How to Stimulate Children's Hearing Ability

Although listening is an important aspect of language development and education, this problem is often ignored. Most parents prioritize the development of literacy skills, namely reading, writing, and speaking. Before children can speak fluently, they must first listen to lots of it. The process of hearing itself has begun since the baby. Good listening skills will also support the good aspects of communication. This is the reason why listening ability stimulation must be done as early as possible to support overall cognitive abilities.

Because of the importance of the listening ability to support other learning processes, parents must provide stimulation to the sense of hearing from an early age. Early stimulation can maximize the ability to hear children and can also detect if there is interference with the hearing organ.

What stimulation is good and effective for developing children's listening skills?

1. Often Invite Children to Speak

Even though the child doesn't fully understand the meaning of the words you are saying, the child's sense of hearing will still pick up sounds or sounds nearby. Therefore, frequently invite your toddler to talk anything. Babies aged 6-6 months will usually respond to sounds with a smile or babble. If the baby does not respond to the sound you say, there may be interference with hearing. Current advances in science and technology allow us to carry out hearing examinations on infants aged 3-4 days to check their hearing abilities.

There are indeed babies who are born deaf, but if this problem is detected early, at an early age children can be given hearing aids to help their hearing. If there are other hearing problems, the treatment can be done earlier so that it does not interfere with its development.

2. Listen to Joyous Rhythmic Songs

After the age of 6 months, babies will make funny expressions when they hear a cheerful song. Some babies move their hands as if dancing while listening to a cheerful song or music. To practice the ability to hear, play cheerful songs. This will make the baby more focused to hear the rhythm or lyrics in the song being played.

3. Read a Story Book

Storybooks have a lot of benefits for children, whether it's babies who haven't even reached a year or for children who have started school. Reading stories can stimulate the ability to hear, talk, logic, and also imagine. When you read a story, the children will listen carefully. Here the child's listening skills such as recognizing and remembering words will be formed.

4. Watch a Movie Together

Almost the same as reading a story, a film or video can be used as an alternative to developing listening skills in toddlers. For example, when children watch their favorite cartoon series, try asking questions about the outline of the cartoon movie story. If the child can hear and pay attention to the film well, he will be able to tell things related to his favorite cartoon film. But, of course, there is a time limit for watching movies, parents. Also, choose films that are appropriate for the age of the child.

5. Make a Craft Together

The activity of making crafts together is also very fun for children. They can channel their creativity as well as stimulate hearing. When doing this activity, give instructions to your child to do the stages of making simple crafts, such as folding the paper into parts, cutting the right side, etc. When parents give instructions, children will learn to listen and digest instructions. This activity besides training hearing is also memory, logic, and hand and eye coordination.

Those are some simple ways to stimulate your baby's hearing. By hearing, seeing, and experiencing, children will learn many things about the world.