Two Little Ears To Listen

Listening skills are the foundation of academic success and sound social interaction later in life. Good listeners often make friends easily because of how well they can weave into social interactions. Students who are good listeners often perform well in school too.

Childhood is the best time to enhance children’s listening skills. As they learn how to clap their hands, imitate spoken words, play simple musical instruments, and discover new sounds each day, the better listeners they become. 

The key to effective listening is a healthy sense of hearing. You must ensure that your child grows up with a healthy auditory sense so as not to impede in his or her listening skills. Hearing problems are known to adversely affect children’s speech and language development, so if your child is prone to ear infections, particularly those affecting the middle ear, it’s crucial to have him or her undergo a hearing assessment from an Audiologist. The first two years of a child’s life is the best time to have this screening in order to resolve issues early on.

What happens when a child has middle ear infection? Fluid builds up along the middle ear cavity, causing a child to hear sounds in a muffled manner. Once the infection clears up and the fluid drains out of the middle ear, this temporary hearing loss also goes away, but will return once a child incurs another infection. This inconsistent hearing pattern will have a negative impact on a child’s ability to assimilate sound. If your children experience frequent ear infections, you will have to take extra effort in assessing their listening skills. You may do so by engaging in simple listening exercises.

Encouraging their listening skills will also help children with their language and cognitive development. As they analyze environmental and spoken sounds around them, they start learning to associate sounds, words, and sentences with people, actions, and objects. Make sure they are exposed to interesting and rich sounds, both from their environment and from the social interactions they have.