How can I improve listening skills in dd age 5? Help!

[LauraPashley]

In the plainest of terms she just does not listen! Had hoped it was just at home but she doesn't listen in class either apparenty . Embarrassingly I am a primary school teacher and can just imagine how irritating she will be in class, not to mention frustrating, as she is pretty bright when she is switched on. She is young in her year group (in Scotland so started p1 in August aged 4, turned 5 at Xmas) so I am hoping some of it is just maturity. Hearing is fine. Starting to worry me now as she is already missing out on things by not paying attention. Any suggestions?!! She's so tired in the evenings that any sort of extra work/practice seems counter productive.

have you ruled out the possibility of glue ear/intermittent hearing loss? How's her speech and language development?

A HT suggested story CDs in the car to me. Require more sustained attention than music.

It might sound silly but are you sure she's not listening. DS often appears not to be listening at home at bedtime story etc when he is fidgeting/ fiddling about and not giving eye contact etc but when I try to catch him out by asking about some small detail of what he has heard it always turns out he has been listening but clearly isn't very good at demonstrating the behaviour you would expect of someone that is listening.

How does her "not listening" come across? Fails to follow instructions? Can't sit still?

Thank you all! Food for thought, as now that I think about it carefully, she clearly can listen, she is one of these children who can appear engrossed in something, then eg dh and I have what we think is a suitably vague/coded/brief exchange about something we don't want her to hear, and she then pipes up with a comment on what we've just said!
Her concentration is pretty good I think, she will colour for ages for example, listen to story CDs, listen to a chapter book read to her.
Hearing wise - she got the standard school nurse check this year, would that be thorough enough for glue ear? I was actually just deciding that I'd get her ears checked when she got the letter home saying hearing was fine.
So could it perhaps be processing rather than listening?
Speech development has been fine, better than fine really, she was an early talker and has a very good vocabulary now.

Sorry, freetrait, yes following instructions is really the major issue.

At home do you do the get down to her level, eye contact, then give instruction? We had to do this for DS for a while or there was no hope- he'd be far too engaged in what he was doing to hear an instruction.

Oh that sounds very familiar!! Yes, all of the above, and I will quite often start by saying right dd, I am going to give you some instructions, are you ready etc. frustrating at home but not the end of the world, but it is worrying me that she is already falling a bit behind where she should/could be at school because of this

Ah, but maybe she's developing her imagination when she's not listening (? . Think positive! If she's bright and still doing ok, then I wouldn't worry too much. Perhaps her teacher doesn't engage her, and the next teacher will- fingers crossed! What does she (your DD) say about it?

Does your local council run any kind of music/ percussion class. Learning to hit a triangle in time or singing can really help concentration.

She is really young and believe that P1 in scotland is not as play based as an English reception class. Her listening skills will improve as she gets older.

Thank you! Yes I am hoping it will improve too, I have sort of mentally given myself to next Xmas as that is when I have experienced kids pick up a little. Without wanting to generalise or be sexist, she really reminds me of little boys who are young in their year and struggle with the start of school - she runs and runs at break and lunch time, rolls around on the carpet instead of sitting still, and is just generally a bit "rumbly". She is extremely happy at school, which for now is my main concern. But I still do have a sneaking worry that there is something more to it than just not listening..hopefully I am over reacting!