5 Tips To Teach Your Child To Communicate Effectively

Six-year-old Aanya wants to share an incident with her parents that happened in school earlier that day. Spotting her mother in the drawing room, she sits next to her, and in a low tone says, “Maa..everyone laughed as I recited my poem today”. Her mother Sangeetha, who’s busy typing out a mail, responds without looking at her. “It will be fine, Aanya,” she says. After a while, Sangeetha looks away from her laptop and asks Aanya, “Do you want anything to eat? Wait, I will get you something”. She gets up and walks out of the room into the kitchen.

Aanya is sad as she really wanted to talk about what happened at school to her mom. While Sangeetha heard her daughter, she didn’t pay attention to what she said and Aanya felt that what she felt was not important to her mother.

As parents, we must remember that we are our children’s biggest role models. They learn by observing us and imitate what we do and say. So, how we communicate with others and our children teaches them how to get their thoughts and opinions across effectively. The role of communication in the parent-child interaction’ by Patricia Luciana et al, published in Procedia - Social and Behavioral Science by Elsevier (2012), ‘communication is done in three levels - verbal, non-verbal and logical. If these levels have no contradictions, then the communication is considered effective’. Effective communication is about maintaining a balanced approach in listening, interpreting and responding when having a conversation with someone.

* Set aside time

Each day have a fixed time when you speak to your child about his day. It could be over family meals or before he goes to bed. Even if in the beginning, things don’t work out, making it a habit will eventually make the conversations more comfortable.

* Solve problems together

If she has brought to your notice a particular issue at school or at home, sit down with her and work together to find a solution. Take time and don’t hasten the process.

* Create a feelings vocabulary

When she is talking about how a certain thing makes her feel, try and help her understand the feeling and use words to express them.

* Communicate at his level

When talking to your little one, get down to his level, both physically and verbally, to communicate with him. This will make him feel comfortable and he will also know that he has your full attention. This will teach him some key lessons about how to communicate effectively like paying attention and making eye contact.

* Listen

Listening is a skill that lies at the heart of effective communication. SO, it’s important you don’t just hear what she is saying but listen to her as well. It will also teach her that listening attentively is an important part of communication.