Listening and Attention

Children develop listening and attention skills by noticing and focussing on everyday sounds around them.

At school, it will help them to join in with activities and interact with their teacher, in small groups and as part of the whole class.

Your child might use their listening and attention skills to:

Reply when they hear their name. E.g., when their name is called in the register.
Follow simple instructions with two actions. E.g., ‘Please bring me your reading book from your book bag’.
Listen to a story and talk about things that have happened in the story.

Top Tip

Give plenty of time for your child to respond before asking a question again.

There are lots of fun activities you can do to help your child build their listening and attention skills.

Try the activities below!

Ask them to choose a book and bring it to you to read.

Read the story, stopping every now and again to talk about what’s happening.

Action games like ‘Simon Says’ or songs like ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.’

Whilst moving around a space ask your child to ‘stop’ and ‘freeze like a statue’ whilst they wait for you to say “go”.

Play a song and ask your child to dance, stopping when the music stops. Then stop and restart the music!

Simply asking them to listen and say what they can hear really helps them to take notice of their surroundings.

These video feature more ideas to help your child improve their listening and attention skills.

This page is part of our Ready Steady School series, designed to help your little one make the most of their start to school life.

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