The way you deliver your messages also has a significant impact on your relationship with children as this can affect how they interpret and react to it.
Key Points
Summary
You can develop a healthy relationship with your children through open and clear communication. This can be done in various ways, such as using language they can clearly understand, actively listening to what they have to say, acknowledging their emotions, and using positive reinforcement.
Outline
When it comes to building a healthy relationship with your kids, maintaining clear and effective communication is vital. It’s always important to convey your message in an understandable and welcoming manner to ensure that children are able to clearly comprehend what you’re saying.
The way you deliver your messages also has a significant impact on your relationship with children as this can affect how they interpret and react to it. Aside from encouraging a favourable outcome or reaction to your message, maintaining positive communication also boosts kids’ self-esteem.
Below are some helpful tips on how you can maintain positive and effective communication with children.
When talking to children, it's important to physically get down to their eye level. Depending on the height of the child, this can be done by sitting down or kneeling. This simple gesture, which prevents you from looking down on them, shows kids that you respect them and value what they have to say, creating a positive interaction and bond between you and the child.
Make sure to avoid complicated or advanced terms or those that refer to complex and abstract concepts. After all, using words and ideas that are unfamiliar to them can often lead to misunderstandings, which can negatively affect your relationship with your children.
Instead, use age-appropriate and clear language to ensure that you are able to effectively convey what you’re trying to say or explain.
Even if you’re talking to a child or someone younger than you, make sure to show them the same respect as you would an adult. This can be achieved by showing them that you are actively listening to what they’re saying.
Aside from giving them your full attention, it’s important to resist the urge to interrupt them or dismiss their thoughts. You can also use “open door” statements or those that encourage them to share or talk about their ideas.
Given their age, children tend to experience a wide range of new emotions, which can have an effect on their mood, social interactions, and how they comprehend verbal cues. This is why in order to effectively communicate with kids, it’s important to acknowledge and validate the emotions that they are expressing instead of dismissing them. Doing so shows that you value and respect their feelings.
Offering options or choices to children is also an effective way to communicate with them as it empowers them by providing them with a sense of autonomy. This approach also helps them develop their decision-making skills.
For instance, if you’re having difficulties encouraging your children to eat more vegetables, ask them which type of vegetable they prefer to eat instead of directly ordering them to eat their veggies.
Positive reinforcement isn’t solely about offering physical rewards whenever your child does something good. It can also involve praising them and expressing words of admiration and encouragement for their positive actions.
Sometimes, feelings of frustration, anger, sadness, and other negative emotions can impact the way we talk to children, which can have a severe and often lasting effect on how they interact with us. So, to avoid escalating the situation, avoid raising your voice or using harsh language when talking to kids.
You can still let them know how or what you’re feeling as long as you do so in a calm manner. Also, if you need to, take a moment to calm yourself down before responding or talking to your child.
Through these tips, you’ll be able to establish a healthy and loving relationship with your children that’s based on trust, respect, and open communication. Aside from these tried-and-tested approaches, another way you can try is to seek the services of trained professionals, such as Sureway Health & Wellbeing’s counsellors and therapists.
Our psychology and counselling services rely on age-appropriate processes and techniques to gain a deeper understanding of the issues that children are experiencing. From here, our trained specialists offer personalised solutions aimed at creating a positive change in the lives of kids.
Get in touch with us today to learn how we can improve your child’s growth and development.
