It is important to communicate with children regularly

Being a parent is not an easy thing to do. The way you relate to your child, educate your child, and teach your child greatly affects a child's growth and development, including physically and mentally. One of the things that can support this is communication with children. Communication between children and parents is the basis of how parents and children form relationships. Bad communication between parents and children can certainly make parent-child relationships worse.

Benefits of maintaining communication with children

How child development can be seen from how the form of communication between parents and children is built since childhood, even from birth. However, many parents may not be aware of this. Communication with children may be simple and seem easy to do, but it turns out to have great benefits for children's development.

Building positive communication since childhood can help develop children's self-confidence, build children's self-esteem, feel more valuable, build positive children's self-concepts, and can help children build relationships with other people around them. Maybe you like seeing shy little children in public, this may be partly because the communication between parents and children is not well established.

Good communication can also make the relationship between children and parents feel good. Conversely, poor communication can make children disrespectful to their parents, frequent quarrels between children and parents, and feelings of worthlessness in children.

Good communication between parents and children can strengthen the relationship between parents and children. This certainly helps parents in understanding every development of their children. Remember, children's development can vary with each age. Through communication, parents can find out what their children are like, what they like to do and don't like to do.

Some psychologists have also found that children who communicate well with their parents have a lower risk of doing bad things, such as smoking, drugs, drinking alcohol, sexual abuse, and violence. So, find the right and comfortable communication patterns between you and your child. Some children may not feel very comfortable if the parents know everything the child is doing. The key is to be curious without disturbing the child.

Not only talking, but also listening to children

Building good communication with children does not only involve talking, but also parents must listen to their children. So, two-way communication can occur between parents and children. Your ability to listen to children is considered very important to build effective communication.

In addition to listening skills, several ways to build good communication with children are:

Take a few moments each day to talk and listen to your child.
Pay attention to what the child is talking to you about. As much as possible you only focus on listening to the child, not while watching television or holding a cellphone. It can also teach children how to be good listeners.
Encourage children to express their ideas and opinions on something. Let the child ask you anything and as much as possible give the child good answers. This is a form of positive communication between parents and children (talking and listening alternately).
Don't be afraid to talk about important things, criticize your child, or blame your child. But, don't yell or speak harshly that can hurt your child. Remember, you are a role model for children.