Teaching Kids about Communication: How to Improve Communication Skills In a child?

Communication skills for kids are very important in today’s digital world. Today, kids communicate via online and offline means. Teaching kids about communication is not possible without parents. However, teachers also play an important role.

This article talks about how to improve communication skills in a child. With good communication skills, kids can have many benefits:

Communication skills help kids do better in academics. Active participation in discussions and speaking up in class makes kids more confident and bold. This gives a clear understanding of what the teacher teaches in the class.
Kids can have better social standing in the world. They don’t feel nervous when talking in front of relatives.
Kids who have poor communication skills face low self-esteem problems because they can’t express their thoughts.

Important Rules in Communication of Kids

Kids should be taught various rules while conversing to improve kids’ communication:

Maintain eye contact – It’s important to have eye contact with the person to whom you are talking. Eye contact shows you are a confident person.
Kids should not speak fast – Kids should be taught they are being listened to. So, there is no need to speak quickly.
Should not try to gain attention – Kids should not try to gain undue attention. It happens with a lot of kids that when they see two adults talking, they start talking and disturb the conversation. The kids should be discouraged from doing so.
Children also should be made to listen – Most of the kids have a habit to start talking when an elder is talking to them. This is because they have a habit of talking rather than listening. The kids should talk when the other person has stopped talking and they have listened to his entire conversation.

However, if the child is not able to build his/her communication skills, some steps can be taken:

Steps to Improve Communication Skills

Be frank – Always be willing to listen to your child. This way the child can talk easily with you. Make sure that the child is not hesitant when he initiates communication with you. It can be a building block to have effective communication with the child.
Stop being hypocritical – When the kid is talking to you, refrain from the habit of overcorrecting himself. Minimize interrupting him, so that he can talk freely to you.

Stop getting distracted – It’s very important that you pay close attention when your child is talking. When a child communicates with you, he is trying to instil confidence in himself. So, make sure you move your head to show response.

Various Games to Improve Communication

Other ways to improve communication between parent and child are:

Show directions – Ask your kid to write directions to a certain place frequented by him. When he can write directions, go with him to that place using those directions. You can also teach him how to add more to those directions.
Show and tell – This is also an important way to encourage a kid to communicate. You can ask him/her to speak about a topic. He can also display objects related to a topic. This is generally a part of a kid’s homework.
Storytelling through pictures – A kid can also be given pictures and asked to weave a story around them.
Extempore speech – You can ask your kid to present an extempore speech at a family gathering. Although he may feel shy at first, it’s a good way to boost his confidence. You can suggest to him topics which are currently popular such as pollution, environmental degradation, etc. You can provide chits to your kid and he can speak on any one topic written on them. Such an extempore can be part of your daily dinner routine.
20 Questions – This way a child can be encouraged to describe a place. The rest of the kids have to ask questions about what they think would probably be the answer. The kid describing the place has to say yes/no in response to such questions. This encourages the descriptive skills of a kid.
Play telephone – This is the game when the family members whisper messages into each other’s years. This is an excellent game for kids who never listen and always talk.
Reading to a child – It is an important way to encourage the communication skills of your child. A child learns new words when you read out to him. Reading to the child builds their proficiency in the language. You can read to kids at night-time to build their communication skills. There are many books given on diversity which can be used to teach kids values such as empathy.

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