Please note this section is not for children with social communication or interaction difficulties or for autistic children - please look at resources under Social communication and interaction.
What do we mean by attention?
We’re always asking children to listen, but they don’t always know how to do it. Many children find it difficult to wait, share and take turns. Sometimes it may appear that your child is being naughty but perhaps they are finding it difficult to listen or understand. Being able to listen is an essential skill to help children develop their sounds, words and sentences for conversation. There are many ways that we can help children develop their listening skills.
- Attention activities for pre-school children
- Strategies to support attention for listening
- Activities to develop attention in primary school age children
- Activities for active listening for older children and young people
Toys to support attention
- Sound puzzles.
- Orchard Toys – search for ‘First Games’ which are ideal for developing early listening and turn taking skills.
- Sound bingo – there are lots of commercially available games but there are also some listening games on YouTube. Search for ‘Listening Game 1 - Guess the Sound’ and ‘Phase 1 Phonics Listening Activities and Guess the Sound Games’ (6 games in total)
- Turn taking games such as marble run, fishing, pop up pirate, building blocks.
- Picture books with repetitive sentences e.g. Room on the Broom, We’re going on a bear hunt, The Gruffalo.
Online resources available to support with attention
- Sign up for a free Twinkl account and search for attention and listening games. There are lots of free resources that you can download and print.
