Public Speaking for Kids : Why Is it Important & How To Develop

Fear of speaking on stages – is one of the most common fears among children. Most kids hesitate to speak in public, but child psychologists recommend motivating and giving them opportunities to speak on public stages from a young age.

Public speaking for kids helps them develop their personalities and boost their self-confidence. But how?

How Can Public Speaking Benefit Kids?

1. Boosts Their Confidence Level

Gaining public speaking practice develops unconscious knowledge in your child that they can deliver something of great value. This acts as a huge ego boost and, in return, increases their self-confidence. Public speaking helps your child view themselves in a different light. They start feeling better about themselves and their communication skills. Developing communication skills in shy kids is an absolute necessity as it helps them gain confidence and create a positive self-image that makes it easier for them to communicate.

2. Prepares Them for a Better Future

Public speaking has a lot to do with overcoming fears. If your child is not confident facing a huge crowd, they can get over it by developing their public speaking skills. Additionally, public speaking teaches kids skills such as critical thinking, develops their research skills and creates self-awareness in them.

3. Develops Their Planning, Organization and Leadership Skills

Preparing for public speaking takes a lot of skills – right from planning the speech to executing it properly, your child requires to sharpen their planning, organising and leadership skills. Hence, public speaking makes your child a great planner and organiser. Moreover, public speaking skills boost your child’s leadership skills as they start feeling comfortable talking for themselves and representing others – qualities of a good leader. It helps your child understand how to speak their mind without any fear. If your child grows up believing they can lead their peers, they are more likely to develop a strong leadership sense as adults.

4. Improves Their Pronunciations and Vocabulary

Vocabulary and pronunciation are interrelated because if you mispronounce a word, then the vocabulary knowledge that you know becomes ineffective. Public speaking helps your child develop their vocabulary and get better at pronunciations. How? Through daily speech, writing, and proper delivery guidance, public speaking improves their pronunciation and widens their vocabulary knowledge.

5. Enhances Their Social Connections

Through giving speeches, presentations, attending workshops and seminars, your child can find people with similar interests and expand their social circle. They can start interacting and making more social connections.

6. Helps Them Develop Great Communication Skills

To become an excellent communicator, your child has to practice dealing and interacting with random people in public. If your child develops their public speaking skills, they will learn to put ideas and thoughts into words, sharpening their communication skills.

How To Develop Public Speaking Skills in Kids?

There are various public speaking activities for kids to enhance their public speaking skills.

1. Photo Story Session

Stories are a great way to keep your audience engaged and help them retain information more accurately. Search a photo online and ask your child to develop a story around that picture for this activity. Discuss what kind of backstory you can give to the people in the picture, their dreams, motivation, and everything else that can make the story interesting.

2. Q/A Session

Give a topic your child is not well aware of and ask them questions like they are a well-versed expert in it. Through this activity, your child will be able to work on his delivery and authority.

3. Presentation

Help your child make a presentation on their favourite book, movie or cartoon, which will encourage them to express their opinions on topics they love. Your child will get comfortable presenting their ideas and thoughts in front of different people through presentations.

4. Make Up a Definition

Choose a word that your child does not know the meaning of and ask them to say what they think must be the meaning of that word. Public speaking is all about building authority through confidence, and this activity will teach your child how to build authority by using their voice and intonation.

Conclusion

Getting your kids started with public speaking from an early age is beneficial. It offers numerous advantages – from building confidence to improving their communication skills, there is no end to the list! Read more articles for an empowered life today.