“To listen well, is as powerful a means of influence as to talk well, and is as essential to all true conversation”

-Chinese Proverb

Developing effective listening skills is an important step towards building social relationships. In order to interact with others meaningfully we must listen and remember information from adults and peers. This includes not just the words they share with us, but also the meaning that is conveyed.  

Here are some skills to look for and/or teach to your child when developing effective listening skills:

• Ability to recall information that others have shared with him/her
• Ability to summarize in his/her own words information others have shared with him/her
• Ability to describe the main ideas or concepts that have been shared with him/her.
• Ability to draw inferences from information that has been shared by others.
• Ability to recall and use information that has been shared by others to initiate and maintain conversations with others
• Ability to listen for meaning that is conveyed beyond actual words

Parent Training

Look at the skills required to become an effective listener. Then decide which of these skills are deficit areas in your child’s own listening abilities.

Discuss the Skill

Focus on one skill area at a time discussing the individual skill and providing examples or reflect on real-life examples.  

Role Play

Once your child is able to accurately reflect on the skill area by answering questions, or providing appropriate examples try role-playing with your child to provide opportunities for him/her to successfully practice use of the skill.

Reinforce Positive Practice

Once your child is able to role play the skill with accuracy develop a behavior contract or reinforcement procedures for him/her to practice in their natural environment. For example, “If you can talk with two friends today about their favorite things to do and share this with me when you get home, then you can earn some extra computer time tonight”.

Self-Monitor

If your child can begin to engage in the skill in his or her natural environment when reinforcement is available for engaging in the skill try removing the availability of the reinforcement for practicing the skill and reinforce the child’s ability to accurately self-monitor whether he or she engaged in the behavior appropriately.

For parents looking to begin a home program finding an effective consultant is essential.  Find a consultant who speaks of and uses data to make decisions on your child’s programming. Data-based decision-making is a must!

Develop an understanding of the insurance laws in your state regarding coverage. Begin the process of getting your provider set up and approved at least 30-60 days before you begin services to your child.

Decide upon who will be delivering the daily therapy to  you child. For some families parents or other family members can serve as line therapists, for others hiring outside staff to deliver daily services is more effective. In many cases both consultation and line therapy services can be covered by insurance.

For more information insurance coverage or how to start home program. Visit our Q & A forum http://blog.skillsprout.com/ask-a-question/

Try using sequencing picture cards initially to assist in developing your child’s understanding of cause and effect relationships.

Purchase or develop sets of 3-5 pictures representing a sequence of events (EX: child running to school because he is missed his bus, etc.) Pair “why” questions with the sequenced events. EX: “Why is the child running to school?”, etc. Use pictures from the sequence to prompt appropriate responses. Use many examples of picture sequences to develop your child’s understanding of cause effect relationships.

To implement this strategy in your home simply capture video of your child (or other models) engaging in a desired behavior. For example, capture video of your child  initiating a greeting to another person when they walk into the roomto help teach this skill. Fade out any prompts needed to engage in the skill through a cut and paste video editing process (most computers come with software that has video editing capabilities). Have your child watch the video of the greeting and then immediately practice this skill without the video. Heavily praise and reinforce your child for attempts at imitating the behavior modeled in the video. Provide multiple opportunities for your child to continue to practice this skill outside of watching the video. Review the video frequently until the child begins to engage in the skill independently.

Quick Tip: If your child will not attend to the video intersperse captured images or video of preferred items, activities, etc. throughout the video.

“Instruction, defined functionally, produces behavior changes” (p. 43)

 Barrett, Beatrice H. (2002) The Technology of Teaching Revisited: A Reader’s Companion to B.F. Skinner’s Book. Concord, MA. Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies.            http://www.behavior.org/

If the instructor’s actions did not change student behavior, was instruction effective? 

Tip: If you are not effectively changing behavior within 3 days of instruction, try changing your method again and again.

“Each student brings to the classroom a unique genetic

endowment and a unique lifetime conditioning history as

well as an individualized set of current social and cultural

contingencies within that student’s family, community,

and peer group.” (p. 47)

Barrett, Beatrice H. (2002) The Technology of Teaching Revisited: A Reader’s Companion to B.F. Skinner’s Book. Concord, MA. Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies.            http://www.behavior.org/

What makes up a student’s behavior…

• Genetics
• Family traditions
• Cultural Traditions
• Community Rules
• Peer Rules
• Life Experiences

“Since an initial lesson description is a product of teacher behavior,

it is the teacher’s responsibility to discover and to alter whatever part

of the lesson plan is not functioning. It is not sufficient to explain

 the lack of success in terms of a deficiency on the part of the student.” (51)

Barrett, Beatrice H. (2002) The Technology of Teaching Revisited: A Reader’s Companion to B.F. Skinner’s Book. Concord, MA. Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies.            http://www.behavior.org/

• How we decide to teach someone comes from the creation of a human. 
• Formats for passing down education have been passed down to us from educators, family, and jobs. However, our society tends to blame students for not understanding what others are trying to convey and thus, the problem lies within them.
• B.F. Skinner believed that it was the educator’s job to teach the material in any format needed to get his student to understand thus, putting the effort of change onto the instructor.
• Sometimes we must take a closer look at our own behavior to understand why someone else acts as they do.