Focus attention before giving an instruction.Ensure you have the child or young person’s attention before giving an instruction or piece of information by saying their name and waiting for eye contact. You may need to go closer to the child or young person.

Use the appropriate level of language.Be aware that attention and listening can be related to understanding. The child or young person is more likely to attend if they can understand the level of language you are using. Use short, simple sentences or rephrasing or chunking. Keep an eye out for how the child or young person responds and this will inform you how much they have understood.

Encourage the child or young person to explain what he has heard. Children or young people can repeat without understanding so ask the child or young person to explain in their own words and this will allow you to check what they have learnt.

Provide visual support.Use pictures, diagrams, models, gestures, role play and demonstrations to support verbal information you give and to support attention and listening.

Keep activities short and varied.Don’t expect the child or young person to listen for more than 10 minutes without doing, thinking or talking about something. Use regular changes of activity to keep the child or young person focused and allow suitable learning breaks. If a child or young person is getting restless, allow them to stand up and stretch for 2 or 3 minutes.

Refocus the child or young person’s attention when necessary. Try and use positive language to keep the child or young person motivated.

Reduce distractions and background noise where possible.Consider sitting child or young person with attention and listening difficulties near the front of the class, near someone who is a good role model, with a clear view of the teacher. Try to help the child or young person to listen by reducing distracting stimuli such as movement or other noises in the classroom, e.g. ask everyone to stand still, look at you and be quiet before you give a general command to the class.

Consider the environment

Strategies for supporting attention and listening skills in older children and young people

Be aware of any factors that a child or young person may find particularly distracting e.g. whirring fan from projector, open classroom door, light reflecting on the white board. Try and reduce these factors as much as possible by sitting the child or young person away from these distractions or by eliminating the distraction wherever possible.

Praise the child or young person for listening.Make the child or young person aware of good listening skills and give clear praise and rewards for focused attention: “Finish these questions without talking and then you can go on the computer.”

Allow fiddle toysThe child or young person may choose to fiddle with something, e.g. a pen/ruler. Let them continue to do this if it is not distracting others, or give them something less distracting to fiddle with, e.g. stress ball or blutack. This may help them to focus.

Give countdowns to keep focusHelp the child or young person to move on to the next activity by letting them know when something is coming to an end and what will happen next, e.g. “in 5 minutes, we will finish writing and read the next chapter.”

Use visuals for group workWhen working in a small group, the child or young person may benefit from visual reminders to listen and take turns, for example a prompt card which could have a rule/aim written on it (rules could be pre-decided with the group). Rules could include take turns to talk, do not distract others, listen to others etc.

Discuss ‘Active Listening’Active listening involves the child or young person themselves having to take responsibility for attending to the speaker and for understanding the message. The child or young person also needs to be aware that messages cannot always be understood, be able to acknowledge when they don't understand and be actively involved in repairing any breakdown in communication.