This one is obvious. Communication is a key skill for “kids of all ages.” But communicating is more than just understanding speech and being able to read and write. It’s a broader term that includes the skills of determining our intended message, and then knowing how to convey it. It’s a crucial skill in all social and work environments and is sometimes lacking in our highly technical world.

Pre-school and other learning environments are great places to work on communication skills. Children learn to listen, respond, speak their mind and begin to write their ideas on paper. Communication is about understanding, not drill and practice. It’s much better for a child to write a pretend sentence with a few correct sounds or letters than to copy a perfect sentence. Meaning is the heart of communication.

How to Promote Communication Skills

Build a literate home. Reading, writing and speaking skills should be a normal part of everyday family life.

  • Read aloud to children daily
  • Encourage children to talk about their ideas. Ask questions and reply with words to enrich their vocabularies.
  • Go to the library, buy books as gifts, encourage a love of language and literature.
  • Talk with your children—a lot. Talk about what you’re seeing and doing. Elaborate on the words your child says. If they say “car.” You say, “You see a car. What color is the car?”
  • Play games with your child beginning with peekaboo and pat a cake and progressing to rhyming games, guessing words that begin with a certain letter, clapping syllables, and reciting tongue twisters.
  • Encourage storytelling activities. “Tell me the story of Goldilocks.” Or “Can you make up a story about a teddy bear?”
  • Encourage writing. Keep a supply of paper, envelopes, stickers, crayons, markers, pencils…anything to foster writing skills. Soon squiggles will become pictures which will then become words and illustrations.
  • Choose books that reflect your child’s current interests. Encourage discussion about the topic.

Language development is the heart of communicating clearly. It’s a process that begins with baby’s first smile and grows over time until we’re able to share our deepest thoughts and dreams.