Communication with younger children
Submitted by: Doug Warburton

When parents speak with young children, alone or as a group, they must establish eye contact and/or hold them at close range, preferably at eye level, to maintain warm direct communication and rapport.

It may be necessary for mothers and/or fathers to bend over, squat or kneel; or put down the newspaper, telephone, or cooking pan as well.

In addition, a calm soothing tone of voice is preferred when giving instructions, and a firm serious one for reprimands.

Smiling or laughing when children do wrong, and indifference or anger when they do right, goes against the proper formation of good criteria and good habits.

The goal is: a clear mind and a strong will.

In small doses, at an early start, both mother and/or father can provide daily cues to their children about essential distinctions between fact and opinion, important and urgent. Cause and effect, problem and solution, family and friend, male and female. Also public and private, right and wrong, rights and duties, life threatening and life-saving, eternal and temporal… the list can go on.

At times, it may be necessary to consult the right sources before making any decisions and following these through. Slowly, both parents and children understand their value system and communicate on the same level.

Finally, a most important daily habit worth fostering until old age is self reflection.

This would be answering the following three questions: What did I do right? What did I do wrong? And what can I do better?

Just questions one might want to ask themselves to help them become better at what they want to do, and that may be becoming a better, more supportive parent who can raise their children more effectively.