Children may be slow to develop speech and language skills for a variety of reasons, but often the inability to listen or pay attention to what is being said can have a profound effect on language development.
Children with poor listening skills do not necessarily have a hearing impairment, but they do find it difficult to ‘tune in’ to what is being said.  Speech and Language Therapists can help children develop their listening skills through therapeutic techniques which often involve structured play.
If you feel your child finds it difficult to listen and/or has poor attention skills, a speech and language therapist will be able to advise you how to help your child improve these skills.  Speech and language therapists can work with pre-school children or may liaise with teachers in the classroom.
The following article reports how one speech and language therapy team won an award for devising an approach to teaching listening skills in their local schools:
Liz Spooner, a specialist speech and language therapist, and Jacqui Woodock, the team leader for speech and language in Redditch and Bromsgrove, recently received an award for developing an innovative approach to teaching listening skills.Worcestershire PCT’s speech and language therapy team was frequently asked why children find it so hard to listen and following research in their area, Liz and Jacqui developed a new approach to teaching listening skills in local schools.
 This was so successful that they have been asked to train schools out of the county and also to train speech and language therapists across the .
This article appeared in the Redditch Advertiser and the full story can be found via the following link::
Jane Gregory
Specialist Speech and Language Therapist
April 2009
