Have you ever felt the need to repeat the instructions you gave to your child? Do you often get complaints from school regarding your child not listening in the class?
As parents you might be thinking that your child is simply ignoring what he is listening to. But the reality may be different. It is believed that good parenting is the key to skill building in children. Go through the entire article to raise a good listener which ultimately leads to better communication skills.
We cannot be speakers who do not listen. But neither can we be listeners who do not speak
Mahatma Gandhi
Children often complain about not being able to make friends and even sometimes losing close friends. This may be due to lack of listening skills .
Listening skills help your child develop social skills. Research has shown that children with good listening skills tend to make friends quickly. Follow the tips given below to significantly improve your child’s listening skills.
Give undivided attention
To make your child a good listener, first you need to become one. If your child is speaking to you then you should give him or her your undivided attention and not carry on with some other activities.
“While listening to your child, sit next to them and make eye contact. Do not use your phone, watch TV, or do anything else while listening to them.” said Hemal Sataki, Happy Family Foundation’s Head Communicator. “If you are busy and need to complete a task, you should tell them to please wait for a few minutes,” she added.
When your child will see how attentively you listen to him or her, they will realize how important it is to listen properly.
So, to conclude, if you want your child to listen to you, you should be listening to him or her very attentively.
Praising children through various activities
Parents should ensure praising their children when they do listen and that’s one of the main motivations of involving them into interactive activities.
Telling stories, playing cards or board games, watching movies together can be really helpful in bonding with your children. Encouraging them by frequently saying: “Thanks dear for being such a good listener” restores the desire to listen more carefully.
Build Patience in them
Patient people are always good listeners. As you gain patience, you become approachable, and people feel comfortable sharing their thoughts with you. Hence, as a parent, you should ensure that your child has good patience. Now all you need to do is teach your child patience. How to achieve that exactly? Here’s one way you should try:
One of the major reasons why children lack patience is that they get bored very easily. Researchers have found that when children embody a superhero they adore while doing a difficult task, they think more responsibly. They tend to do tasks very dedicatedly with a flexible mindset. This way they can be someone who is more competent and hence they won’t find boredom in waiting.
Having a regular story time
Reading together can always be a fun activity. Bedtime stories are a great way of bonding. Children will become active listeners and also they can develop a habit of reading. This way story telling will enhance the listening skills among the children.
One pro tip: Do ask your children to recall the story you told a day before. This way they will listen to the stories very attentively.
Importance of Extracurricular activities
In India, the majority of the families are academically oriented. Parents want their children to score well and they wish that their children prioritize studies over everything else. This is very wrong and parents should change their mindset. They should emphasize the importance of extracurricular activities and they should ensure that their children maintain a healthy balance between academic and non-academic activities. Extracurricular activities are responsible for making students attentive, focused and patient. Which in turn leads to improvement in listening skills as the extracurricular activities involve team interactions, one to one coaching and much more.
Conclusion:
Listening is as important as speaking is in communication. To improve your child’s communication skills you should pay equal attention to the listening and speaking skills of your child. Want to improve your child’s communication skills, check Orphicy’s Young Leaders Program: a certification course that enhances all the essential life skills in your children.
