Teaching Communication Skills to Children

In this guide, we’re exploring some central ideas related to teaching communication skills to children.
The ability to communicate needs, emotions, and ideas is critical—even in early childhood—and numerous early educational programs emphasize teaching communication skills to children.
 
Adults understand that it takes more than verbal skills to be a good communicator. But, how can we impart these to the next generation of learners? What does it take to teach kids to communicate effectively?
 
In this guide, we’re exploring some central ideas related to teaching communication skills to children. We’ll break down why communication skills are so important, provide some tips for parents and caretakers, explore a few communication games, and take a look at what communications education looks like in a classroom setting.

The Importance of Teaching Communication Skills

Why is teaching communication skills to children so critical? Let’s break down how and why we should emphasize communication at various learning stages.
 

Early Childhood

Communication scientists have identified three crucial predictors in determining the likelihood children will develop a communication disorder:
 
  1. Environmental factors – The contexts in which children learn to communicate
  2. Social factors – The elements that inform children's abilities to develop early skills
  3. Genetic factors – The biological predispositions that impact communication development
 
That said, in early childhood, many educators focus on:
  • Establishing the baseline environments in which children will learn to communicate, and if possible, improving upon or maintaining that baseline environment
  • Identifying the social factors that will either help or hinder students’ progress
  • Discovering and addressing any genetic factors at play and developing curricula with these factors in mind
 Early communication education is about meeting children where they are by determining which factors will most significantly influence their ability to learn to communicate and developing a curriculum with those factors in mind.

The Teen Years

During the teenage years, educators often focus on nonverbal communication and more nuanced skills, like:
 
  • Emotional regulation
  • Understanding and using body language
  • Tonal awareness
  • Active listening
  • Understanding subtext
 
As teens embrace their independence and learn to make decisions on their own, a strong foundation in communication skills is crucial—understanding others and being understood are both crucial benchmarks on the route to effective communication.
 
So, to help teens reach these benchmarks, educators typically:
 
  • Emphasize and facilitate group work
  • Encourage students to discuss ideas civilly with their classmates
  • Provide more complex feedback on written and verbal assignments
  • Strengthen students’ abilities to communicate in multiple modes, including:
    • In-person, spoken communication
    • Written communication (both formal and informal)

Adulthood

Education doesn’t end after we graduate high school—as young adults approach the college and career stages, their communication education shifts out of the classroom and into adult contexts, like:
 
  • Lecture halls and round-table discussions (in a college or university setting)
  • Staff meetings
  • Job interviews
  • Professional emails
  • Recreation and entertainment spaces (e.g., gyms and restaurants)
 
So, before graduation, educators must prepare students for adulthood by:
 
  • Affirming and bolstering verbal communication skills
  • Teaching students how to understand nonverbal communication, like:
    • Body language
    • Gestures
    • Facial expressions
  • Fostering active listening and response skills

Tips for Teaching Communications Skills to Children

Whether a child is about to start school or they’re counting down the days until high school graduation, their parents and caretakers play a vital role in their communication development.
 
Teaching communication skills to children is a massive undertaking—here are some tips that can help you navigate this long-term development phase:
 
  1. Encourage talking – Particularly for parents of young children, encouraging talking can help your child develop their vocabulary, communicate in full sentences, articulate their thoughts coherently, and respond to others’ speech.
  2. Correct when necessary – As your child learns to communicate, mistakes are inevitable. Once they’ve completed a thought or a sentence, gently point out the mistakes made, and help your child correct themselves. Don’t be overly critical—provide feedback without harsh judgment. 
  3. Make eye contact – If your child is too young to understand the importance of eye contact, start with nonverbal reinforcement—look them in the eyes when you’re speaking, and maintain eye contact as you listen to them.
  4. Teach conversation structure – Remind your child to pay attention to conversational structures and expectations. For instance, encourage them to start with a greeting when they approach someone to start a conversation—and teach them some customary phrases to signal the end of a conversation.
  5. Support, support, support – If you watch your child communicate positively with someone at the park or on their sports team, recognize their accomplishment with developmentally-appropriate language: “It looks like you had a nice conversation with Joey,” or “Good job making eye contact while Lindsay was talking.”

Communication Games for Kids

One way to bolster kids’ communication skills is to incorporate games—both inside and outside the classroom.
 
While there are countless communication games out there, here are a few to get you started:
 

Picture This

For this game, you’ll need some printed pictures (simple landscapes work well), pencils, and paper.
 
  1. Have your child turn their back to you and hand them a card.
  2. Ask them to describe the picture to you while you try to create a simple drawing based on their descriptions.
  3. When they’re done, compare your drawing to the picture you gave them. Provide feedback about which details they missed and praise their accurate descriptions.
  4. Reverse the roles (you describe the picture and let your child draw) and repeat.
 

Silent Quest

If your child needs more practice reading body language, this is the game for them. All you’ll need is a sheet of paper—or any light object:
 
  1. Touch your pointer finger to your child’s pointer finger with the sheet of paper between them—keep your fingers together to prevent dropping the paper.
  2. Move around the room, making eye contact with your child and keeping the piece of paper between your fingers.
  3. Walk around corners, turn in a circle, or make other complex motions to help your child follow your body language. Staying as quiet as possible will help your child focus on (and predict) your movements.

Basic Charades

For older students, try out a simplified version of charades to practice body language performance and comprehension:
  1. Prepare a few slips of paper with words or phrases that students can easily act out—single words are typically easiest.
  2. Have students draw a slip of paper at random and try to act out the word or phrase. Give them a time limit and ask other students to guess what they’re acting out. They can either call out their answers or write down their guesses once the timer runs out.
  3. Once the time runs out, let the actor reveal the word or phrase on the slip. Students will likely provide feedback for the actor unprompted but moderate the conversation to keep it civil.

Communication Skills and Classroom Learning

All of the above information can help you understand what to expect from your child’s educators and support your child’s classroom learning as they build communication skills.
 
What does communication education look like in the classroom? Depending on students’ ages and maturity levels, teachers may:
 
  • Prompt students to talk to each other in pairs, in small groups, or in front of the class
  • Use games or physical learning tools to help students learn to communicate
  • Ask students to write letters or emails to each other to practice written communication
  • Moderate peer critiques of written or verbal assignments
  • Teach complex communication concepts using written materials (like articles) or verbal presentations (like lectures or demonstrations)

All Saints’ Episcopal Day School: Fostering the Next Generation of Great Communicators

Teaching communication skills to children is a tall order—to become great communicators, students need positive reinforcement and support from parents/caretakers and enthusiastic, qualified educators.
 
At All Saints’ Episcopal Day School, we strive to create a climate where students can learn, work, and play together with respect, responsibility, and understanding—we’re teaching the next generation of bright minds to communicate with both empathy and confidence.
 
If you’re looking for a learning community that combines academic excellence (with an emphasis on great communication) with spiritual and moral formation, learn more about All Saints’ by scheduling a tour.
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