By the time kids reach kindergarten, they can speak fluently. They know how to talk to their family and interact with others to make new friends. But they still need help to improve their communication skills. Communication isn’t just making conversation, it’s also about expressing your thoughts and feelings, needs and wants clearly. The listener must be able to comprehend what is being said without any effort.
Children often learn by observing the people around them. They copy their actions, speech and behavior patterns. Little kids are like sponges, they absorb information and actions without understanding whether it’s good or bad, and replicate it. So, parents and guardians need to be extra careful around children. They need to ensure that their behavior and way of communicating in the family are good, so the children pick up good things rather than bad.
So, what can you do to help your children boost their communication skills? Here are some simple activities you can do with your child to boost their communication skills.
8 Awesome Activities to Improve Your Child’s Communication Skills
- Talking: There’s nothing more important than the simple act of talking to your child to improve their communication skills. Most kids love to talk, and can go on endlessly about any topic which interests them. But some kids might not like to talk at all. So, encourage your child to talk about themselves or their day. Encourage them to be as descriptive as possible. You can even try icebreaker activities or funny jokes to help them feel comfortable and get the conversation started.
For example, if you’re prepping their meal, talk to them about what you’re doing. Tell them about the steps involved in the process and even ask them to help out. This demonstrates how to make conversation related to what is happening around them.
- Talk about their favorite toy or show: Another way to help children start talking is to encourage them to talk about their favorite TV show or their favorite toy. Ask them about the characters in the show and what they like or dislike about them. Ask them what they would do differently if they were in that situation.
- Ask them about their day: Ask your child about their day. Ask them to tell you what they did in school. Or, ‘What was the best thing that happened to them that day?’ This is a great activity to boost their recalling and sequencing skills, which is essential to develop their communication skills.
- Body language: Reading other people’s body language is an essential part of communication skills. Explain to them that this helps in expressing ourselves more effectively. Additionally, reading body language helps kids understand better what the other person is trying to communicate.
For example, demonstrate to them that frowning shows you’re displeased. Or, you cross arms to show that you’re annoyed, etc.
- Reading: Reading is a wonderful way to improve your child’s communication skills. Pick a book with simple moral stories for kids that your child loves and start reading to them everyday. Read expressively to make it more fun. Additionally, it helps children understand the emotions expressed. As you read, the child learns new vocabulary, which further improves their language and communication skills.
And it doesn’t have to be just storybooks that your child loves, you can also read magazines, newspapers and other reading material. Slowly, help the child learn to read on their own. After you finish reading, discuss the characters in the book, or talk about the news, or new words, they learnt.
- Riddles: Riddles and puzzles are a great way to enhance a child’s communication skills. Getting children to solve riddles for kids helps them think creatively, and also, practice their language skills to communicate their ideas and theories clearly. Additionally, these activities help the child improve their enunciation and articulation skills.
- Storytelling: Little children are very creative and can make up their own stories. Ask your child to make up a story of their own and tell you about it. Storytelling helps children learn when and how to use their emotions to capture the audience’s interest. Additionally, it teaches them when and how to use certain phrases or words to keep the story engaging and interesting. Storytelling also improves the child’s enunciation and articulation, which enhances their oral communication skills.
- Ask for the child’s opinion: Children rarely get to voice their opinions; however, voicing our opinions is an extremely important part of communication. Ask your child to give their opinion on simple things like what they would like to read that day. Or you can ask them to choose what game they want to play. This helps children reflect on their feelings and make an informed decision. Additionally, it helps them learn to communicate their wants and needs. Most importantly, giving their opinions helps children feel valued.
These tips will help kids share their thoughts with others and speak confidently. This will help your child improve their communication skills.