Listening Walk

The purpose of the walk is to listen to sounds, particularly those they may not have been aware of previously. Before the walk you can suggest sounds to listen for or you can call the child's attention to sounds as you walk along. After the walk, see how many sounds your child can remember and encourage him/her to describe them.

Environmental Sounds

 Practise listening to environmental sounds and guessing where the sounds are coming from and what is making them.

I Spy

Play games such as "I Spy" or see how many things they can see in the room that begin with a certain letter. Play matching games where the children have to match pictures of objects that have either the first or last sound the same.

Words

Play games that encourage listening for differences between words. For example, ask your child to listen to a group of four words and tell you which ones rhyme or which ones begin or end with a different letter. For younger children, ask them to tell you if two words are the same or different, you can use word pairs such as by/pie, mat/pat, fish/wish. Older children can listen to short lists of consonant sounds that contain one or more repetition e.g. b, d, k, f, d. They tell you the sound that is repeated.

Follow The Directions

Give your child a series of directions (e.g. two hops and one step) and ask them to follow your directions. You can gradually increase the length of the sequence as your child masters each stage.

Storytime

Present well-known stories, rhymes or songs with one or more parts omitted and the child must supply the missing information.