Developing Effective Communication Skills in Children

Do you remember an instance from the past where you felt that you could have done better if your “Communication” was more effective? Communication skills in children is imperative for their success.

Children should be taught basic communication skills from the very start and continue to hone their skills.

This is because when people like me were studying in the 1990’s, the stress was on studying and mastering the subject and not on how you communicate and express and present yourself as a confident person.

Well, I am sure many of us will have some or the other incidents like that to remember. Communication skills in children without parental guidance is a big mistake.

Case Study

John is into the final year of his engineering degree and has started sitting for campus interviews. He is a bright student but struggles while speaking. This also makes him look nervous and is clearly reflected in his body language.

He still has not been able to get placement and blames his poor communication for the same.

He says that if his friends and family would have encouraged him to communicate more and had not made fun of him when he tried doing the same, things would have been different and he would have had better chances of getting a good job and high salary.

Developing effective communication skills in children refers to imparting knowledge related to not only speaking and writing well but also using electronic forms of communication.

Communication

Communication is the process by which information is exchanged between individuals through signs, symbols and language.

Communication is of two types:

Verbal Communication

Verbal communication involves using speech or words to exchange information with others

Non-Verbal Communication

Non-verbal communication describes the process of conveying messages in the form of non-word messages. Research shows that the majority of our communication is non-verbal, also known as body language.

Even today, when we are growing up, the emphasis is on mastering the subjects and being good in academics and sports. Our communication skills are not given much importance and if some emphasis is laid on them, the stress is only on verbal form of communication.

And when we grow up, we face this problem of not being able to communicate our ideas effectively. Communication skills grow many-fold in the early years of children.

It’s high time that we should encourage our children to speak and express their views effectively, using their body language and facial expressions appropriately, so that their communication skills do not become an obstacle in their growth. We can practice these few tips to enhance communication skills in children:

Encourage your child to speak and express themselves freely from a young age.
To make them confident, don’t try to interrupt them when they are saying something. Let them finish and then say what you want.
Work on English as well as other languages spoken in your area so that your child is comfortable communicating both ways.
Non Verbal Communication is equally important as speaking or writing, so encourage your child to use the correct body language and expressions to enhance their communication.
Help your child learn the importance of correct facial expressions, eye contact, sitting and standing posture to help them understand how to communicate effectively with your body.
Encourage your child to participate in extra-curricular activities in school like sports and debate. This will give them a chance to interact with more people and they will develop confidence as well.
Whenever your child makes a mistake while writing or saying something, don’t scold them in front of anyone. This lowers the self confidence of children and they start hesitating in front of others. Always correct their mistakes with patience and love.

Conclusion – Communication Skills in Children

It is today’s reality that no matter how intelligent we are or how academically brilliant we are, if we are not able to express our views with confidence and if we do not use the correct body language to match our speaking skills and our subject knowledge, we cannot be successful and cannot excel in life.

So, we should encourage our young generation to understand the importance of Effective Communication Skills along with their subject knowledge if they want to get success in life.