This makes perfect sense, right? That is because children pay attention to what we DO. We can talk, talk, talk, but if we really want our children to learn a new skill, we need to model it for them. When children are communicating, we need to stop and give them our full attention. More times than not, we should get down to their eye level and connect through touch (holding hands, hand on back, shoulder to shoulder, etc). The little things they say may seem insignificant, but they are important to the child. My son taught me this hard lesson when one time he was telling me a story... a loooong story... and then he just stopped. He looked at me with the saddest eyes and said, “You’re just saying uh-huh.” He looked so dejected, and I felt terrible. I certainly learned the lesson. We need to make listening, really listening, a priority now, so the lines of communication stay open as our children grow into adults.
Communication