Practice This for Better Child Parent Communication
In order to improve child parent communication, one necessary skill comes to the forefront. When we hear the word communication, many of us think only in terms of speaking. As parents, we wonder how we might say things better or how we might be able to communicate so that our child or teen actually hears us without that blank or angry expression. If parents could learn and practice active listening and teach this skill to their children, then chances are good that we would get fewer blank or angry stares.
Active listening requires us to focus on what the other person is saying. It requires us to be actively involved in the process of listening. It further requires us to ask for clarification to be sure that we do indeed understand what our child or teen is saying to us. Positive communication really begins with active listening. If each of us truly paid attention to what is being said and made every effort to understand the message being communicated, then our problems of poor communication would be drastically reduced.
In order to fully grasp this concept, it may be best to remember the time when your child first began to utter words. Most often these words were not fully formed by the child and we had to