08/06/2024
“Show me your ‘Whole Body Listening’”. It’s a phrase I hear quite a bit when I visit schools. It’s a way for teachers to make sure everyone is paying attention by having children sit still, stop talking, put their hands in their lap, and look at the teacher.
Some kids might appear to be able to stick with the rules of Whole Body Listening, but the reality is that most kids can’t. Listening, or being regulated enough to pay attention, looks different for everyone.
For me, it looks like sitting with one knee up, cracking my knuckles semi-frequently, and making intermittent eye contact. If I was at a seminar listening to someone speak and I had to sit still, keep my hands still, and look directly at them all of the time, I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on what they were saying.
If you see a child sitting on the mat and they’re fiddling with their shoes, wriggling around on their bum, sitting on their knees, looking away from you…this is likely their way of regulating.
Whole Body Listening is outdated. It’s expecting all children to learn in the exact same way. Neurodivergent children in particular (i.e. those whose brains do not fit the mould of what society considers usual/best, e.g. autism, ADHD, dyslexia) have trouble with this.
Rather than encouraging Whole Body Listening, maybe we could try the phrase “Does everyone have what they need to listen?”
For individual students, maybe phrases like “It looks like your body needs to move. You can sit on this wobble cushion or sit on this stool”, or “It looks like your hands need something to fidget with. Instead of touching Sarah, here’s a fidget toy”.
I believe this needs to be prefaced with a discussion with students about neurodiversity, and how everyone learns differently.
And I think it’s important for teachers to reflect and consider *why* they need children to behave or pay attention in certain ways.
Absolutely not having a go at teachers here as I believe all teachers are just using the information and tools they know. But I feel this is an important topic to think about.
