Ideas for activities to help listening & attention skills

[Tinkerbell1979]

Hi,

I have a 21m old and I've recently done my 6 month summary review and found that she is in the age bracket 16-26m comfortably for all prime areas except her CL Listening & attention where she has more 0-11/8-20. I want to plan activities around helping this part, any ideas greatly appreciated.

TIA

[gef918]

What about sound bottles? Fill bottles with coins, rice, pasta, etc. Make two of each sound and see if she can match them.
Lots of rhymes, stories and songs, particularly those with actions to see if she is listening.
Go on a sound walk - encourage her to listen for sounds when you're out and about.
Go on a sound hunt - hide a noisy toy somewhere in the room - can she find it?

[clairer]

What about just reading books and asking where's the cat? Can you see the baby? That's it, well done! etc

[The Juggler]

get her interested in listening by being OTT with it. So when you are out say oooh what's that. make a big thing about putting your hand to your ear. Finger on lips to be quiet to listen. Can do this for cards, birds, fire engines etc.

Also reading books together.

Nursery rhymes where she follows or can join in with actions.

[FloraDora]

Although this project was designed for older children -

Every Child a Talker: Guidance for Early Language Lead Practitioners | Foundation Years

There are a lot of good ideas in the book if you download it that are relevent earlier listening being a prerequisit to talking!

[gef918]

Thanks FloraDora - that's a really interesting document, particularly about engaging parents as partners.

[Mrs Scrubbit]

What about a 'sound walk' or a game of sound lotto( mine is an old ELC game not too sure if they still do it) or perhaps look for music/songs that contain a variety of easily recognizable sounds( instruments, animals etc)xx