LISTENER OR ACTIVE LISTENER??

Listening has got a special place in our lives. It is a process which starts in one’s life when he or she’s in mother’s womb. It is the first step towards expression. For any act we need to listen and that too with concentration. Listening with concentration makes a person to respond. Response comes with understanding. When we respond, we respond with an action which we always remember. Now we got the point that, ‘If we don’t listen with concentration, we will not respond as we have not understood the conversation or instruction.’

So we can say that it’s a cycle which includes:

Listening with concentration leads to Understanding that pushes us to Respond. Response is an action which can’t be forgotten. The entire process is so focussed that we call it as an ACTIVE LISTENING which is equivalent to Meditation.

Engrossed in Listening

Active Listening is a technique to communicate which should be inculcated from childhood. It’s an important skill for a productive communication.

Now the question is how to develop Active Listening among small children??

Active Listening Skills should be developed in childhood as it plays a pivotal role in their social,emotional and academic development.

Active Listening is something which is not that easy as it requires lot of Patience and Practice. Some basic strategies to cultivate Active Listening in children are :

1. FOCUS: Be focussed without any distractions for Active Listening. For this concentration based fun activities can be given to children where they will be forced to be engrossed without any effort.
2. EYE CONTACT — Children should be taught to keep an eye contact with the speaker which will help the listener to listen attentively.Eye contact lessens deviation.
3. SHORT STORIES — By narrating interesting short stories with proper voice modulation and intonation we can drag student’s attention which will help them to listen actively.
4. REFLECTIVE LISTENING — To reflect upon what has been heard in the form of summary or short notes is a thought provoking activity which helps the listener to understand the speaker’s perspective. This helps to develop Active Listening Skills.
5. EMPATHETIC ATTITUDE — Active Listening is a kind of respect that we give to the speakers. We understand the perspective of the speaker when we listen without any distraction. So we need to develop this attitude among children and others so that they become empathetic towards the speaker’s endeavours.

As per the research, our attention span drops down to 50% after 10 minutes of listening which is really shocking. That means if we speak 40 minutes continuously, 30 minutes content is absorbed in a very low pace by the listeners. That means listening takes place physically but not mentally and logically. Active Listening happens maximum for 20 to 25 minutes. After 20 minutes there should be a brain storming session where the listener’s active participation should be seen rather than the speaker’s.

Brain storming can be as Question Answers, Summary,Role-Play, Personal Opinion etc.

As we all know that Practice makes a person perfect. But I would say Practice makes a person better because no one is perfect. With Patience and Practice we can achieve the phenomena of Active Listening.

I conclude with a very important point and that is- CONSISTENCY.

For Active Listening we need to be consistent in our Practices. Without being COSISTENT it is difficult to achieve goal.

So choice is yours…

Listener OR ACTIVE LISTENER