Why Talking is Important | One World for Children
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/_edit/Images_Lainie/GRANDFATHER-AND-GRANDDAUGHT.GIFWhy Talking is Important

Talking and listening to children does lots of important things. It improves your bond with them, and encourages them to listen to you. It helps them to form relationships and to build self-esteem.

And if you talk and listen to your children from a very young age, you’ll get yourself and them into habits that become very useful once they’re teenagers. If you can build an open relationship where your children feel comfortable talking about what they’ve been doing and with whom, they’remuch more likely to tell you about the details of their life once they’re older.

Like so many other things, talking and listening can be done badly, just OK, or done really well. And like any other skills, you get better with practice. Good communication with children is about encouraging them to talk to you. And listening so they can tell you how they feel.

Some children need a lot of encouragement and positive feedback to get talking. Others will be desperate to talk to you when you’re busy doing something else, which might mean stopping what you are doing and listening.

Positive communication isn’t just about saying ‘nice’ things or sharing good news. It’s about being able to really listen and responding in a sensitive way to all kinds of feelings, even about being angry or embarrassed or miserable or frightened.

As well as words, talking and listening are about reading body language and actions and interpreting non-verbal forms of communication.

Make time for talking and listening to each other.