So many of today’s children rely on film or video to hold their interest. By encouraging children to listen to a story, you are helping the child develop sharper, more accurate and effective listening skills. Start off with short stories that will captivate their interest. Include the listener as the protagonist. Add humor, or suspense and allow the listener’s imagination to create and embellish as his mind absorbs the words. Add sign language as a tool to help engage the listener. Children are captivated by the visual language. Instead of providing the picture to the child through videos and film, use sign language to allow the listener to engage with the storyteller and create the visual picture in his/her own mind. Not only does sign language help engage the listener and allow the child’s imagination to create, but it also helps the listener retain the information.
In summary, by having your child simultaneously process visual and auditory languages, you will be helping him/her to develop sharper listening skills, become more imaginative, and develop ways to better remember the details of the story.
