SPEECH AND LANGUAGE THERAPY
BUILDING LISTENING SKILLS
Try to keep therapy activities short and fun. A couple of minutes a day is
more effective than half an hour once a week. It is very important that
the child stays motivated to continue practicing.
The activities below are presented roughly in sequence.
It is
recommended that you start with the simpler activities to check that the
child’s listening is secure at the foundational levels before moving
gradually onwards through the activities.
Ready, steady …….. Go! Games
The point is that your child must wait until you have said “go” before he
can carry out the game. As you improve at this activity – gradually
lengthen the time span between “steady” and “go”, so that your child must
wait a few seconds.
Examples:
 build a tower ………. and knock it down
 push a car to each other across the floor
 post a brick into a box etc.
 wind up toys – take turns to send wind up toys back and forth
 Posting box – take turns to post items in a box
 Skittles – take turns to roll a ball and knock down skittles
Noisy Games
Noise makers could include:
Banging wooden blocks Hitting a pan with a
together
wooden spoon
Tapping chopsticks
Hitting a plastic bottle
together
with a stick
Squeaky toys
Dropping cutlery onto a
tray
Rattling a tambourine
Rattling a tin of dry
rice/pasta
Blowing a toy trumpet
Blowing a raspberry
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Stamping your feet
Tapping your fingers on
the table top
Dropping toys into the
bath
Rattling your keys/toy
rattles
Blowing a kiss
Play with these and make the noises. Then your child must cover his eyes
and listen while you make a noise, then open his eyes and find the one you
used.
(you can expand on this by stopping and listening to noises as you go about
your daily routine, e.g. the noises you make while washing up!
You can vary these activities in the following ways:

Blindfold the child. Using a selection of two or three musical
instruments make a noise with one of them. Remove the blindfold
and ask the child to identify which one made the noise.

Extend the above by using similar sounding instruments, e.g.
tambourine and bells.

As above, the child has to identify a sequence of two or three
instruments.
There are many variations on this theme, e.g. using two sets of
instruments and asking the child to copy the sequence of instruments.

Hide a toy/object which make a sound somewhere in the room for
the child to find e.g. alarm clock, battery operated toy, musical
box, kitchen timer etc.

As above, but introduce two sounds for the child to locate.

As a group activity – one member of the group makes a sound e.g.
saying ‘boo’, whispering, crinkling paper whilst one of the children is
blindfolded. The blindfolded child has to decide where the noise
came from.
These tasks may be graded in difficulty by choice of noisemakers, placing
noisemakers at different heights and when the children are good
listeners, working against some background noise e.g. radio, TV etc.

Animal Noises. This game is one in which the child has to recognise
the sounds which an animal makes. Can the child pick out a picture
of the animal when you make a noise? Reverse the process so that
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the child makes the sound and you pick out the animal. (PS Make a
mistake sometimes as children love to correct an adult!)
Encourage the child to listen to and identify everyday sounds, e.g. hoover,
telephone, kettle, traffic, running water etc. Encourage him to imitate
and name them. Talk about the sounds you hear around you.
Hiding Games
a)
You hide, e.g. a sweet in a little box, place this in a slightly
bigger box and so on up to 3 or 4 boxes, while your child
watches. He must then open all the boxes to find it!
(You could also use Russian dolls, interlocking cups, etc.).
b)
You hide, e.g. 3 or 4 toys/objects around the room while your
child watches. Talk aloud while you do this, e.g.: “I’m going to
hide teddy under the chair and the cup on the table”, etc.
Then you sit down together in the middle of the room and
you say “Find me the ……”. He must listen and then run and
fetch it.
Rhymes and Stories

Even before a child understands every word of a nursery rhyme he
can listen to the rhythm and can pick out the important words and
act them out.

Sing nursery rhymes and favourite songs and leave a pause for the
child to supply the missing word.

Tell well-known stories over and over again, pausing for the child to
join in at key moments. Stories with repetitive lines such as The
Gingerbread Man and The Three Little Pigs are good for this.

Make up a story with the child’s name in it. Read it once and repeat
it explaining that he must put his hand up when he hears his name.
If this is done as a group, use names of the more able children to
act as models.
Examples of stories and rhymes:
 Round and round the garden
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






Two little dickie birds
Pat-a-cake
Incy wincy spider
The gingerbread man
Three little pigs
Head & Shoulders knees & toes
Bear Hunt
Rhythm and Sequence Games
Encourage the child to copy you as you make two beats on a drum or other
noise make, keeping the beats evenly spaced and regular. When the child
is able to copy you confidently and accurately, move up to three beats and
so on, then vary the number of beats each time. To increase the
complexity, ask the child to copy the number of beats you make without
looking.
Use a noisemaker such as a party blower or a whistle to produce long
sounds and short sounds. Encourage your child to identify and copy long
sounds and short sounds in simple repetitions.
Only when the child becomes very accurate in these activities should you
move onto creating patterns (for example, ‘beat beat – pause – beat
beat’). You should work at the child’s level – not trying to challenge them
beyond what they can remember and copy.
Finger rhymes and clapping games such as Pat-A-Cake are appropriate at
this stage. Also musical chairs/bumps/statues are appropriate at this
stage.
Listening to Speech
Set up a pretend shop, and ask your child to give you specific items.
Start by using single words only (apple, ball, teddy), then build short
sentences (“Can I have an apple please?”, “Please give me a block”). Vary
your sentences so that the item the child is listening for isn’t always the
last word you say. As the child gets more confident, ask for two items
(“A car and a teddy, please”). This can be extended into everyday
routines – either by asking your child to help you unpack the shopping, or
by asking him to spot items for you the supermarket.
Sing nursery rhymes or action songs, leaving out words for the child to
fill in – or deliberately say the wrong word to encourage your child to
correct you (for example, “Humpty Dumpty sat on the… bed”).
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Play Simon Says gradually making the commands longer. To start with,
model the action you are asking the child to do – later on, let the child try
to work it out first then model the action only if they are struggling.
Play word games such as “I went shopping and I bought…” to encourage
the child to listen to and remember more items.
Other Activities and Games
Balloons
 Blow them up and let them go
 Feel the air coming out of them
 Throw and catch them
 Draw faces on them
Peek-a-boo
Hide behind a chair or box and suddenly pop up calling “boo”. This can also
be done with the child’s toys – make the teddy say “boo” to the child.
Inset puzzles/simple jigsaws
 Talk about each piece as you put them back in the puzzle
 Hide one piece and ask the child which is missing
 Hide a piece in one hand and let the child guess which hand
 Match puzzle pieces to real objects
 Draw around the pieces
Any games like these are very good for helping your child’s attention
control to develop.
Activities like drawing, painting, playdough, etc., are all good for
concentrating!
Do not expect your child to concentrate for long – perhaps only a minute
at a time or even less at first!
Short, frequent sessions are best.
For further advice ask your Speech and Language Therapist.
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