A common modern complaint is that a spouse, a child, or a student “doesn’t listen.” But what does this mean?

From the speaker’s perspective, the criticism means that the audience did not understand what the speaker meant, did not remember what the speaker said, or did not act appropriately on the information delivered.

Christine Miles, the CEO of EQuipt LLC and the developer of listening curriculum “The Listening Path,” has worked with families, schools and businesses to build listening skills.

“The common problem I saw,” she says, “was not what people said, but what they understood — or misunderstood.”

“The Listening Path” is being piloted at Germantown Academy, whose head of lower school, Sue Szczepkowski, was involved in developing the curriculum. The program uses the metaphor of listening as an “adventure of discovery,” and uses items like a water filter to illustrate the importance of filtering out the things that get in the way of effective listening.

Miles notes that ineffective listening can be a safety issue — she gives the example of a warning about a hazardous intersection — as well as damaging to relationships.

“Our mission is to make the world a better place through the gift of understanding,” Miles explains. “Part of what listening does is help make you a better friend, classmate, citizen.”

Listening

and literacy

In an April 11, 2024, Bethlehem Press article about children’s mental health challenges (“Behind the headlines of pediatric mental health issues”), we noted that neurological problems of undetermined etiology affect more children today than in previous decades, including in the areas of attentive listening and speech.

Public school districts teach all learners, regardless of ability. We spoke with Leigh Kuenne Rusnak, director of special education at Bethlehem Area SD, about how the district approaches listening for all students, and for students with special needs.

Rusnak explains that the district’s literacy initiative has four areas of instruction: listening; speaking’ reading; and writing.

“Listening is specifically taught,” she says, adding that “the first kind of listening is to hear sounds, and to be able to process those sounds.”

For students with Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD), Rusnak explains, BASD supports them in ways that are similar to how the district works with children who have ADHD: “visuals that accompany spoken information, shorter bursts of speech […], listening breaks so the students don’t have to have a lot of information given to them without adequate time to move it into long-term or even use it in short-term working memory.” (More information on CAPD is available from the Mayo Clinic: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/auditory-processing-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20555261).

Listening and executive function

Researchers have identified domains of cognitive functioning involved in listening. A 2014 paper published by the International Literacy Association describes three key areas: inhibitory control; theory of mind; and comprehension monitoring.

These areas are related to executive function, a suite of abilities that the district works to optimize in students. Rusnak defines executive function as “impulse control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility.” She notes that “While you can teach strategies for those things, you can’t necessarily change a child’s working memory,” which is a neurobiological phenomenon.

“So you’re giving them tools to help,” she says. “If you can only hold three things in your head, what kind of tools can we give you to work with those things?” Examples of aides might be lists, calendars, and organizational techniques for note-taking.

Impulse control, Rusnak explains, is not when a student can’t listen, but when that student would prefer to devote attention to something else going on in the classroom or outside the window, rather than listen to instruction.

Districtwide, BASD uses the “Leader in Me” program, which includes a student version of the seven habits for highly effective people promulgated by executive education group Franklin Covey. The curriculum includes instruction in habits like “Seek first to understand, then to be understood,” which includes details like “I listen to other people’s ideas and feelings. I try to see things from their viewpoints. I listen to others without interrupting.”

In addition to “Leader in Me,” BASD uses the “SMARTS” (Strategies, Motivation, Awareness, Resilience, Talents, Success) executive functioning curriculum, which Rusnak explains “helps with impulse control and organization, including working memory and cognitive flexibility strategies.” (More information on SMARTS is available at https://smarts-ef.org/)

A more intensive support that the district uses is “Zones of Regulation.” Often, Rusnak comments, what appears to be poor listening stems from students “not being able to regulate their own emotions […] if they’re coping with anger or anxiety, for example — not even necessarily clinical, just having a bad day — then that listening skill appears to be diminished.”

“Zones of Regulation” teaches children to categorize their feelings into red (angry or overwhelmed, for example), yellow (worried or frustrated), blue (sad, bored, or tired), and green (happy, focused, and calm). Students are then taught strategies to move from red, yellow, or blue into green. (More information is available at https://zonesofregulation.com/)