The Listening Game

The Family Listening Game

The game is fun and great training for a family. It can be used at a dinner table or any time you turn off the television for family time.
The Talker-Listener Card gives everyone a turn to talk and be heard.

  • Most kids love to play games and they all understand taking turns and fairness.
  • Youngsters love to catch a parent or sibling not playing by the rules, that is, forgeting to take turns, not listening, or talking out of turn.
  • Everyone in the family gets a turn to talk and be heard. After the kids have had their turns, they have to take a turn listening to their parents and even ask what’s going on that is important to them and that is when magic happens.
“Youngsters love to catch a parent or sibling not playing by the rules”
The game also prepares the way for handling conflict constructively within a family. A method is in place when a crisis or a bump in the road occurs. Someone grabs the card off the mantle and each member of the family gets to talk and be heard as well as listen to the others.

Everyone gets to learn new skills in talking and listening at critical times. When a problem arises and the card comes out, family patterns can change from avoidance, lectures and arguing to listening and problem solving.

The Group Listening Game…

…is a version of the family listening game, but with the players and illustrations modified. It is a great way for any group of older young people or adults to practice and learn good sharing and listening skills.

The game is built on the idea that we do not change years of exposure to a courtroom-style-combative-listening-to-win technique by just reading and thinking about it. Making such behavior changes takes practice, trial and error, and can best be done in a role-play-like game where we don’t take ourselves too seriously. If you can relax, experiment and learn from your quirks and foibles, your halting attempts, you can build new skills in to your listening repertoire.

So, email me for the download, gather some friends or folks you’d like to be friends and play and learn together with the Game and the Talker-Listener Card. Then catch each other listening well and poorly, and over time, up your game. (Oh yes and enjoy being heard as well.)

And best wishes, Jim

Get your FREE Listening Game PDF

The Family Listening Game is in all three editions of Why Don’t We Listen Better?, but the Group Listening Game is only available on this website via this free download. Just submit your name and email below and you will receive links to the PDFs for the Family Listening Game, the Group Listening Game or both!

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Talker-Listener Cards help to end arguing and build relationships.

Request the business card size Talker Listener Cards.
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Perfect for families
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