For kids — and even adults — communication skills are essential for learning, play, and social interaction. If you enrol your child in a school that provides a well-rounded education, it is expected that he or she is taught how to be proficient with both oral and written communication in the English language. Notwithstanding, as a parent, you still have some roles to play in ensuring your child becomes an excellent communicator.
If you are keen on ensuring your child becomes an excellent communicator, there are a number of things you can do; one is to engage your child with fun English games that help to boost communication skills. These games help to hasten children’s listening, speaking, and writing skills. In this post, you will be introduced to seven (7) fun English games that will boost your child’s communication skills.
Fun English Games that Will Boost Your Child’s Communication Skills
- Chinese Whispers (Telephone Game)
The first game on this list of fun English games that boost children’s communication skills is Chinese Whispers. This old elementary game helps to develop the listening skills of your children. To make the game fun-filled for your child, ask him or her to invite friends over to your house and play the game together.
These are the rules of playing Chinese whispers at home:
- Get at least five kids to play the game (this is an opportunity to encourage your child to invite his or her friends). The kids need to be at least age 6 to be able to participate in the game. The more the number of kids that are involved in the game, the more interesting the game is
- Write down a few messages on cardboard or paper. Make sure the messages consist of at least five simple words
- Get the kids to stand side-by-side
- Give the first child the message note and have him or her explain what is written in the note to the next person by whispering it into the ear. Make sure the note card is not passed onto the next person; it should be returned to you, the organiser of the game.
- The message needs to be repeated quickly in a whisper to the next person, and the next person, and the next person. The game continues till it reaches the last person, and the kids then say aloud what they heard.
2. Tongue Twisters
Tongue Twisters is the second game on this list of fun English games that boost children’s communication skills. The game is great for teaching children how to correctly pronounce and enunciate words. Your child is not too young to learn how to speak accurately; by getting your child to play the Tongue Twisters game, he or she will improve in communication. Here is how to play this fun English game at home.
- Invite some of your kid’s friends to your house. The more people you are to involve in playing this game, the merrier
- Write some English tongue twisters on a piece of paper and distribute to the children. Here are some examples: She sells sea shells on the seashore; A proper copper coffee pot; Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers; Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?; A big black bug bit a big black bear
- Get the children to say the words very fast, repeating it more than once. You can also join the kids in reciting the words; this will cause a good laugh
3. End the Story
The third game on this list of fun English games that boost children’s communication skills is called “End the Story”. This game is mostly played at home, but it is sometimes played in the school. To play this game, start a story and let your child finish it.
This game is perfect for kids between the ages of 3 – 7 years. If your child is very young, you can narrate a nursery rhyme and let him or her make up an alternate ending.
4. Emotions Charades
Emotions Charades is the fourth game on this list of fun English games that boost children’s communication skills. This elementary school game is about children learning to express their feelings and broadening their emotional intelligence. Parents could also adopt the game at home.
As usual, urge your kids to invite their friends over to the house and get them to play this game together. To play Emotions Charades at home, make cards and write different emotions on them — sad, excited, happy, crying, nervous, etc. Get the children to pick a card and express the feeling without talking.
For more information on how to play this fun English game, watch this video.
5. 20 Questions
The fifth game on this list of fun English games that boost children’s communication skills is called 20 Questions. The game helps develop kids’ ability to ask direct questions — your kid will love it. Here is how to play the 20 Questions game.
- Have a group of children sit in a circle with one child in the middle
- Tell the child in the middle of the circle to think of a person, place or thing
- Ask the other children sitting in the circle to guess what the child in the middle has thought about, by asking him or her questions. They can ask a total of 20 questions — that is where the name of the game comes from
- The child in the middle says “yes” or “no” to the questions he or she is asked.
- After asking 20 questions, if no one guesses right, the child in the middle wins the game.
The 20 Questions game can also be played between adults and children. Find out how here.
6. All of My Friends
All of My Friends is the sixth game on this list of fun English games that boost children’s communication skills. This game is a quick way to take note of your child’s interest.
How this game is played is pretty simple: Have your child and his or her friends in a circle. Stand in the middle and say “All my friends like . . . ” Let the children fill in the blank with anything they enjoy, such as reading, eating, swimming — anything! All of My Friends is a good communication game as it helps children to interact with one another.
7. Storytelling
Every child loves listening to and telling stories, and that’s the reason storytelling makes it to this list of fun English games that boost children’s communication skill; It is the seventh on this list.
To turn storytelling into a game that can boost your child’s communication skills, narrate a gist of a story from a book to your child. After your child hears the story, cut some pictures of the same story from the book. Then ask your child to arrange the pictures in the sequence of the story that he or she just heard.
When done, ask him or her to discuss the story through the pictures.
Without a doubt, a school that is child-centred will help in building your child’s communication skills; nonetheless, by introducing the fun English games above in your home, you help in creating a synergy that builds up your child to become an excellent communicator, who expresses himself or herself in a clear and confident manner.
