10 Ways to Boost Your Child’s Communication Skills

TL: DR

Communication is the key in today’s world. Therefore, children need to speak and write cohesively to make friends and succeed in the world. 

Learning communication skills at a younger age can help your child in numerous ways such as: 

• Developing independent thinking
• Boost confidence
• Develop and maintain relationships

In this blog, we will tell you simple ways that you can use to boost communication skills in your child. 

10 Best Ways to Improve Communication Skills in Your Child 

As a parent, it is never too early or too late to start practicing communication skills with your child. Here are 10 ways you can polish your child’s communication skills: 

1. Talk Regularly with your Child 

If your child is having trouble communicating, it is important to encourage them to join conversations. This will help your child to feel more comfortable and eventually start making conversations. 

For instance, if you are on a car ride with your child, talk to them about the destination you are headed to. Doing so will help your child know how to make conversations about what’s happening around them. 

You can also introduce new words and terminologies to them to help them expand their vocabulary. 

2. Start Describing the Day 

To further improve your child, you can also encourage your child to describe their day in as much detail as possible. You can ask questions such as how did their class go? or what was the best thing about school today?

This can help them with recall and sequencing; both are vital for better communication. You can also tell your child about your day to initiate conversation. You could also say something like “I was at the mall today, guess what I saw there?” 

Apart from improving conversations, it can also be a great way to promote the relationship between you and them. 

3. Listen Proactively and Repeat 

One of the most important conversation skills that you can teach is to listen and expand on what anyone is saying. Therefore, it is vital that you teach your child this aspect of communication. 

You can practice this with your child on a daily basis to help them level up their communication skills. For instance, if your child has told you something, you can follow up with a question such as “Wow, seems like you had a great day at school today. Are you excited to go tomorrow?” 

4. Read Actively

Another important activity that you can do with your child is to read with them. Choose a book of their choice and read it together every night. 

It is perfectly fine if your child decides to choose the same book every day as it will help them get a better understanding of the story and vocabulary. 

Make sure your child also actively takes part in the reading process. You can take turns when it comes to reading to make it more balanced. You should also discuss the settings, plot, and characters after finishing a book to help your child get a better understanding. 

5. Have Practice Conversations 

Practice conversations can help your child navigate through situations they get nervous about. For instance, this could include different conversation scenarios such as talking to kids during lunchtime or while waiting for the bus. 

This could help them navigate through certain scenarios and engage in more conversations with their peers. 

6. Have Fun Conversations 

It is important that you keep conversations fun and intriguing for your child. You can always make conversations more fun by bringing up topics that your child is interested in. 

It could be any topic such as asking “What was the most fun thing about school today?” It can be hard to come up with new topics every day. Luckily, there are plenty of conversation starter ideas available that you can use to polish your child’s communication. 

7. Be a Good Role Model 

Kids always learn the best with examples. Therefore, it is important that you remain calm and conversational when talking to people around you. The kids are always watching you and tend to model your behavior. 

So, make sure that you are cautious with the way you talk to others when kids are around you. Avoid yelling, passing sarcastic remarks, and interrupting, and aim for a calm tone and body language. 

Your kids are more likely to copy how you talk and interact with others so make sure that you are an ideal role model. 

8. Use Simple Words and Sentences 

When talking with your child, you should try to avoid complex words and sentences. Since children better understand simple language, you need to be more straightforward. 

Avoid using words that they may find complicated, especially if your child is learning how to talk. They learn better when words are consistent and natural with short sentences. 

9. Point out Body Language 

Another important aspect of improving communication with your child is to point out their body language. Sometimes, the kids struggle to pick up non-verbal cues such as body language. Therefore, it is important that you teach them these cues. 

For instance, you can tell them that when you fold your arms, it means you are angry at them. Or when you roll your eyes, you feel disrespected. 

10. Encourage them to Keep a Journal 

For some kids, it is easier to talk with other people once they have cleared their thoughts. A diary or a journal can help them make it easier to form and share their thoughts with others. 

A diary can help them list down their daily activities and thoughts which will ultimately make them better at communicating.