{"id":27769,"date":"2024-11-11T09:29:55","date_gmt":"2024-11-11T09:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings-new\/send\/areas-of-need\/sensory-and-or-physical\/deaf-or-hard-of-hearing\/deaf-friendly-classroom\/gaining-attention\/"},"modified":"2024-12-10T14:20:37","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T14:20:37","slug":"gaining-attention","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/send\/areas-of-need\/sensory-and-or-physical\/deaf-or-hard-of-hearing\/deaf-friendly-classroom\/gaining-attention\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaining attention"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Gaining children and young people’s attention<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Capturing the attention of groups of children and young people, especially if they are deaf and\/or hard of hearing can be a challenge. If you want to change an activity, give some information or just need a moment to focus having a \u2018signal\u2019 can be really helpful. You may need to pre teach the routines to children or young person who are deaf and\/or hard of hearing so that they understand the expectation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To get a deaf child\u2019s attention you can call their name, wave, knock a table, or tap their shoulder lightly. You can view additional tips here to support developing communication: Ten top tips for communicating with a deaf child or young person – Support for schools and settings<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following provides ordinarily, inclusive and available strategies that you can use in your setting:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early years<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Novelty<\/strong>: Use novelty, such as the sound of a wind chime or a rain stick or something that is visually stimulating, to help capture young children’s attention. For slightly older children using a word or phrase to prompt an action, for example \u2018Pop a marshmallow in\u2019 followed up with the action of puffing up your cheeks.  Get the children to follow suit. It\u2019s hard to speak with an imaginary marshmallow filling your mouth!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagination<\/strong>:  An equally imaginative approach involves filling an empty spray bottle with lavender mineral oil and relabelling the bottle \u2018quiet spray\u2019.  Or you can blow magic \u2018hush-bubbles\u2019 for a similar impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Primary or older<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Silent 20\u2019:<\/strong> Use this to conclude an activity. If children or young people return to their seats and are completely quiet within 20 seconds, give a reward \u2013 this could be accumulative such as a jar of marbles \u2013 when the jar is full the class have a fun activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Word\/s of the week<\/strong>: Ask children or young people for \u2018word\/s of the week\u2019 to signal that it\u2019s time for silence. Who can tell you the words for this week, sensitively identify children or young people who may not be fully focused to gain their attention.  Link the words to topics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Call and response<\/strong>: Use catchy phrases as a cue that you want the class\u2019 attention, you could change it each week\/term or keep it the same.  Something simple like \u20181, 2, 3, eyes on me\u2019.  Children or young people respond with \u20181, 2, 3, eyes on you\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondary and beyond<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Policies<\/strong>: Use the setting’s behaviour for learning policy to establish that each class member is respected, valued and cared for. Instructions have meaning and help everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instructions<\/strong>: Use written, picture or symbol instructions to support verbal instructions e.g. for the next ten minutes we will work in silence, then we will discuss our findings etc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gaining children and young people’s attention Capturing the attention of groups of children and young people, especially if they are deaf and\/or hard of hearing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2616,"featured_media":0,"parent":27759,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-27769","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-18 17:16:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2616"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27769"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28956,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27769\/revisions\/28956"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}