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The TES featured an initiative run by SLTs that helps pupils improve their listening skills. Liz Spooner and Jacqui Woodcock, from the Wyre Forest Primary Care Trust devised a series of games for pupils, after concerns from headteachers about pupils' concentration skills.
Simple games to teach sitting still, listening to all the words, looking at the speaker, and being quiet were used and trials with 363 pupils showed great improvements. On average pupils' scores had improved by 20 per cent, with those children with the most severe problems, improving 50 per cent.
Ms Spooner was quoted in the article and said, "Listening isn't a language problem, it's about being able to concentrate. If you sat down one-to-one at a language assessment, these children would be reasonably ok. But their listening is so poor, it's preventing them from learning."
The article highlighted concerns about speaking and listening skills from the last 10 years quoting the 2001 NLT survey of headteachers and the head of Ofsted in 2003, David Bell, saying the verbal skills of five years olds were at an all time low. Liz Attenborough, manager of TTYB also gave a number of suggestions for a decline in speaking and listening skills, including a lack of imaginative play, TV, not having family meal times. She said, "Young children need someone to talk to them and someone to listen to them if they are going to learn how to make conversation."
Alison Dowling, head of Millfields, one of the schools involved, was also quoted and said, "The children love it, they've really enjoyed the sessions. My whole staff are being trained in the techniques. Everyone now uses the same terminology about what is good listening, whether children are in class or the dinner hall. That strengthens the message."
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