Thinking about attention and listening skills as a pre-requisite to learning
Objectives:
 Understand some causes of poor attention
 Have some ideas for increasing motivation in students to help them engage and attend
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Know some activities for increasing attention and listening skills
Imagine you had a teacher. Imagine that each and every day this teacher came in and presented exactly the same material as the day before. What would you do?
Most adults would switch off. Some would make a list of chores they need to complete or write a shopping list. Others might stare out the window or think about some problems they are having.
Why would they do this? Perhaps out of boredom? If they have heard this all before, why do they need to pay attention? How often do we do the same thing day in and day out with our children and not consider the effect this might have on their interest in the material. How then can we complain when they don’t pay attention?
Give them something to attend to.
What can your children do? Find out. Build upon what they know and can do.
8.1 Some Causes of Poor Attention
Attention issues are frequently cited by teachers as one of their major professional frustrations. If you have a specific student that you feel does not attend in class it is important to establish why the child is not attending in class. There may be many reasons for a child’s inattention. Here are some that you may want to consider, If you like, use this list as a checklist.
Read through the list and rule out the reasons that do not apply and investigate further into ones that might apply. When you have concluded what the factors are, you can then decide on a course of action.
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Does the child have a hearing impairment which means he/she is unable to follow what is happening in class? Does he/she have a hearing aid that is not being worn or is not working? Do you need to refer the child for an audiological assessment?
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Is the work too difficult for the child? Do you need to break it down to make it easier for the child or pair them with another child who can help them with it? Do you need to take some time to explain to the child individually or in a small group how to do his/her work?
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Is the work too easy for the child, causing him/her to get bored? Do you need to provide the child with more difficult work?
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Is there enough work for the child to do? Do they finish their work before the other children in the class and need to be given extra activities to fill the time?
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Are activities too long for the child? Do you need to make tasks shorter but more repetitive?
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Is the child a visual learner? Does he/she need you to use more pictures/ symbols to support what you are teaching verbally? Does he/she need more practical work in order to stay attentive?
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Is there enough motivation for the child to do the work? (see below for suggestions to increase motivation)
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Does the child simply have a very short attention span and therefore find it hard to listen?
8.2 How to increase the motivation of a child to attend in class
Using a tick chart
It is always far more effective to use a reward system rather than a punishment system when trying to motivate a child to attend in class.
One way of motivating a child is to use a tick-chart. To make a tick chart, write the name of every pupil in your class down the left hand side of the paper (you can use photos/pictures/symbols to represent each child if they are not yet able to read their names) and make a grid for ticks for each child. The chart can be designed to be used on a daily or weekly basis. Make sure that there is enough space for the child to get several ticks each day if you make it on a weekly basis.
Give ticks throughout the day for good behaviour and participation. In the case of the child who finds it difficult to listen and attend, make sure you give ticks for any good attempt to attend and listen. Explain why you are giving ticks as you give them so that the children know what it is that they have done well. Even if a specific child is not attending well to begin with, seeing the other children in the class earn ticks for good behaviour and realizing that he/she is not getting any ticks should hopefully motivate him/her to attend better. Be liberal with your ticks, especially at the beginning, when the children are getting used to the system. Make sure that each child succeeds in getting at least one tick each day so that the children feel like ticks are obtainable even if one of them is not particularly academic.
Depending on resources in the school and individual teacher preference, the children can receive some type of reward when he/she
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has earned a certain number of ticks e.g. a sticker, a sweet, a chance to play with his/her favourite toy etc. This will increase the motivation of the children to earn ticks.
Alternating liked and disliked activities
1. Find out what the child really likes – it can be a book, a toy, a puzzle, colouring a picture, a game, a song he/she likes you to sing etc. Make sure it is the child who likes the activity and not you! You may have to experiment with a few different toys or activities before you find one that you are sure the child likes. Ensure that the object or activity selected is appropriate (socially and safety-wise).
2. Select the work activity that you want the child to do. Make a note of how long the child usually attends to the task in question (it may be seconds or minutes or not at all).
3. Use a visual timetable to show the child what will be expected of him/her. For example: Draw a picture/symbol of the work task first, followed by a picture or symbol of the game or toy that the child is motivated by (which you discovered in step one). Put the pictures in a vertical line with the first picture at the top.
4. Make sure you have the work task, the motivating item/activity (if it requires materials) and the visual timetable ready before beginning to work with the child. Show the child the visual timetable, explain that you want him/her to do his/her work first and then he/she can have the toy or do the activity that he/she likes to do.
5. Give the child his/her work and be very clear how much you want him/her to do before he/she will be allowed to play with the desired toy.
Keep the work task short to begin with as you can always make it longer as the child becomes more familiar with the system. You can decide upon the length of the task based on how long he/she was attending for in step 2. If the child could only attend for a few seconds, give a work task that will only last a few seconds. If he/she could attend for 4-5 minutes then give a work task of this length.
6. When the child has completed the work task, get him/her to cross off your picture/symbol representing the work task and show what is next on the visual timetable (i.e. the desired activity). If the child does not want to complete the work, remind him/her of the activity that can be done when the work is finished but do not let him/her have the desired activity until after the work has been completed. If necessary give physical prompts for him/her to do the work i.e. help him/her handover-hand so that he/she is successful and you can give the motivating reward.
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7. As soon as the work task has been completed and crossed off the visual timetable, you can give the child the desired toy or do the desired activity together.
8. When the motivating activity has been completed, help the child to cross off that picture/symbol from the visual timetable and tell him/her that the programme has finished.
As the child becomes familiar with the visual timetable and starts realizing that after he/she has completed the work task, he/she will be rewarded with a motivating activity, you can gradually make the work task longer so that the child is expected to do more before getting a reward. You can also make the number of items on the timetable greater, always alternating a liked with a disliked activity. In just the same way as before, after each task is completed the child should cross off the picture/symbol of the finished activity and then move on to the next one. As the child’s attention increases he/she can begin to follow a visual timetable with less support from the teacher until he/she is able to follow one independently. If this system is failing, it may well be that the child is no longer motivated by what he/she liked at the beginning. It is important to reassess what motivates the child, either by asking him/her or by offering a choice of toys and activities and seeing which ones are of interest to him/her.
Materials needed:
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A work task
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a motivating item/game/activity
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pen and paper to make the visual timetable.
8.3 Activities for improving attention and listening skills
Matching animal sounds to pictures (individual work)
1. Create a 9 square Lotto/Bingo board (see below).
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2. In each square place a picture of an animal (you can cut these out from the newspaper or draw them in).
3. Place the board in front of the child and ask him/her to identify all of the animals on the board by naming them. If the child has any difficulties with this help them to identify the pictures.
2. Ask the child to make the noise of each animal (e.g. ‘moo’ for the cow,
‘cluck, cluck’ for the hen and so on). Again, if he/she has any difficulties, make the noise for the child and ask him/her to imitate it.
3. Give one counter to the child, encourage the child to listen to you and make the noise of one of the animals, asking him/her to place the counter on the appropriate picture. Give praise if he/she gets this right and encourage the child to try again if he/she gets it wrong (repeat the sound again and get the child to point to the correct animal and put the counter on it).
4. Continue to give the child one counter at a time and you (the adult) make the sound of each of the different animals for the child to identify.
Make sure that you do not make the sounds in the same order as the pictures are on the board but that you mix them up so that the child actually has to listen to you and not just follow the order of the pictures.
The game ends when the child has placed a counter on each of the different pictures.
Matching animal sounds to pictures (paired work)
Materials needed:
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1 Animal lotto board
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9 counters (you can use small stones or bottle caps for this)
1. Play the game described above but with a second child using a second lotto board, (be sure to add different animals to this second board). Go through the same initial steps (looking at each of the pictures on both boards, identifying the animals and making the animal sounds for each one) before starting to play.
2. Give each child one counter at a time and make a sound for an animal on either board (not all the animals are on both boards). Continue making each of the animal sounds until one of the children has a counter on each of their pictures and is therefore the winner.
3. Play again, ensuring the other child has a chance of winning (i.e. make the noises of the animals from his/her lotto board first).
4. You can increase the difficulty of the game by making 2 noises consecutively and giving the children 2 counters so that they are having to listen to 2 rather than just 1 sound. Encourage the children to put the counters on in the order that you make the sounds. You can even include sounds of animals for which there are no pictures and encourage the children to tell you when the animal is not there to make the task more complex.
Materials needed:
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2 Animal lotto boards
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12 counters (you can use small stones, buttons or bottle caps for this)
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How to make the task more challenging for more able children
Depending on the level of the child, you can play the same game with the other pictures- this time naming the object for the child to identify/put a counter on. Choose the lotto that supports what the child is learning in class e.g. body-parts/ basic-concepts etc.
Materials needed:
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Lotto boards to target topic of choice
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12 counters (you can use small stones for this)
8.4 Attention and Listening Games for small groups of children
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Chinese whispers: children sit in a circle and the first one thinks of a word or sentence wh ich he whispers into the next child’s ear. That child passes the message on (whispering to the next child in the circle) and so on around the circle. When the message gets to the last child in the circle, he/she says it out loud and the first child who made up the message must say whether it is the same as when he/she said it in the first place. This can be done with hearing impaired children by getting the children to stand in a line, facing the front. The child at the back of the line taps the child in front of her on the shoulder and shows him a sign that she has thought of. The second child then taps the one in front of him and shows him the sign and so on down the line until it gets to the front.
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Fruit salad: everyone sits in a circle and the teacher tells each child that they are a certain type of fruit (Make sure that there are at least 2 children who are the same type of fruit. For example you might have 3 apples, 3 pears, 3 bananas and 4 mangoes). The teacher then calls out the name of a fruit and the children who are that fruit have to swap places. When ‘fruit salad’ is called, all the children must get up and change places. The teacher can make this easier for the children by giving each child a picture of the fruit that he/she is or by using their names instead of fruit and saying ‘all change’ rather than ‘fruit salad’.
Again, signs can be used for non-hearing children.
 Simon says: the leader tells the class what actions to do e.g. ‘touch your toes’ but only when he/she says ‘Simon says…’ before an instruction should it be carried out. Any child who follows the instruction when the leader has not said ‘Simon says’ before it is out.
Materials Needed:
There are no material needed for any of these games other than if you decide to make pictures of fruit to give the children in the fruit salad game.
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