Have you ever wondered how complex the simple basic act of listening is? The first part is basic; you need to have enough hearing ability to detect sound. This is carried out by the external ear. The sound is then transmitted through the middle ear to the inner ear and then through the auditory pathways to the brain.
Listening is critical for the development and enhancement of language. From the time the ears are formed language is learnt prenatally through listening. This continues into post-natal life and beyond. An infant’s first vocalizations are the result of an immature speech motor mechanism engaged after months of active listening.
Listening defines learning skills. The listener needs to be equipped with the ability to sort out the message in poor listening conditions (e.g., noisy backgrounds, distance, reverberation). Noise easily masks speech sounds and results in decreased speech perception abilities. Decreased comprehension of information can result in miscommunication socially, emotional problems from repeated misunderstandings and lower academic achievement within the school environment.
The ability to process and analyze the sounds of language can influence the ability to translate the sounds into their written form. This can be evident in the early school years and can affect the quality of spoken, written and reading language development. Some children can have difficulties filtering out distractible sounds and attending to the sounds of the language. Others may have difficulty with aspects of auditory discrimination or remembering the speech sounds and manipulating and sequencing them.
The bottom line is that help is available with the appropriate assessment and a structured intervention program. It is important to provide the right level of assistance to the child with these difficulties lest they be labelled “difficult”, “lazy”, or “stubborn”. Children labeled as such can easily come to believe they are what they are described and cease to try to help themselves; “Why do you give me this, I can’t read”. Appropriate intervention not only provides caregivers with tools to help but also gives the child in question the confidence and the ability to believe in themselves and the strategies to help them improve.