If YOU want to improve your listening skills and concentration,
you don't need to be a kid to get value from these concepts:
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Excerpts from
Smart Children--Poor Readers:
Using Audio/Text-Based Learning for Reading, Comprehension
and Language Development
. . . . Historically (300+ years ago), mankind received most of his learning via physical and verbal instruction--with the bulk of knowledge carried down through the generations via stories. Today scientists are doing research on how our brains are 'wired.' If our brains are 'wired' for anything genetically tied to language and learning, we could assume it would be for stories and children would learn concepts much faster and have greater comprehension if they were listening to materials (versus reading materials)--at least until their reading skills catch up with their ability to comprehend. . . . . .
. . . . Audiotapes also provide other benefits:
- Well done audiotapes are engaging because they use professional readers.
- Children can enhance their listening and concentration skills as they are listening to the audiotapes.
- Audiotapes can be replayed if a child missed something.
- Audiotapes leave something to the imagination. A child struggling with reading does not have the opportunity to 'imagine' the storyline and the characters and the action. A child listening to a well-taped book can start to enjoy literature and history and science and find the value in books and knowledge.
- Audiotapes bridge a gap. The best-intentioned teacher will rarely have time to individually read to every student who's having difficulty reading. Likewise, what parent normally reads a book to their 8th grade (or even 4th grade) son or daughter? That parent may not be a good reader themselves. But if a child has the basics of language and the spoken and written words, I do believe they've got a really good chance of becoming a better reader. Audiotapes help the words on the page become stories and learning.
- Parents may also benefit. If a child has a parent who is weak in reading, the parent may 'listen in' to gain the knowledge they missed while they were going through school. And if their child is listening to a tape and reading a book at the same time, maybe they'll sit down and listen and read with them.
Audiotapes also have the potential to bridge the gap for children who will ultimately become bilingual (through choice or necessity) . . . .
Copyright © 1998 by Lisa L. Osen
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