Nurturing your child to love (English) language and become an effective communicator is one of the best gifts you could confer. Strong language skills are an asset and can be a key to success in academics, higher education and the workplace. Here are some simple tips to develop your childs communication skills and raise a great communicator.
Watch your words
When you describe something, use an expressive word to communicate vividly. For example, instead of saying, The movie was good”, you could say, It was spine-chilling” or hilarious The use of non-commonplace descriptive words will broaden your childs vocabulary, because children absorb very quickly and retain what they hear.
Get children hooked on books
With the internet, gaming and television demanding their attention, children are not reading books as they did before. Youll need to try a few tricks to get them hooked on books. You could narrate an exciting story at bedtime, and then give them the book narrating the same story. Or, you could get them books from a series that has been turned into movies. Your child might have watched one of the movies, which will arouse her interest in reading the whole series featuring familiar characters.
Get them story books with their favorite cartoon characters. Once your child is hooked on reading, grammar and vocabulary will automatically improve.
Develop early reading skills
Websites such as starfall.com teach early reading skills through simple word games which preschoolers can play, and through assisted reading. For example, two games might help to identify a limited number of words. Then the child can be encouraged to read a story featuring those words. If she is unable to read a word, all she needs to do is click the words and it will be read aloud.
Using Word games
Try solving crossword puzzles and other word puzzles together on lazy Sunday afternoons.
My kids always hated the dictionary, but after we started playing scrabble, they are forever visiting dictionary.com,” says Shivani, mother of two pre-teen boys. Travel times are also great for games like word building and the travel version of scrabble.
Creative writing
Writing limericks, poems and stories can be fun. There are plenty of free resources on the internet, including story starters, creative writing lessons for beginners and more. Get them started on a personal diary or blog. Good writing skills will help in all subjects and careers.
Spoken English
If your childs spoke English skills are not good, speak English at home whenever possible, or enroll her in hobby classes where good English is spoken. Developing good spoken English skills will be one step further at ensuring you raise a great communicator!
– Nisha Daniel
