ (jar).

Play the silly name game.
In kindergarten, a common objective is to learn the sounds of the letters of the alphabet. As you plan activities for each letter, include the "silly name" game during group time or as a transition to snack, hand washing, or outdoor play. This game consists of a chant in which you change everyone's name to begin with that letter sound. Children love the silly words!

Betsy, Betsy is her name.
With an M it's Metsy!

David, David, is his name.
With an M its Mavid!

Joel, Joel, is his name.
With an M is Moel!

Practice tongue twisters.
Recite tongue twisters such as "Peter picked a peck of pickled peppers" and "She sold sea shells at the sea shore." Recite them slowly at first, and then see how fast you can say them without slipping.

PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES FOR LISTENING
Listening skills are vital to development language and learning to read. Children who can listen effectively can succeed in all subject areas in school. These skills are not inborn but learned, and they begin developing in infancy and the preschool years. By choosing specific activities, teachers can provide many opportunities for children to improve their listening skills.

REFERENCES
Grunkemeyer, F.B. "All about listening," Business Education Forum, 46 (April 1992), 28-31.

Klaus, M.H. and P.H. Klaus, The Amazing Newborn. Menlo Park, Calif.: Addison Wesley, 1985.

Machado, J.M. Early Childhood Experiences in Language Arts, 4th ed. Albany, N.Y.: Delmar Publishers, Inc., 1990.

Mayesky, M. Creative Activities for Children in the Early Primary Grades. Albany, NY: Delmar Publishers, Inc., 1986.

Showers, P. The Listening Walk. Mexico: Harper Trophy, 1991.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Jane D. Saul, M.A. is an instructor in Child and Family Studies at the University of Southern Mississippi and is a teacher in their child development center.

Betsy Saul, M.Ed. is a fourth grade teacher in Madison, Miss.

Both mother and daughter regularly share their knowledge in early childhood conferences and have been published in educational journals.