Attention and listening
About attention and listening
Attention is the ability to focus on something long enough to learn from it. Playing with a toy, a friend, or looking at lights all need attention. As attention develops the length of time a child can focus for grows.
This goes hand in hand with listening. Listening requires focusing on sounds long enough to understand and learn from them. It is how children learn to talk, learn to understand, and learn to follow directions.
At first a child can only pay attention to one thing - this might be your voice, or might be a toy. As they develop they can listen and focus on different things at the same time.
What you might notice if your child would benefit from support with their attention and listening skills
Your child is four years old and above and they:
- flit quickly between toys and activities
- do not finish tasks
- do not remember instructions or remember what they’re doing
- move a lot more than other children
- appear to not hear you, but can hear their favourite theme tune
- are easily distracted
- look like they’re not sure what to do
How you can help
Check out our Five Top Tips video to find out more about how you can help.
Our advice leaflets contain lots of helpful information and ideas of things you can try at home to help.
Attention and Listening - 5 Top Tips leaflet [PDF 117KB]
Recommended links
You might also find the following trusted websites helpful:
Tiny Happy People - the Tiny Happy People site has some suggestions for attention and listening as well as other ways you can help with speech and language development.
Twinkl: This page tells you what to expect at most ages – but this is not true for every child.
What we can offer
Advice service
You can speak to one of our Speech and Language Therapists via our advice service. We can make suggestions about what might help and answer any questions you might have.
Our advice service is open every Thursday 9.30am to 12.30pm.
Tel: 01228 608177
Email: CumbriaCommmunicates@ncic.nhs.uk
If you need to make a Request for Support
Speech and Language Therapy do not accept referrals for children who are only finding attention and listening difficult. If attention and listening is impacting a child’s speech, language and communication development Speech and Language Therapy might be able to help.
Anyone, including parents and carers, can request support from Speech and Language Therapy. You can do this via our Request for Support Form.
The support we offer is always tailored to the needs of your child. Some children benefit from individualised support, others benefit from support in their environment. Most often attention and listening will be an element of what we are working on with children who have other speech, language and communication needs. This support is most likely to be in your child’s environment. It may look like:
- strategies to practice at home
- strategies to practice at nursery or school
- observation sessions
- a Speech and Language Therapist playing with your child
We discharge at a point when the adults around your child are confident in how to support their communicating.
Advice and support sessions
We run an online Advice and Support Sessions for parents and carers. A few may be helpful for your child.
These sessions include information on:
- typical stages your child will go through
- strategies you can use with your child
- ways you can adapt how you interact with your child
To book a place email: SLTCumbriaTraining@ncic.nhs.uk