As kids grow up, they learn many skills, including basic communication skills. However, it can still be intimidating for some kids to speak in front of groups. If this is the case with your child, you should find ways to encourage and support them to help increase their confidence while speaking.
Help Them Practice
You can start supporting your child by helping them work on their skills. Some skills to focus on include starting a conversation, being an attentive listener, taking turns in a conversation, knowing when to stop talking, and how to use polite language. Having practice conversations with your child can be very helpful because it will help them grow more accustomed to the way people talk with each other. It’s also helpful to model conversations when talking with others. Another extremely helpful tool is prompting your child. These prompts can be simple reminders such as asking them to make eye contact when speaking or encouraging them to say thank you. Lastly, you need to make sure you praise your children when they do well. Positive reinforcement can boost their confidence.
Put Them In Speech Therapy
In some cases, children may not be confident if they struggle with the way they speak, including having a speech impediment. Speech therapy can be very beneficial in these situations. This type of therapy covers a large range of issues. It can help your child learn to better express themselves and it can help them to be understood by others. Speech therapy can be a corrective measure for pronunciation issues among children. Helping them overcome these types of issues can help them improve their confidence and feel more secure when having conversations. Speech therapy can be beneficial at any age but is most effective the younger you start your child.
Encourage Them to Self-Advocate
If your child struggles with speaking in groups, they likely also struggle with advocating for themselves. Learning to self-advocate is an important part of building confidence overall but especially in building confidence when speaking to others. As you help your child learn to self-advocate, make sure you give them the opportunity to. Ask for their opinion and teach them that what they have to say matters. You can also have them make goals to advocate for themselves.
If your child struggles, the best thing you can do is offer them your support. Show them that you are willing to help them work through any problems and find resources that can help them. With you in their corner, they can begin to improve their confidence when speaking in groups.
Read this next: How Scientists Are Empowering Kids to Act on the Climate Crisis Through Art
You must be logged in to post a comment.