Listening is one of the earliest and most essential skills children develop on their journey to language and cognitive growth. Unlike simply hearing, which is the passive act of detecting sound, listening requires active engagement and processing of the information received. How children develop listening skills is a process that happens over time from birth on.
This foundational skill supports a child’s ability to understand and act on verbal communication and plays a pivotal role in their overall language development.
From recognizing the names of family members to following complex instructions in a classroom setting, listening is crucial for successful communication and learning.
As children grow, their listening skills evolve, enabling them to comprehend more complex language and respond appropriately to verbal cues. In this blog post, we will explore the stages of listening development in children, why these skills are important, and how to nurture them over time.
What is Listening?
Listening comprehension is a child’s ability to hear, understand and act on verbal language. Achieving the listening skill is very important to language development and is strongly correlated with reading comprehension (Florit, Roch & Levorato, 2011). It is different from hearing in that listening involves a child’s ability to attend to and process what she hears (Lanza & Flahive, 2008). Listening is the first language mode that children acquire and serves as a foundation for all aspects of language and cognitive development (Hyslop & Tone, 1988).
Why is Listening Important?
Children learn to communicate by imitating the sounds they hear in their environment. Because of this, it is crucial that caretakers first confirm their child is able to hear. If a child has a hearing loss that is undetected and untreated, he or she will miss exposure to language sounds and develop delayed communication skills.
Listening comprehension includes children’s receptive language skills, which can be described as their ability to listen and understand spoken language. Receptive language skills include such things as understanding the names of common objects, knowing the names of family members and the ability to follow a direction such as “come here” or “give the toy to Mommy.”
By understanding verbal directions, children can respond to, recall and follow instructions given verbally. Teachers continuously give directions in classrooms (Goodson & Layzer, 2009) and kindergarten teachers often report the greatest difficulty in transitioning into kindergarten is with following directions (Curby, Grimm & Pianta, 2010).
The Listen and Color activity is featured in the Experience Preschool EcoVenture theme.
How Do Children Learn Listening Skills Over Time?
A child demonstrates receptive language skills by comprehending spoken language and following verbal
directions. Such demonstrations will look different at each phase of the developmental process:
Infants turn their heads toward the person speaking and making gestures or vocalizations in response to others talking.
Toddlers respond to familiar people who are singing or talking. With prompts or gestures, they follow a one-step or related two-step direction.
Preschoolers listen to stories or infomration and respond appropriately. They follow unrelated two-step or multi-step directions.
Primary schoolers evidence comprehension by asking or answersing specific questions about key details from infomration or stories shared orally. They listen to directions and folow previously described rules or respond to implied requests.
Our integrated curriculum system uniquely weaves 35 research-based skills into playful games and discovery projects. The cross-disciplinary model supports a child’s on-going social-emotional, physical, language and cognitive development. See what children learn through play and download the Developmental Continuum of Skills.
Discover how we can support your goals—schedule your walkthrough of Experience Curriculum now!
