[senco-forum] Developing listening skills in secondary pupils

Im very intersted in the responses given to my request. Yes in certain

 How very true, Lorraine.  The fact that children in general have difficulty in
listening carefully has exercised us as a staff for several years now - our
Reception teacher reckons that each year's intake is worse than the previous
one!

We are a smallish primary school in a comparatively well-off area, but a large
proportion of our children are deprived of the sort of family time that you
mention, as they're too busy going to out of school activities [two in one
evening is quite usual]; food is eaten in front of the television; no-one
listens to spoken word programmes on the radio; computers etc and TVs are
watched in bedrooms; few parents read bedtime stories to their children but
expect the child to read a school reading book to them while in the car, being
ferried from ballet to horse riding or even from school to home at the end of
the day.  We have had to explain to several well-educated parents how to spend
time with their children to help develop social skills as well as learning
techniques, usually because the parents have told us that they do not know what
to do with the child after school, other than send them to other activities.

We do our best to develop listening skills while the children are with us, as we
know that they will find it so much more difficult in secondary school, with
more subjects, each taught by a different teacher.  As with anything to do with
education, a child spends far more time at home than in school, so we often feel
that we just can't win against the prevailing cultural environment.

What does keep us sane and cheerful are the lovely families we have who do spend
time with their children in ways that help them develop socially and
academically - and most of them are not the ones with money.

I'm not even back in school yet and am riding one of my hobby horses already!

Regards

Jean Dowding

S Wales

Quoting Bill Graham <williamgraham at blueyonder.co.uk>:

> Im very intersted in the responses given to my request. Yes in certain
> circumstances I know it's worth seeing whether there's underlying problems.
> BUT my request was a general one - I have noticed with our school population
> that kids (not just SEN) just don't listen carefully and i've noticed a
> deterioration as time has gone on. I now think that due to out of school
> circumstances kids just aren't encouraged to listen from an early age.
> There's no "family" time eg meals where conversation happens, the TV is
> always on with none really watching/listening or ther's other "stimulations"
> eg computer and games....
>
> One Support teacher I work with is now firmly convinced that kids need to be
> taught listening skills she's nticed the difference too!
>
> Lorraine
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "dolfrog" <dolfrog at tiscali.co.uk>
> To: "'Bill Graham'" <williamgraham at blueyonder.co.uk>; "'senco-forum'"
> <senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk>
> Sent: Friday, August 18, 2006 1:06 AM
> Subject: RE: [senco-forum] Developing listening skills in secondary pupils
>
>
> > Hi Bill
> >
> > For some 10% of the population those who have some degree of Auditory
> > Processing Disorder, developing listening skills can vary from very
> > difficult to virtually impossible.
> > But as Effie has mentioned repetition can help as memory together with
> > other
> > learning style skills can work around these issues.
> >
> > We have just added a Learning Styles Summary web page to the APDUK site.
> > The Summary page lists all of the article links and downloads that we have
> > included in our recently launched Learning Style Section, APDDUK maintains
> > an Information Sheet section usually for versions of web site pages that
> > are
> > more visual impairment friendly, and for some who are Auditory learners
> > and
> > have problems using most of the APDUK web site which is designed to be APD
> > or visual learner friendly.
> > http://www.infosheets.apduk.org/learnstyles1.htm
> >
> > best wishes
> >
> > Graeme
> > dolfrog
> > dolfrog at apduk.org
> > http://www.apduk.org
> > dolfrog at dolfrog.com
> > http://www.dolfrog.com
> > http://www.ldlinks.org.uk
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
> > [mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of Bill Graham
> > Sent: Thursday, August 17, 2006 4:10 PM
> > To: senco-forum
> > Subject: [senco-forum] Developing listening skills in secondary pupils
> >
> > I know that may of the forum are on holiday but I am preparing my "helpful
> > hint" sheets for staff. From reading individual pupils reports many staff
> > have said that certain kids have poor listening skills.
> > Does anyone have any tips for developing listening skills in mainstream
> > secondary classrooms?
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > Lorraine
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
>