Prepare your child for stage with public speaking skills

Communication is the most crucial skill to have and develop in the times we live in today. It enables us to form connections, influence decisions, and drive change positively and public speaking happens to be one of the most important and difficult forms of communication. A large proportion of kids in school experience some degree of nervousness when asked to speak publicly. Their self-esteem revolves around the evaluation by peers and establishing public speaking skills early on is essential because speaking skills and confidence can take a lifetime to fully develop and developing the ability to speak in front of an audience as a child is the best way to conquer it. It helps in the overall development of the child.

How paramount Public Speaking is

Public speaking goes a long way while developing leadership skills in children. It helps children not just improve their communication skills but also enables them to influence and persuade the listeners and convince the audience of their message. Public speaking helps children articulate better and helps them overcome the fear of stage, making them more comfortable and confident with themselves and the language.

• Important Life Skill

Almost every person at some point in their life has to face the fear of public speaking and address an audience. Exploring the art of public speaking as a kid has additional advantages compared to those children who do not get the exposure. A confident and capable public speaker is more likely to become an innovative leader that influences people.

• The power of persuasion

The ultimate agenda of communication is to convey a message effectively. Make the listeners interpret what you would like to convey. Public speaking teaches children imperative persuasive skills.

• Improved communication skills

Public speaking gives an edge to fine-tune your children’s verbal and non-verbal communication skills. These skills when developed early in life come in handy in establishing personal relationships, social interactions, and work situations. Public speaking broadens the horizons for children to explore and express their thoughts, emotions and convey them openly. It makes them agile and flexible and also helps them become good listeners.

• Sheds inhibitions and boosts confidence

Exploring public speaking as a kid opens the door to other aspects of life. With time, they become better communicators, they stand out in the crowd with their articulation skills and the way they express themselves, their confidence is high while addressing someone. The more they venture into public speaking opportunities, the more comfortable and confident they become. They start being at ease with their thoughts and can openly speak their minds without the fear of being embarrassed or disappointed.

• Additional academic advantage

There is a substantial, positive and direct impact on the child’s performance in school. Public speaking not only exponentially boosts a child’s confidence but it also hones their presentation skills, critical thinking skills, listening skills and observing skills. They start perceiving everything around them with more clarity and that evidently reflects in their academics.

Steps to instill the art of public speaking in children

Effective public speaking skills need time, effort, and patience to develop in children. Here are a few simple steps to help train children in public speaking and become stage-ready:

• Empower them to become public speakers

Children are inherently inquisitive and more curious in nature. They are quick learners and not as reluctant to explore the things that they might enjoy. To develop effective communication skills in your child, you would need to prod them in the right direction and start with introducing the concept of public speaking early in life.

• Participation in public speaking opportunities

Motivate your kids to participate in public speaking in school with every opportunity that presents itself. Debates, group discussions, proactiveness in the classroom, asking and answering questions while attending classes would nourish and nurture their confidence and help them become fluent speakers. The more they interact, the easier it gets for them to communicate. BeyondSkool has designed Leadership Communication as a module to ensure that kids adopt skills to help them articulate and structure their thoughts, put them across on the table with confidence and understand the importance of language and communication. You can take a look at the course and curriculum here and book a free demo

• Care to prepare

Confidence and language skills are not enough to cut it. Public speaking opportunities can help children with their skills but not without thorough preparation. Without research, preparation and practice, it can make the child feel embarrassed and disappointed if they make errors and affect their confidence. Explaining the importance of preparation and how to structure the information gathered and leverage it in their speech is a knack that could be cracked over time. They should know what they are going to talk about and how they would present their thoughts and ideas in the most convincing way. Right from the introductory sentences to the conclusion, everything needs to be thought through.

• Preaching practice

After conducting ample research and preparing a speech, the next thing to follow through is practicing before taking over the stage. Recording the speech or conversation, practicing it beforehand with parents or alone. More than memorizing the dialogue, public speaking is about delivering expressions with the gestures, body language, the conviction in the tonality, voce molecultion. To captivate and engage an audience, practice is the only way that could make it happen.

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