Communication is a tool that allows us to use verbal and non-verbal cues to share our thoughts, feelings, wants and needs with other people. Children are born with a basic set of communication skills like crying, yelling, laughing and making facial expressions to tell the adults around them what they need. Those communication skills eventually grow and develop as children learn more advanced skills from their parents, teachers and other adults.
It’s important that children develop strong, healthy communication skills so that they can express their needs and achieve their goals through each stage of life. It’s essential that parents encourage their children to initiate and participate in conversations with their peers so that they can develop effective verbal and non-verbal communication skills.
Here are eight simple ways that parents can help their children improve their communication skills:
Read With Your Scholar
As we’ve previously discussed, reading with children is an important part of helping them develop language, literacy and comprehension skills. This week just so happens to be Read Across America Week, and Compass Charter Schools (CCS) is celebrating by sharing scholars’ book projects on social media and encouraging families to spend more time reading together. Reading with your scholar introduces them to new vocabulary words, which allows them to broaden their vocabulary and helps them become more articulate when talking with others. When challenged with a new vocabulary word, parents can help their scholar by explaining the meaning of the word and then use it properly within a sentence to give context to the new word. Reading creates several opportunities for parents to introduce new words to their children, which can help their verbal communication skills.
Reading can also help children learn about non-verbal communication like facial expressions and body language. There are countless books that parents can read to their children that explain different facial expressions and what each expression means. We encourage parents to talk about how facial expressions and body language can be misinterpreted by other people. Sometimes a facial expression or a gesture can send an unintended message to another person. It’s important that children learn how to be mindful of those silent forms of communication!
Talk About Your Day
Regardless of age, we encourage parents to talk to their children. If the children are young, they may not be able to have a full conversation, but they are still listening and learning how to communicate. When parents talk about their day, it often benefits both the parent and the child. A young child is able to spend time listening to words, pronunciation and voice inflection, while the parent is able to reflect on their day and express themselves to a good listener. We encourage parents with older children to talk about their day using a lot of descriptive words to help broaden their child’s vocabulary. We also encourage them to share details about how they used communication to overcome challenges throughout their day. Talking like this with older children can help find ways to use communication to solve problems in their own daily experiences.
Listen to Your Scholar
Listening is also an essential part of good communication because it’s how we learn about the world around us. It’s important for parents to listen to their children when they speak because it encourages them to also be good listeners. Although younger children may not be able to form complete sentences, they are still communicating when speaking to their parents, and it’s important that they feel heard and supported. Older children will be able to form complete sentences and entertain a more steady conversation. We encourage parents to listen to their older children speak so they can learn more about their opinions, preferences and their perspectives on life. Listening can also help parents determine which aspect of communication their child needs more support with.
Encourage Journaling
Writing in a journal is a simple way to help children build more confident communication skills. It gives them the opportunity to think through their feelings and opinions before they share them with anyone else. Writing can give children the chance to explore words and can help them choose the right words before communicating with others. It also encourages them to build a strong vocabulary and understanding of proper grammar. Parents can make journaling a fun activity for their children by helping them choose a special, colorful journal and designating time for writing each day. Children can choose to share their journal with their parents or they can choose to keep it private. We encourage parents to be supportive of their child’s writing and use it as an opportunity to learn more about them and discover how to support their growth.
Explain Body Language
Non-verbal cues like body language are silent but essential parts of effective communication. Parents can discuss body language with their children to help them understand the impact that it can have when communicating with others. What do crossed arms usually represent? How does it make others feel if you cover your ears while someone is speaking? Body language cues come in a variety of styles. We encourage parents to talk about how they use body language to communicate on a daily basis and explain how their children can use it too. There are even fun activities that parents can use to encourage expression through body language and help children practice a healthy use of body language. For example, parents can consider using a game like Simon Says to encourage children to demonstrate different types body language and each meaning!
Avoid Over-correcting Your Scholar
This is perhaps one of the most overlooked aspects of helping children build stronger communication skills. Parents are often so excited to help their children develop proper communication skills that they over-correct and sometimes even intimidate their children, which can stunt their confidence. We encourage parents, especially with young children, to allow them to speak freely and confidently without correcting every mistake they make. When parents correct every communication mistake that their child makes, they may cause their child to feel anxious about communicating because they’re worried about making a mistake rather than just expressing themselves. The more comfortable a child feels while speaking, the more likely they are to feel motivated to continue developing their skills. Depending on the situation, parents may want to give their children a few corrections after they’re done speaking. Or, maybe they decide to offer a correction only once or twice while their child is speaking. These are just simple practices that parents can consider to avoid over-correcting their children.
Ask Open-ended Questions
Asking children open-ended questions can help them improve their communication skills because they have no right or wrong answer. They can help spark a child’s creativity, open their minds and encourage new ideas. Asking children open-ended questions gives them a chance to share their honest opinions and it gives parents the opportunity to consider new ideas and learn more about their children. Examples of open-ended questions include, “Why do you think this happened” “What else can you use play dough for?” “What do you think would happen if…?” These are all simple examples that parents can use to start asking their children open-ended questions. As they listen to responses, parents will likely learn a lot of new and exciting things about their children!
Reward Healthy Communication
This is arguably one of the most fun ways to help children improve their communication skills. Celebrating healthy, effective communication is a great way to reinforce good communication habits and encourage them to continue to express themselves. We encourage parents to compliment their child’s communication skills a few times each day. Parents can compliment the descriptive words their child used, their tone of voice, the words they chose to write in their journal, or even the body language that they chose to use. It’s important to celebrate when children use effective communication to solve problems, share new ideas and encourage others.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Compass Charter Schools (CCS) is a WASC-accredited virtual charter school that serves families throughout California. Interested in learning more about CCS’ flexible academic programs? Visit our website, or contact our enrollment team at enrollment@compasscharters.org or (877) 506-8631.