Does your child stutter when talking to peers or adults? You can now learn how to make them good public speakers.
While expressing feelings might be very easy for some children, some find it very difficult. It’s sometimes surprising for parents to find that their talkative child at home can not stand up among peers, answer simple questions, or even talk in class.
There are so many reasons for this, beginning from upbringing, temperaments, environment, and so on. Public speaking carries on from childhood to adulthood, therefore, as a child, you must start on time to confront this challenge.
Also, Parents must be intentional about it. Being able to handle and communicate effectively with a crowd of people can boost your child’s self-esteem. It builds charisma and instills confidence.
There’s no field of discipline, business, or career that doesn’t involve addressing people, the more reason parents should rise to the occasion and mold their children into what they should be. This will help parents and teachers to communicate more with their younger ones.
In this article, I will be listing 5 ways to get started on improving public speaking skills for children. Don’t fret, they’re easy to do.
5 Ways to Improve Public Speaking
Practice with them from an Early Stage
From infant, your baby can hear you. You may not get a reply, but they can process information and observe your feelings. It’s funny, but your baby can tell if you are happy or not. Talk to them. Answer to every cooing with the same energy. Communication begins from that stage. As they grow older they begin to put those sounds into words.
Continue, to ask their opinion about things, from household chores to food options, even to politics and government. In as much as you train them not to speak out of terms and insult adults, do not hush them. Most children become very timid when they’re always hushed. If you’ve been doing this, you should stop and gradually encourage the child to speak up.
Engage with Activities and Applications
There are a lot of fun things that when children engage in, they’re able to overcome their timidity. Activities such as debates, classroom/family discussions, and questions and answer sessions. Games, yes games. There are educative game apps. You can get these games and engage them during the holidays.
Games such as word puzzles, word spin, and so on. Apps such as Six minutes are very good for teaching public speaking, Hivebrain, and so on.
Record Videos
You can let your kids practice in front of a video camera. Put it on record and give each one a topic to talk about. That way they become conscious of themselves. They see how good they look speaking with so much confidence that they start loving it. You can throw questions at them and have them answer you while on record.
Watch Movies
As much as they will like to spend all the holidays in front of a TV watching cartoons, you’ll have to spice it up a bit with something more educative. Some movies address public speaking issues and you know children learn from what they see. So let’s influence it a little.
Go online, and search for these movies. Take your time and go through movies first before exposing your children to them.
Appreciate Small Wins
Always appreciate your children. Nothing cheers them up more than a word of encouragement and a show of pride and appreciation. Tell them how good you think they are, even if they didn’t do well. Cheer them up, eventually, they will believe in themselves and be able to do better.
Acknowledging and appreciating small wins leads to greater wins. Don’t be a wet blanket. Consistency is key. You should bear in mind that it will not happen overnight. It takes hard work and consistency. Eventually, you will find that your little shy baby can hold her end and talk boldly to people
