Listening comprehension is important for a variety of reasons. It helps us to understand what is being said, to interpret the meaning of words, and to respond appropriately. Listening comprehension becomes the dominating influence on reading comprehension starting even in the elementary grades. Listening comprehension skills can be stimulated across a child’s educational career— pre-school through high school (and beyond). 

Listening comprehension can generate skills for retention, relationship and understanding of a message. It enhances the ability to get the most important things out and to interpret them in the best possible way in order to develop knowledge. Listening comprehension becomes more important over time, even as students get better at reading. Over time the contribution of listening comprehension to reading comprehension increases, and as such, the incidence of poor “comprehenders” increases across the grades. 

Even as students get better at reading, listening comprehension becomes the dominating influence on reading comprehension starting even in the elementary grades. 

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