#30

1. Good listening skills are important because it is critical to success and is essential to caring and loving.

2. You know you are doing a good job of listening when the other person keeps talking and tells you about what is important for him or her. You are listening well if you have good body and spoken language.

3. The nine guidelines are quiet your own speech and be attentive, communicate an open attitude with your body language, stay in eye contact, avoid assuming anything about what the other person will say, give signals that you are listening, help by summarizing occasionally, ask clarifying questions, check your perceptions of the speaker's body language, and let the person know if you cannot listen at the time.

4. The easiest guideline for me to follow is to act clarifying questions because I'm not shy. If I don't understand what they are saying, I will ask them. I know that they won't feel discouraged if I have to ask them what they were talking about.

5. The hardest for me to follow is to stay in eye contact because at times it feels weird to just keep looking at someone. It's hard to keep eye contact with someone, especially when they are talking to you and they aren't keeping your eye contact.