There may be times during the school year that your child has to speak in front of the class. They could be expected to read a story they have written, recite a poem, share news of a current event or present an oral report. For many children this can be an intimidating experience while for others it is simply another classroom activity. Whatever opinion your child has of the event you probably want them to feel comfortable and to do their best.
You might wonder, is there anything I can do to help them?
The answer is, “Yes!”
You can:
- Calm their nerves
- Help them rehearse their presentation
- Offer practical advice
- And give them lots of encouragement
1. Calm their nerves
It is important to reassure your child that you are confident they will be able to complete the task successfully. For some students getting through the assignment without completely embarrassing themselves is an achievement even if there is lots of room for improvement in other areas. Perhaps they are concerned they will forget a portion or they will stumble or that they won’t be heard. Setting an achievable goal is one way to reduce the nerves. It may not get rid of them altogether but a reasonable target to work towards can make the experience of a presentation something that is doable, something with at least a measure of success.
a) If your child is worried that they might stumble over words, encourage them to set a goal such as, “I will try not to stumble more than x times.” They can put a number in there that they feel confident that they can handle.
b) If he or she is worried about eye contact, about looking at the audience, suggest a goal that they will raise their eyes to the audience at the beginning of each paragraph.
c) Whatever concerns they have ask them to pick one fear and set themselves a reasonable target. When the performance is complete they can review how it went and how successful they were reaching their goal. They are bound to have had some measure of success which will help them feel more confident next time. You can reinforce the feeling of satisfaction by emphasizing how pleased you are that they reached or almost reached their goal. Try to focus on what they did well or at least what they did better rather than on what weaknesses remain. Nervousness is enough of a challenge to face without having to worry about disappointing your parents.
2. Rehearse the presentation
Offering support and encouragement is extremely important but practice time is also very valuable. Encourage your child to perform their presentation for you. Frequent rehearsals help to calm the nerves as the task becomes more natural and less of an unknown experience.
It is helpful to practice every aspect of the performance:
- Checking that they have all the necessary equipment such as file cards, pictures and props
- Walking to the front of the room
- Pausing, taking a deep breath, looking around at everyone
- And beginning to speak loudly, slowly and clearly
Remind your son or daughter to be prepared, to have their materials ready and in order several minutes before they need to present. The book could have a bookmark in it. The note cards could be numbered so if they fall they can quickly be reorganized into the right order.
Any props could be placed in a box or on a tray so they can be easily carried to the podium or to a table at the front of the class. If they are using a large picture or poster perhaps it could be clipped to a stiff piece of cardboard so that it will rest securely on a ledge or stand. (Unsupported posters have a habit of falling over and interrupting a talk while the speaker scrambles to grab them and hold them in place.)
3. Offer helpful advice
Besides role-playing as an audience for your child’s presentation, you can also offer helpful advice. After listening to the story, poem or report you may feel that many aspects need work. Rather than reciting a list of all the weaknesses you noted, select the most obvious one or two and focus on those. If it is difficult to decide which areas need the most work then consider the following points:
When speaking to a large group of people of 20 or more remember that:
- You need to be heard by everyone, that is, you need to be loud enough without shouting
- You need to be understood, that is, you need to speak slowly and clearly so that your listeners know what it is you are trying to tell them
- And you need to make your presentation interesting so that your audience will want to listen
While listening to your child, decide if he or she has sufficient volume to be heard at the back of the room and if that isn’t likely then clearly that is the most important point to focus on. Encourage them to send their voice out to the person at the back of the room. Talk to the people the furthest away and everyone else should be able to hear. Remind your child that our voices are made out of our breath and to be louder we need to have more breath so they should take a deep breath as they begin to speak and the breath should carry their voices out to their listeners. They will need to take deep breaths several times during their presentation. This can take practice and, especially in the case of younger students, it can take time to learn how to project their voices effectively. Initially, encourage every effort even if the volume isn’t quite sufficient. With practice the voices will get stronger.
If your child is difficult to understand, try to determine what the problem is. Perhaps they are speaking too quickly or they aren’t forming their words clearly. If pace is the problem, advise them to speak more slowly by pausing more frequently, by stopping between paragraphs, between sentences, if necessary, and between phrases. Remind your son or daughter that your listeners don’t know your presentation as well as you do and they need time to listen and then think about what has been said. The pauses give them time to think.
If the lack of clarity or clearness comes from words that aren’t formed correctly encourage your child to speak more carefully. One technique is to remind them to finish the endings of their words more firmly, especially words that end with t, d, p, b, k or hard g as in rag. There can be a lot of confusion if listeners don’t know if a speaker said cat or cab. “We phoned for a cat to take us to the airport?????” I don’t think so!
Perhaps your child has sufficient volume and is speaking quite clearly but the presentation doesn’t hold your attention. How can you help then? There are many ways to make a presentation more interesting. One way is to make eye contact with the audience, to share the presentation with them and not with the papers lying in front of the speaker. Another is to show interest in the report or story through facial expressions and vocal tones that suggest enthusiasm or concern, depending on what is appropriate. There are many other techniques but these are the most obvious ones.
