Marva Shand-McIntosh Celebrates 13th Annual Listening Day For Preparing Winners For Tomorrow

May 16th, 2018 marks the 13th annual observance of the international Listening Day that was founded by Marva Shand-McIntosh, an internationally certified Listening Professional and a nationally certified Speech Language Pathologist who has been serving the public schools in the District of Columbia. This year's Listening Day celebration will focus on listening to our children as a way to prepare them to be successful in the future.

Marva Shand-McIntosh says: "We live in the attention economy, where the torrent of distractions easily strip us from developing deep human relationships as we become satisfied with communicating by merely surf, click or tweet. Two forces are converging to precipitate the perfect storm realizing surface communication and maximizing misunderstanding. These are technological toys and their applications, and the cultural bent of ignoring and not listening to children."

She continues: "The statement children should be seen and not heard hold commandment status in many homes. This is happening at time in history where the encroachment of technology into our lives make the development skills of emotional intelligence even more critical. Emotional intelligence helps us to build stronger relationships, succeed at school and work, and achieve our work and personal goals. Having the skills of mindfulness to manage our relationships and develop mature decisions guided by critical thinking define today's and tomorrow's winners."

During the I Love to Listen Day, Shand-McIntosh will focus on enabling the next generation to truly bloom. The goal is to develop this lifelong skill in children, equipping them to have healthier social and personal relationships, and more effective work places.

Marva Shand-McIntosh has made it her life's mission to handle the issues of living a quality life with the fullness of humanity intact. One key activity Marva will be initiating with school children is to write a thank you note for listening to them to spark the conversation. The adults will then be prompted to find out how to practice good listening skills with children. Marva says: "The Ten Commandments to listening to our children resource will be a handy guide to empower adults. Just go to the I Love to Listen website to gain your copy."

Further plans are also been laid to provide on-going opportunities to deepen people's ability to receive and interpret messages as for schools, churches, and family life counselors. The goal of these resources will be to allow families to have fun while they learn how best to clarify meaning and reduce mistakes and frustration through listening. Everyone is encouraged to get a listening coupon to share with someone and to share their experience how this tool has impacted a key relationship.