10 Steps to Teaching Your Child to Communicate Effectively (Pt. 1)

Teaching Your Child to Communicate Effectively (Pt. 1)

Here is part 1 of a 3 part presentation on helping young people learn to effectively communicate in the face to face world! 
It almost seems that today children are born knowing how to communicate electronically, texting, facebook, Instagram ect., ect.... but what about communicating in person? 

Interpersonal, face to face communication, will always be an important part of being a well rounded individual. 

Effective communication is the foundation to success. When one can communicate well, they have a bigger advantage over those who don’t. If you look around at the heads of major companies, you will notice that most everyone has great communication skills. 
But communication starts long before adulthood. In fact, learning to communicate effectively starts even before a child can talk. Let’s look at some ways to help your child learn to communicate effectively. 
1. Start early. Most parents don't think about effective communication skills when their children are babies; however, that is the ideal time to start. While babies don't understand specific words, they do recognize voices and they are affected by tone of voice.
With babies, practice using different tones such as surprised, happy, sad, loud, soft, high, low, etc.  Be available to your children, regardless of their ages.
2. Teach listening skills. Good communication skills start with being a good listener. Show your child that you are interested in what they have to say.  Do this by fully facing the child, giving them eye contact & nodding affirmatively.  Smiling, changing facial expressions according to what is being said and holding comments until your child is finished talking will also show you are paying attention. These visual cues all tell your child that you are listening and what they are saying is important to you. 
In turn, when speaking to your child, ask them to repeat back to you in their own words what you said. Clarify anything they misunderstood and praise them when they get it right. This teaches them good listening skills. 
3. Ask the right questions. At times, children need you to get the ball rolling by helping them open up. The key to doing this is to ask an open-ended question, which has no right or wrong answer.
Begin with who, what, where, or how. An example would be, "What did your friend do that made you mad? “
Stick to asking one question if you can, too many questions may make children close up. Sometimes children pause to think about what they want to share next so be careful not to jump in with another question too quickly.
Thats it for now. Part 2 will be posted in the next couple of days so keep an eye out for it.
Be sure and encourage effective communication skills as an overall effort to help your child develop confidence in their ability to influence their enviornment and the out comes of the events in their lives.  Fuctional Self-Confidence is a must!
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