In last week’s newsletter I included some strategies about communicating with your children taken from the Friendly Schools Programme. Please find below further tips about communicating with children.

Communicating With Your Children

Here are some tips for talking with your children.

• Be supportive and encourage them to talk.
• Show your children you enjoy talking with them.
• Let your children know you are always interested in what is going on in their lives, not only when they are in trouble or having problems.
• Arrange opportunities to share time with your children when you can talk while doing an activity together, for example, cooking, craft, going to the football, family meal times or family meetings.
• Get down to their level and make eye contact. When talking with younger children, get down to their eye level by sitting or bending down.
• Talk shoulder to shoulder. Older children will often talk more freely when you sit or walk shoulder to shoulder. Travelling in the car is a good place for a chat.
• Set an example to your children in the way you speak to your family and other adults. Children learn from watching people they love and admire.
• Encourage and role model positive language, for example: “I really like the way you asked your brother if you could borrow his bike.”
• Use positive words. Explain to your children what to say and do rather than what not to say and do. Try: “Please speak to me in a quiet, calm voice,” rather than “don’t yell at me.”
• Acknowledge your children’s efforts to communicate. When your children have told you about a challenging issue; tell them you are proud of them for talking to you about it.
• Ask open-ended questions that need a sentence answer. For example, questions that start with 'what' or 'how', rather than ones that can be answered with 'yes' or 'no'. Try some of these:

              * What happened today?

              * What was the best thing you did at school today?

              * What do you think about …?

              * It sounds like you are pretty unhappy, what has been going on?

              * What do you think you could try to make things better?

              * What can I do to help you to make things better?

• Allow for ‘cooling off’ time. When you or your children are feeling very angry or upset, consider using a ‘cooling off’ time before you try to talk.

Mrs Lillian Del Giudice

Assistant Principal