Listening Skills

Hmm, seems like variations of following directions. Can be fun, like a scavenger hunt or treasure hunt. When she successfully gets to each new station, verbally give her the clues to get to the next one. Then a "treasure" at the end.

have you considered the possibility of ear infections or side effects of swimmer's ear making her slightly hard of hearing? If a child has either for any length of time, they can learn to not listen... (This was my #2 son w/ear infections, and my youngest has frequent bouts of swimmers ear which impacts his listening negatively...)

Another problem w/listening is if they don't actually have to follow through at home, if you say pick up your toys now, and then don't make them do it now, they learn not to listen... (This has been part of the problem w/my youngest child, who is 5...)

What we do is make my youngest look at us when we say something, say it in a regular voice, but then monitor his follow through. He's gotten a little bit better lately, but my 14 year old likes to scream at him, which makes him automatically tune her, and her commands, out.

EXCELLENT point about getting her hearing tested, just in case.

I've always relied on nagging.

I love the nagging part. She has had her hearing looked at though as part of a regular checkup with the doctor. I will mention it so that the doctor will double check or maybe make sure she is being thorough.

You never know if it is medical, however, she does seem to have the ability to zone out and not listen to you. She will say, I don't hear well in that ear so who knows maybe there is really something there. But then again on the other hand she tends to stretch things - she will feel sick when it is to her benefit - I never met some one who has a tummy ache every evening at bedtime, but she does - this also happens frequently when it is time to go to school. Funny how the tummy ache disappears as soon as she sees her best friend at school.

Is she the youngest?

No, the oldest. The youngest I have little difficulty with listening to me, going to bed, etc. The oldest can be a bit of a challenge.

Interesting. My youngest has always had problems with listening
(and with reading directions). But he's learning. I hope. I've had
youngest sibs on my soccer teams with the same sort of issues.
On the other hand, oldest sibs have usually been the ones to listen.

Ok so this is 15 or 16 years later since I wrote this - and reading through this - you know what I immediately thought! This has to be about my younger daughter (I was not thinking through the actual date of this but more on what I wrote) - especially the zoning out part.

It is now the complete opposite - the older is the organized listens and follows directions almost to a fault. The younger - acts like a blond - she zones out and misses stuff and does not listen well.

Just thought that at least my older grew out of this and my younger grew into it.