Whatever your children want to do with their lives, good communication skills can help them succeed! They will need to express themselves appropriately and effectively, whether on a large scale like pursuing a specific career or on a smaller scale like explaining a need for assistance. This article will go over the fundamentals of communication. Then we’ll go over how to teach kids communication skills. With so many enjoyable methods for teaching communication skills available, you can choose the best ones for your child. The ability to communicate clearly is critical for assisting children and adults in social and professional situations.

Teaching Children Communication Skills

Communication is an area of children’s education that many parents overlook, owing to the fact that we are still learning to master it ourselves! Communication skills are frequently regarded as a non-technical or soft skill. As a result, many people believe it does not require proactive attention like math or reading.

Communication Skills for Children

According to the University of New Mexico, there are five essential communication skills that “allow you to receive and convey information, ideas, and messages in powerful and situationally appropriate ways.”

• Communication through speech. The most common form of communication is spoken language.
• Communication without using words. While this is almost reflexive for many, it is a critical tool to employ. This allows us to demonstrate whether we are friendly and receptive or upset and confused. Similarly, we can use it to gauge how others are reacting to the way we communicate.
• Listening actively. If you or your child believe they are excellent listeners, congratulations! That is half-way to active listening, which entails not only listening but also summarising the information to confirm comprehension.
• Communication in Context Learning to communicate in various contexts. Our approach to our teacher may need to differ from our approach to our classmates.
• Communication in Writing Obviously, this is a skill that older children should start working on and continue to improve.

Younger children will focus primarily on oral and nonverbal communication. They will begin to process contextual communication cues and become active listeners as they grow older. Some children learn these skills quickly and naturally by observing others. Other children will require explanations and will benefit from role playing and discussing various scenarios. Written communication is a life skill that we can always work on improving as we practise.

Clear and concise communication, active listening, body language, and tone of voice are all learned abilities. Don’t be concerned. There are numerous enjoyable ways to improve your child’s communication skills.

Fun Ways to Improve Your Communication Skills

Here are some fun ways to improve your child’s abilities while also teaching them communication skills.

• Join the Scouts today!
  Communication entails more than just writing, speaking, and listening well. Working well with others requires trusting, supporting, and understanding them. They will learn new words and have a larger vocabulary to communicate with as they learn new scouting skills.
• Activities Involving Public Speaking
  Begin at home with public speaking games that improve your child’s listening and speaking skills, such as the old standby “telephone” and story telling. Short speeches delivered at home are the next step. If you believe they are ready, enrol them in a local junior public speaking club, if one exists. Speech templates, online competitions, and general advice are all available online to help your child with his or her public speaking activities.
• Drama/Theatre Group
  Communication is both physical and verbal. Spatial awareness and body language are both intuitive and difficult to teach. Drama games, or even enrolling your child in a theatre group, can improve intuitiveness while also developing important presentation skills such as vocal projection.
• Learning to Play a Musical Instrument
  This one might be less obvious. Your child will be practising and honing their ability to listen and take instruction while learning a musical instrument. It can also help him or her better appreciate subtle differences in verbal tone, which can completely change the meaning of statements, according to Professor Nina Kraus.
• Storytelling in Pictures
  This enjoyable game can be tailored to the age of the child in a variety of ways. Young children can be encouraged to draw you a picture and explain it thoroughly. If necessary, you can help prompt this process by asking open-ended questions about your presence in the picture and what they are doing. Inquire with your children about the people in the picture’s facial expressions, how they are feeling, and why. Ask them to explain why they chose the colours they did. You can also give an older child a picture and ask them to tell you a story using the image as a starting point and fleshing it out with their imagination. This promotes the growth and development of a child’s communication skills because they must think of ways to describe and explain things. This exercise not only improves language skills, but it also aids in the development of logical sequence and reasoning abilities.
• Dispute Resolution
  You and your children can practise conflict resolution by playing court games. When my children were between the ages of 8 and 10, they enjoyed acting as lawyers for their stuffed animals and arguing silly things in “court.” They occasionally asked me to be the judge. They’d each present their arguments, and I’d ask probing questions to help them defend their clients. When I had heard everything, I would demonstrate my active listening skills by repeating what I had heard and stating my conclusion. This is an excellent opportunity for them to hone their verbal communication skills while learning to present important information.