ABSTRACT
This is a great calming chapter to do outside, developing the children's ability to remain quiet and concentrate on sounds in their environment. While outdoors, spend some time engaging children in listening activities that discriminate between different phonemes in words. They could name items that begin or end with the same sound, or play 'I can hear something beginning with'. Groups of children could work together to draw objects that they can hear outdoors with a given phoneme. Body language associated with listening in social interactions is important. In pairs, one child tells the other why they like a favourite place in the playground, e.g. there are trees which sometimes swish in the breeze. The listener should look away from the talker and give no eye contact. Repeat this with the body language of a good listener, e.g. eye contact, looking interested, not interrupting.
