1) Listening starts at home
Hearing and listening are not the same. When parents ask a child to “listen” the child is “hearing” and most often may not be listening. Hearing simply happens because it is an act of perceiving sound whereas listening requires concentration so that the brain is processing the meaning from the sounds of the words and sentences.
2) Parents do not overrule and dictate for everything
Many a times parents would like their children to follow their command and not question the parents.
This would create a tense atmosphere and children stop engaging with parents which would severly impact their communication skills
3) Don’t discourage a child to ask questions:
Parents should note that it is natural for children to ask questions even if they are trivial. For example, why is the sky blue in color, why do dogs bark, why does it rain, etc. Parents should once again listen carefully to the question and answer by making good eye contact. In this process, the child knows that it is ok for her/him to ask questions and seek answers. Parents should let the child know if they don’t know the answers and should make a joint effort in finding out the answers. This is quality time spent between parent and children in strengthening the listening skills.
4) The art of reading stories, news magazines, special articles ( ex – Space, Sports etc..)
Children love stories even if the same story is repeated several times because children like predictability. While reading to them take a pause and ask them to predict what happens next, this could be with a familiar or a new story. The prediction requires the child to listen to the details to make a logical guess. After reading the story, ask the child to retell the story in her/his words. In this process, the child is listening to the words and understand what the words mean.