Why Audio-books Are Important

If your child has problems concentrating or paying attention while you are reading or teaching - it could be because you have never taught them these skills.  Watching videos will not bring about greater concentration because the child is watching images while hearing the story line and that doesn't cause the brain much work at all.  Videos ARE useful tools for teaching but in moderation.

This is where audio-books come in.  The child learns to listen to the story without visuals.  The child learns to use their imagination.  They learn that if they don't give the audio their full attention they will miss important parts of the story.  It causes the brain to work harder than if the images had been given to them, and this in turn, will produce a well attentive child.

Children's attention spans are shorter than adults but you can lengthen them with repetitive teaching of skills needed for listening.

Here is how you can implement audio-books:

• Play audio-books while child is playing in room or doing chores or some other activity
• Play audio-books in the car

For problems with children sitting still, you can start with 5 minutes a day, making the child sit in a chair and listen to the audio-book without doing anything else.  When the 5 minutes is up - allow the child to play while continuing the audio-book.  Increase the time in the chair by one minute every so often.  You will find that your child will also be able to sit still in church and homeschool.  After all, it's up to YOU to train the skills they don't know for listening and being still.

We try and get audio-books that are above our daughter's reading level and are good literature as well.  Children are like sponges and can soak up whatever you put in and will be able to recall it later on.  For your child to have a large vocabulary - you must put it in and audio-books are a great way to do that!