The Listening Center

Listening is the language ability that develops first and is used most often. True listening means not only hearing sounds in the environment but also taking meaning from and responding to those sounds.

Listening is an essential part of the development of both written and oral language. We can best help children develop listening abilities by providing experiences that encourage careful listening. Many of these experiences take place in our classroom listening center.

The listening center, a comfortable area where children can use a tape recorder, headsets, and a variety of audiotapes, give them daily opportunities to listen to oral language and music. Through songs, poems, and stories, children identify and differentiate between familiar or similar sounds, rhyming words, letter sounds, and speech patterns.

Children's vocabulary, comprehension, and critical-thinking skills also get a boost. Listening experiences stimulate kids to express their own reactions in various ways, including verbal discussion, art, drama, or stories of their own. Through these activities children relate what they hear to their own experiences.

Families can extend this focus on "listening with a purpse" at home or during car trips. Try to identify particular sounds. Point out the differences in pieces of music. Play games with words by finding rhyming words or words that begin with the same sound. Don't make this a task—just have fun.

Let's Pretend
The Artful Classroom
Let's Go Outside!
Large Motor Development
Sensational Sand
The Listening Center
Learning with Blocks
The Write Stuff
The Reading Area
Science by Discovery
Wonderful, Wet Water
Fine Motor Development