![]() Through this understanding, we forge meaningful connections with one another. WHY IS ACTIVE LISTENING IMPORTANT?Īctive listening is important because it allows us to fully understand what’s being said to us. ![]() When active listening, we’re actively involved in the conversation. If we’re unsure of something they’ve said, we ask questions, and we’ll often repeat what the speaker has said in our own words to check our understanding. We give the speaker time and try not to interrupt. When we’re actively listening, we focus on the person who’s speaking to try and fully understand what it is they’re communicating. Active listening doesn’t come naturally to everyone, but the good news that it’s a skill that can be improved over time. We might have heard the term ‘active listening’ before, but not know means in practice. For them, eye contact might signify that they’re communicating something of importance. In a case like this, giving eye contact might be more significant than avoiding it. ![]() But for someone who’s blind, neurodivergent, anxious, or just generally not a fan of eye contact, their ‘norm’ might be to look away. For example, it’s commonly stated that if someone doesn’t give eye contact then they’re more likely to be lying. When interpreting a person’s verbal and non-verbal communication, it’s worth being aware of their ‘norm’. It can sometimes tell us as much as verbal communication. Non-verbal communication includes gestures, eye contact, facial expressions, body language, whether a person is fiddling with something, crying, or any other action that communicates something to us without using verbal sounds. For example, they might speak more quickly when anxious. If we know someone well then we can sometimes use this information to interpret their mood. When we listen to someone, we don’t just hear and interpret their words often, we’ll pick up on their tone of voice, volume, and speed, too. The Difference Between Hearing And ListeningĬLICK TO TWEET LISTENING ISN’T ALL ABOUT WORDS It’s similar to the way children learn to read – if they come to a word that’s new to them, most children will try to ‘sound it out’ and/or make sense of the word within the context of the rest of the sentence. This could include using our existing knowledge of sounds and tapping into our long-term memory to try and fill in gaps in the information we’ve heard. In less-than-ideal situations, we rely on alternative methods of understanding speech. Ideally, when someone speaks, our brain quickly matches their words with words in our well-organised mental vocabulary ‘store’, enabling us to understand what they’re saying. Studies have also shown that we interpret ‘speech’ sounds differently to other sounds. Research into how we listen is ongoing, but we do know that it can be linked to our working memory, long-term memory, vocabulary ‘store’, executive function, and attention. The way we listen can differ depending on what we’re listening to, and the conditions we’re in. Listening, on the other hand, is a psychological process. It includes ‘tuning in’ to sound, distinguishing between different sounds, the number of sounds we can listen to at the same time, noticing differences in tone, speed and pitch, remembering and recalling information, our perception of volume, and the way we process sounds against any background noise. These signals are carried to our brain where they’re turned into a sound that we can understand.Īuditory processing encompasses everything that happens along the pathway from our inner ear to our brain and the way our brain processes sound once it receives it. Once in the inner ear, soundwaves go through a serious of steps, which end with them becoming electrical signals. Three tiny bones in our ear receive these vibrations, then send them towards our inner ear. Soundwaves start at our outer ear, then travel through our ear canal until they reach our eardrum, causing it to vibrate. When sound reaches our ear, it goes on a journey to convert it from a soundwave to an electrical signal. We pay attention to them, process them, and try to make sense of them. To listen, we have to interpret the sound(s) that we hear. Listening, on the other hand, is defined as “to pay attention to sound” or “to hear something with thoughtful attention: give consideration”. Sometimes we will hear things subconsciously. Hearing is a physiological act it relates to our physical biology. ![]() When we hear something, we’re aware of the noise or sound it makes, but we don’t necessarily interpret or make sense of it. The dictionary defines hearing as: “the process, function or power of perceiving sound”.
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