Listening is a skill that in our world, is getting more and more difficult to pick up. Watching television and being transfixed by the sounds from it, or playing a video game doesn’t really require “listening.”

Play the silence game to encourage your preschooler to focus his attention on his hearing senses.

Use a kitchen timer to start the game. Don’t set a five minute timer; kids this age can’t be expected to sit still and silent for that long.

Start with 30 seconds – it’s just about right.

Ask your child to close her eyes, and keep quiet till the timer goes off.

When the timer goes off, ask her to tell her the sounds she heard when she was silent – the ceiling fan whirring, the neighbor’s dog, a door slamming shut.

Make a game out of it, and she’ll be eager to concentrate and focus all her listening powers.

This activity is great for improving concentration, and enhancing listening skills.

Learning that focuses only on seeing, and which does not include the other senses, is incomplete. Teach your child to use other less used senses to learn.

Try this activity that will help her use her sense of hearing.

Take 6 glass jars (baby food jars will do), and make them opaque by painting them on the inside.

Paint three jars red, and three green. Opaque plastic or wood jars will do just as well.

Divide the six jars into separate colored pairs, and fill each pair with items that make interesting sounds – beans, sand, rice, peas, and pebbles. For instance, one green and one red jar with peas, one green and one red jar with sand, and one green and one red jar with rice.

Place all jars before your child and ask her to pick a green jar, shake it and then find the red jar that makes the exact same sound. Once she’s found a pair, let her keep the jars aside.

Continue with the other jars.

As she gets used to identifying the sounds correctly, increase the difficulty of the activity by including other items in the jar – peas, unpopped corn etc.

This activity helps develop her fine sense of hearing, and boosts concentration abilities. 

Enjoy!