Help Children to Develop Speaking and Listening Skills

Getting children to speak clearly, or just simply listen, is an on-going battle for parents and teachers alike.

Developing those skills at an early age empowers children with life-long self-confidence and positive-self-esteem.

Let’s take look at three excellent downloadable resources aimed at empowering children with a wide range of those essential speaking and listening skills.

Talk it Up (Instant Download)

‘Talk it Up’ uses a range of activities aimed at developing children’s speaking and listening skills. This resource could be used by groups in classroom settings or by families in home settings.

The discussion topics are laid out in 4 areas:

Section 1 – Scenarios

Apart from developing speaking and listening skills,  this section’s range of thought-provoking scenarios challenge children to also use a range of thinking skills such as objectivity and perspective.

Section 2 – Discussions

The section features discussion topics which will build on the skills developed in section 1. Topics range from ‘It’s not really lying if…’ which explores if there is ever a justification for lying to ‘whose business’  which explores when you should mind your own business and when you should intervene.

Section 3 – Debates

Children’s debating skills are developed and honed in this section. They learn to argue their points from ‘for or against’ angles. They also learn to come to conclusions after listening to both sides.

Section 4 – Role Play

This section helps to creatively develop children’s speaking and listening skills.

The featured roleplay scenarios also enhance their critical thinking skills.

Role-play topics range from ‘Sticky Situations’ to ‘Sorting out a Bully’

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Speak Out (Instant Download)

‘Speak out‘ is aimed at empowering children, aged 10-12, with speaking and debating skills.

Teachers and parents are provided with a range of speech-based activities which could be used across the curriculum.

Children will be provided with opportunities to develop their verbal expression and improve their confidence in public speaking.

The book is divided into four sections:

Section 1 – Getting started

This section provides children with oral practice activities with a partner before progressing to more formal whole-class presentations.

Section 2 -Skills Building

This section builds on the confidence developed in section one. It aims to improve children’s clarity and eloquence.

Section 3 – Games

The games section comprises a range of games all aimed at consolidating children’s confidence in speaking aloud which have been developed in the previous sections.  

Section 4– Debating

Children are introduced to the art of debating in the final section of the book.

They will be taught the basic rules and procedures to enable them to participate in debates effectively.

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Speak up (Instant Downloads)

‘Speak Up’ helps children to further hone their speaking and listening skills.

Its overall aim is to ensure that children are able to speak and listen with purpose, understanding and critical awareness in a wide range of contexts.

Unfortunately, it’s becoming increasingly evident that children leave school without these vital skills.

One reason for this is because children learn to fear such situations. The activities in this book provide teachers and parents with the tools to help children develop and practise their public and non-public speaking skills.

The book is divided into three sections:

Section 1 – Getting started

This section’s emphasis is on giving children the opportunity to develop their speaking and listening skills via less formal situations.

Section 2 – Formal speeches

This section develops children’s skills and confidence in delivering speeches in more formal situations. It does so by exploring persuasive, informative and entertaining speeches.

Section 3 -Impromptu activities

The impromptu activities section gives students the ability to speak on topics with very little preparation. They begin with a set of easy topics where they may be given one word to speak on before moving on to being required to speak on a sentence for example ‘’convince your teacher that giving homework is a crime.

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