Communication skills · lesson 7 of 24 · free

Active listening at home and school — Communication skills for students

Hearing is easy; listening takes effort. Active listening means giving the speaker your full attention and showing it: you stop what you are doing, look at the speaker, nod, wait till they finish and then ask a follow-up question. Scrolling your phone, planning your reply or changing the topic tells the speaker you are not really there. When a friend says “Nobody sat with me at lunch today,” a listening reply stays on their feeling: “That sounds lonely. What happened?”

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Communication tip

Stop, look, listen — “give the speaker your full attention and show it”

  1. Active listening: nodding as they talk, looking at the speaker, asking a follow-up, saying “I see”, putting the phone away, waiting till they finish.
  2. Poor listening: scrolling your phone, planning your reply, yawning loudly, changing the topic, finishing their sentence, staring out the window.
  3. The steps in order: stop what you are doing → look at the speaker → listen till the end → ask or sum up.

Use it for: Teachers’ instructions, friends sharing news or problems, family talks and phone calls.

Worked example: 👂 Active or poor listening: planning your reply? → poor listening

  1. If you plan what to say, you stop hearing what the speaker is saying.
  2. So it is poor listening.

Check: Try it: when someone talks to you today, put everything down, look at them and ask one follow-up question ✓

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🏁 Lesson 7 test

20 questions. Check each answer, then go to the next one. Get 16 or more right to pass.

🏅 Sign in with Google to earn the 👂 Ear-to-Ear Listener badge when you pass — and a certificate when you finish all 6 lessons of Part 2 · Listening. You can still take the test without signing in.

🖨️ Active Listening Worksheet for Kids

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