5 games to support your child's listening and attention skills

Making some quiet time for you and your child to play a game with no distractions can really help their listening skills and help build their attention span. Choosing an activity with your child based on what they are interested in will help them stay engaged and feel empowered by making a choice. The length of time your child stays engaged for is different for everyone and by responding to their needs will make it a fun and positive experience.

1: Playing with a jigsaw - You can choose a jigsaw that is appropriate for the age, attention span and interest. It can be a lovely activity to problem solve and share together.

2: Sharing a book - Allow your child to choose the book they want to share, talk about the pictures, what is going to happen next and see if they can turn the pages. Remember you don't have to finish a book or feel the need to start at the beginning and go through each page. sometimes a child just wants to turn through the pages backwards and forwards and look at the pictures.

3: Go on a sound walk - When you are out and about or in your garden you can highlight to your child that together you are going to use your ears (gesture pointing to your ears) to find out what you can hear. Once you hear a sound you may be able to point at it to acknowledge what the sound is for example the bird singing, the aeroplane in the sky or the dog barking. This will help your child make connections and also enhance their listening skills.

4: Simon says - Share an instruction with your child, it will help to share the gesture/action so they are making the connection with the instruction and the actions. Making it physical can help make it exciting and more active. Instructions can be simple such as touch your head or they can build up to two part instructions such as run to the swing and do a start jump.

5: Kims Game - Choose a small selection of familiar items from around the house, lay them on the floor and look at them together naming the items. Cover the items with a blanket or towel, secretly remove an item without your child looking. Lift the blanket off the items and allow your child to try and guess which one is missing. This game helps