One day, Puppy and Kitty were strolling down the street when Puppy got the urge to tell Kitty a VERY important message.

ZOOM

Puppy tries to bark his message at Kitty, but just then, a noisy car zooms by!

I LOVE YOU!

ZOOM

ZOOM

ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM

Puppy tries again, but this time, a loud flock of geese flies overhead! Kitty can't HEAR him!

HONK

HONK

HONK

I LOVE YOU!

honk HONK honk HONK honk honk honk honk

honk HONK honk HONK

No matter how hard she tries, Kitty cant HEAR Puppy's message! The sound waves of his message keep getting interrupted by the other loud background noises! That dang car and those noisy geese are getting in the way of the first step of listening, which is HEARING (also known as RECEIVING)!

Puppy really wanted to tell me something, but I just can't UNDERSTAND him. There was too much noise for me to clearly INTERPRET what he was trying to tell me.

By now it was getting late, and Kitty and Puppy had to go home. Puppy would have to find another way to tell Kitty his message tomorrow.

That night, Puppy came up with the perfect plan to tell Kitty his message! He EVALUTED what went wrong, so he could tell Kitty his message with no problems.

He would go to Kitty's house and leave her a note with special instructions on where to meet him!

Meet me at our favorite park, I can finally tell you my special message!

~ Puppy

Yay! Puppy wants to meet in the park! I can't wait to find out what he was trying to tell me yesterday.

Kitty is RECALLING the issue of INTERPRETING the special message Puppy was trying to tell her.

Finally Puppy and Kitty were able to meet, and Puppy could share his special message! There were some birds in the park, but Kitty would finally be able to ATTEND the conversation.

I found your note, Puppy! What's so important that you just HAD to tell me? Now that I can finally HEAR you, I cant wait to know the message!

Puppy and Kitty were both able to filter out the quiet chirps of the birds in the park, and focus on the conversation they were having. This is important for listening, it's the second step called ATTENDING!

Well Kitty, we've been best friends for so long, I just wanted to remind you....