The ability to pay attention is the foundation of all speech and language work. Some children struggle to pay attention during classroom activities. Their attention span may be short and single channelled. They have difficulties following instructions. When instructions are given they often only hear the last word or part of word.  In a presentation I recently delivered to mainstream teachers we discussed the different stages of attention span development with practical strategies that teachers and other adults can apply to encourage children to pay attention and develop their listening skills:

Listed below are the main stages that children progress through in developing  their ability to pay attention. These stages do not relate to ages, but earlier skills need to be considered before teaching more complex / advanced skills.

Stages of Attention Span Development:
1.    The child can pay fleeting attention to an activity, but any new event will distract.
2.    The child will attend to own choice of activity, but will not tolerate intervention, particularly verbal (i.e. when spoken to). Atttention is single-channelled. The child must ignore other stimuli in order to concentrate on chosen task.
3.    Attention is still single-channelled. The child will attend to adults’ choice of activity, but find it still difficult to control, i.e. he/she must stop playing to attend to the adult. Must listen and then shift attention back to activity with adult help.
4.    Attention is still single-channelled, but more easily controlled. The adult saying what to do during the activity helps. The child can shift attention between tasks and the adult.
5.    Attention span is still short but the child can listen to instructions without interrupting what he is doing to look at the speaker.
6.    Integrated attention – all aspects of the skill are well controlled and sustained.

What can I do to help?
•    Practice responding to gradually more complex instructions.
•    In a classroom situation: When giving set of instructions, get someone else to repeat them (you are thus providing the child     with 2nd chance to listen).
•    Demonstrate & verbalise it.
•    Make sure you have the child’s full attention when giving instructions.
•    Chunk info into manageable bits by breaking down long complex instructions.
•    Check to see if the child understood what you said /asked.
•    Use visual supports, i.e. objects, pictures, natural gestures to support instructions.
•    Encourage your child to say: ‘I don’t understand’.
•    Encourage child to repeat what they’ve heard.
•    Help develop recording system (older children).
•    Encourage to visualise what to do.
•    Encourage to pay attention to auditory situations (learn to listen to different sounds in the environment).
•    Have question words (e.g. Who? Where? Why? What? How?) displayed as a visual prompt.

Learning how to listen:
Have rules displayed in your classroom, e.g. Waiting turns to speak,  No interrupting rule, Good listening behaviour: good looking, good listening, good sitting, good waiting, quiet hands & feet.
•    Reinforce good listening behaviour throughout the day with e.g. stickers.
•    Guide child to look at the speaker.
•    Simply starting to speak is not going to attract child’s attention. Get them to look. You may need to touch their arm and/or say their name.
•    Make up rhymes / songs to gain attention (similar to the clean-up song in Barney).
•    Link memory skills to listening skills (shopping game – remember items & in the correct order).
•    Play attention and listening games: sit in circle and say a child’s name and throw ball to them.
•    Listen and identify sounds: Animal / Transport sound CDs (available from Art & Hobby).
•    Build up a bank of questions (all WH-questions).
•    Practice interviewing skills (asking questions and responding).


Adapted from Guidelines for a Speech and Language Friendly School (Swindon)

© Marinet van Vuren,  DSC 2009

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