Improving Listening Skills in the Great Outdoors

One of my favorite games to play with children when out on a trail is nature bingo!  It’s easy for a child to understand and play, and the game helps the child’s ability to focus.  It’s also easy to create customized bingo cards for every location with pictures of items found in nature (flowers, bugs, birds, trees, etc.).  And because the game uses pictures, it’s perfect for preschoolers.  But this week, I decided to put a twist on the usual nature bingo game by focusing on sounds heard on the nature trail.  My daughter has been interested in sounds since she could say, “What’s that?” while pointing up in the air.  So I thought this would be the perfect way to make a game out of her curiosity with the added benefit of improving her listening and concentration skills. 

I used to take groups of people out into the middle of the woods just to listen to sounds.  We would close our eyes and focus on each sound we heard.  As we listened, in our minds we could picture a squirrel running across fallen leaves as it chased a chattering foe or a song bird trying to attract a mate with his beautiful trills while a female answered from the other side of the woods.  It was quite relaxing and therapeutic to just sit for ten minutes and listen to nature, something that is difficult to do with a 2 ½ year old child most of the time.  But if you make a game of it, being quiet and listening is a fun and enjoyable experience for everyone!

I created a sound bingo card by making a simple table of four columns and four rows (you can make more or fewer columns and rows depending on your child’s age) on my computer and then searched for pictures of things that may make noises on the trail where I planned to take my daughter.  My pictures included a song bird, hawk, woodpecker, owl, duck, frog, squirrel, lizard, bugs, dog, car, plane, people, wind blowing in the trees, leaves, and a question mark for unknown sounds.  The nice thing about creating this game is that it can easily be changed for the season, location, or age of your child.  You just have to have a general idea of what noises to expect when and where you go out on a trail, and animals like birds, frogs, and bugs can be separated into different families (or even species) as your child grows older and learns the sounds different animals make.

Once the sound bingo game card is made, hit the trail with your child!  Explain each picture on the card and let your child know he or she may or may not hear each of them.  The goal is to hear four sounds pictured in a row, column, or diagonal.  You may have to remind your child several times to be quiet and listen; but after checking off a few pictures on your sound bingo card, your child should get the idea and begin concentrating on what he or she hears.

The more you play games like this, the better your child’s listening skills and concentration will become.  I particularly like this exercise for kids who need help learning to focus.  The natural outcome of this game will be that your child will learn that more sounds are heard when he or she is calm, quiet, and concentrating on what is going on around him or her.  And as an added benefit, children become eager to learn about the different sounds they hear.  There are many beautiful sounds found in nature.  Take pleasure in discovering how golden silence really is with your preschooler.  Enjoy the experience!