Adults should test a child's hearing before assuming the child simply won't listen. Distinguishing between an inattentive child and a hard of hearing child can be challenging without proper testing. Children are not always capable of hearing individual parts of sounds. With aesthetic listening, children might not pick out specific instruments or lyrics. Teachers can point out these sounds and then have children listen for them. Children might also not hear specific parts of sounds, such as the --ly end of a word. This can lead to miscommunication. Teachers should point certain sounds out to the students until they can process them. In addition, children do not always pay attention to the right sounds. For example, when in class, a child might pay attention to birds chirping outside rather than the teacher's instructions.
Students can develop more effective efferent listening skills by learning how to take notes. Teachers can have students watch videos and then give the children specific things they must take notes on so they can pick out which sounds in the video they should pay attention to.
Efferent listening relates to the ability to formulate questions and think critically about what is heard. One way to help students develop critical thinking skills is to have them watch advertisements and determine which aspects of the advertisement seem credible and which aspects appeal to emotion.
Teachers can help students learn to listen aesthetically by having them listen to concerts, plays, poetry and literature. Then, the teacher can encourage the students to reflect on the sounds. Teachers can bring up interesting ideas or emotions related to the sounds. For example, the teacher can explain the thematic elements in a piece of literature.
One way to help students practice efferent listening is to have students give presentations on topics they've researched and have other students pay attention to the presentation, take notes, ask questions and evaluate the presentations at the end, providing explanations as to why they evaluated the presentations in specific ways.
Teachers can ask students whether the ideas they hear in a speech or video make sense. Some students may state that they understand ideas, when they really do not. The teacher can ask the students to put the ideas into their own words, either orally or in an essay.