Helping children to practise their listening skills doesn’t need to be a major chore. In a blog ‘Getting Little Ones to Listen’ I share my top tips for supporting early listening. One of those tips is that practise makes perfect. Like any skill, the more we have opportunities to focus on and develop a skill the more likely we are to master and maintain it.  Regular fun games are a great way to improve listening.

Here is a round up of some games to try out with your little ones. Remember whilst playing to be explicit about what behaviours are supporting their listening and praise their efforts e.g., ‘Being quiet is helping me to listen carefully.’

Sound match

Matching two things which sound the same is great for developing listening skills and sound discrimination which is important for phonological awareness, a key foundation skill for both speech and phonics. Use a selection of empty jars (or tins / boxes) and fill them with a selection of things which will make a noise when the jar is shaken such as rice, coins, bells, stones etc. Make sure you have a pair of each (two filled with a similar amount of rice). If you can, involve your child in getting the jars ready, the more involved they feel the more likely they are to engage. Then play a game of ‘match my sound’. Choose a jar and shake it. Encourage your child to find a jar which sounds the same. 

Jingle Jangle Hide and Seek 

This game is deal for demonstrating the need to be quiet in order to listen carefully. 

Take turns to hide a noisy object whilst the other player wears a blindfold and listens carefully to the direction you walk in. This can be done with any noisy toy and works well with bells, shakers and bunches of keys as they make a noise whilst you are hiding them. 

A step on from this is to hide an egg timer, alarm or cordless speaker. Your child can then start to hunt for the noisy item when the alarm goes off or music starts. 

Level Up

Introducing games where a child needs to listen carefully for two pieces of information is a good way to extend their listening skills in preparation for following more complex instructions. Throughout these games encourage children to ‘listen to all of the words’. This can be done with lots of games you already play. I like to switch up the classic ‘I spy’ by giving two characteristics in my clues 

For example:

‘I spy with my little eye something which starts with the letter A and is green’

‘I spy with my little eye an animal which has 4 legs’

To get more of our top tips and tools join our Confident Communicators Facebook group (supporting development for 2 – 5 year olds).

The group is open to parents/ carers/ grandparents and early years practitioners. 

Do come along and join us!