Do you realize that when you are talking to your kid, they just want to hear the things they want to hear and tend to tune the rest? They have selective listening skills but with some healthy and productive exercises, you can improve and build stronger listening skills for your toddlers. Children learn in different ways. These games and activities can boost your child’s listening skills.

Talk to your child all the time. Tell them anything interesting you heard or read in the news. Tell them about your conversation with a friend at work. While shopping, talk to them about how you used to go shopping with your mother and what you enjoyed the most. 

Narrate the daily chores with your kid. If you are in the kitchen, tell them everything you do and make sure that they are listening. Try and engage them in the conversation, like you can ask them about the particular name of the vegetable while cutting it. Try to keep the conversation two-sided so you know that the kid is listening and responding accordingly.

Be very careful while talking to others when your kid is around. Always remember that kids are natural mimics, they copy everything, so they might copy the type of language you use.

Reading can be used as an interactive activity. While reading a book to your kid, ask your child what will happen next before turning the page. Ask questions about the story you’ve already read so you know if your child was paying attention to it from the beginning. If they are unsure about the answers, start over again.

Ask them how the story will end. Tell them to guess what can happen in the end based on what they’ve already heard. Discuss the ending with them and later on, you can decide which book you will read the next day.

Read an old favorite book, something that your kid totally enjoys and reads it out loud. This time let them do all the talking and reading.

While reading to your kid, try to divert the story or change the plot on your own so your kid will know that you are not telling something quite right, this way you will know if your child is paying attention to you or not.

While helping your toddler with their pre-school work make them read out loud whatever they are writing. Help them do their writing work in a fun way so they keep themselves engaged throughout their homework.

Whenever you are watching TV or a movie with your toddlers, keep asking questions in between, so you know that they are listening and getting everything they are watching. Make sure that you are aware of the screen time because you don't want them to get used to TV too much in setting up their school routine.