A healthy communication with your child entails, talking and listening to each other. This is a skill that you need to master with time lest you find yourself doing the talking all the time. That means that you will never discover your child’s opinions or thoughts about certain issues.
Good communication with your child is all about encouraging them to talk to you in a bid to understand their feelings and thoughts. Once they open up to you, you need to respond appropriately in terms of the tone and body language. Engaging in frequent conversations with your child helps in building their social relationships in future.
However, if you are having problems communicating with your child, here are a few tips that will come in handy. First, create time for having conversations with your children. For instance, you can use meal times for this by encouraging your child to participate in discussions that you have as a family. Moreover, make it a habit to talk with your child about ordinary things such as their friends at school, favorite sport and so on. Most importantly, understand the body language of your child; if they are too silent, they may have a problem and aren’t sure of how to address it. Additionally, when having conversations, encourage your child to be honest at all times; that way, you will be able to praise them if they do something good and caution them when they engage in wrong acts such as bullying.
At times, children may choose not to open up once they realize that you are not interested in what they have to say. Therefore, demonstrate interest by using phrases such as “go on….. Also, avoid jumping into conclusions or interrupting by putting words in their mouth. Thus, listen keenly even when they are wrong or saying something that sounds ridiculous.
These simple tips will help you establish good communication with your child.