Gaining Attention

Gaining Attention

Gaining attention is getting somebody to look and listen to you.

Before we can speak to someone or ask them a question we need to gain their attention. There are lots of ways of gaining someone's attention. Some ways are OK and are polite and some ways are not OK and can be rude.

Polite ways of gaining attention include:

Putting your hand up
Saying 'excuse me'
Standing quietly near the person
Waving to a friend
Smiling 

Rude ways of gaining attention include:

Pulling at clothes
Shouting
Being silly
Getting angry
Butting in

When you need to gain someone's attention it is best to choose a polite way of doing so.

When I Want To Talk To Someone

When I want to talk to someone I may need to gain their attention first.

Gaining someone's attention is getting them to look and listen to me. There are polite ways I can do this. There are also rude ways that are not OK. It is important to try to be polite. The best way depends on the situation. This can include:

where I am
who I want to talk to
what they are doing
what I am doing
who else is there

Being polite means trying to find the right time to speak to someone. I know some rules that might help me :

I can try to wait until the person I want to speak to is not talking

I can try to wait until the person I want to speak to has finished doing something

I can try to make eye contact with them by standing near them

In class I may need to put my hand up to gain the adult's attention

If I really need to interrupt someone I can say 'sorry'

Sometimes it can be difficult to find the right time to talk to someone because they are busy. I may have to wait a long time. This is OK.

When I want to talk to someone I may need to gain their attention first. This is OK. I can do my best to gain attention in a polite way. Sometimes this means that I may need to wait.