We communicate with the intention and desire of connecting with our family and peers. Communicating an idea can be both verbal and non-verbal. It is extremely important to communicate with people, otherwise, we would become lonely.
Even a day old child communicates with his/her parents by crying or cooing. When they get a little older, he/she communicates through facial expressions like smiling or grimacing, and then with body movements. Gradually, a kid becomes old enough to form sentences, they are not able to form proper phrases, but they try their best.
At such a time, it is up to the parents to support and develop their child's communication skills. It is a tough job, as you have to be very careful about what you say and how you encourage your child to communicate their ideas and needs without getting frustrated.
Here in this blog, we will discuss some ways that will help you support your child's communication skills.
Let's begin...
1. Talk a lot and give them waiting time
First of all, communicate a lot with your child. No matter whether they understand you or not, or are able to form sentences to answer you or not, keep interacting with them. Also, when they are talking, give them enough time to speak before you speak back with them. Most of the time people start talking back without listening which is a bad habit. Make sure your kid gets enough waiting time to speak his/her mind; this will also help curb stuttering in children.
2. Read a lot together
Reading is important for your kids, as it helps them develop imagination, receptive, and expressive language skills. Make it a routine to read one book every day, it can be in the night before sleeping or in the day. Cuddle together and read the words, and you don't have to read the book word by word, you can look at images and describe them to your child. You can also make the knowledgeable posters and hang them in your kids room to make them learn by images.
Also, don't restrict to only reading books, read signs, or the description written on a cereal box. Don't ever miss the chance to read, and also keep asking your kid to describe the images so that they can develop their imagination.
3. Don't correct your children too often
First of all, don't ask your child to speak a word or make a sound that is too difficult for them. And if you do ask them to speak a difficult word, don't correct them too often. If you do that, the effect would be opposite only. The kid will either stop speaking altogether or will do the opposite to what you are saying.
4. Treat your child as a full-time communicator
Remember your child deserves to be treated like an equal when you are talking with them. Talk to them like an adult, but keep in mind that they are children. Then what does mean? It means that talk to them by maintaining eye contact and giving them time to answer and listen to them. It doesn't mean that you have to talk about adult stuff or share information that they won't register.
5. Narrate your daily activities to them
While doing your daily chores, keep your kid in the loop. Narrate what you are doing; it will help them connect things with words. Like if you are doing laundry, tell them that or if they are playing with a doll, tell them 'that they are braiding the doll's hair or so on'.
6. Be a better role model
For the child, you are his/her role model; he/she will do what they see you doing. So make sure that you speak the right words and are kind and empathetic towards people. The child will automatically pick these habits from you.
Developing communications skills in your child is a tough job, but you can accomplish it with patience and paying attention to the child.
