Teach Young Children to “listen With Their Eyes”
I said in some version: “I can’t tell if you can hear me because you don’t look at me / don’t answer” many, many times during my parenting journey (most often when I tell my son to turn around, I turned off the TV and removed the toys). The idea that eye contact is an important part of recognizing other people’s words doesn’t always come naturally to children, especially if you’re saying things they don’t want to hear.
However, adults, we know that hearing the words is not enough. Eye contact shows the speaker that his words matter. Without this recognition, one might want to shout: “Look at me when I am talking to you!”
But there is a nicer and more effective way to get your point across, and it actually comes to us from a child (from Instagram user mommingonpurpose ): “Hear me with your own eyes.”
Of course, as this story indicates, hearing with the eyes goes both ways. The next time you’re making dinner, while your child tells you a long, confusing story about where they are in their favorite video game, pause and listen with your eyes. You can even follow through by saying something like, “Oh wait, let me stir real quick, and then I’ll walk up to you so I can listen with my own eyes.”