Teaching Humanity Remotely with Dr. Mindy Shaw – Podcast Ep. 35

In this latest podcast episode, number 35 in my series, we continue discussing the final section of my new parenting book which is the Q&A section of that book.  This podcast focuses on Question #4 in that section, and info about that is as follows…

The book we are referring to is my recently published parenting guide titled I LIKE HOW YOU SPEAK TO ME… A PARENT’S GUIDE FOR EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION WITH CHILDREN which is intended to be a real “how to” book for parents, family members or teachers.  As the title directly states, the book is all about creating and maintaining the clearest possible model for parent-child communication.  The parenting book offers up my “10 Governing Principles” for communicating with children followed by a children’s picture book section that models a conversation and it wraps with a Q&A section of the book which is comprised of the TEN MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS FROM PARENTS (plus one bonus 11^thquestion).

Last week we reviewed the third question and its answer, and this week we’ve arrived at the FOURTH question in that section of the book which is:  “How can I get my child to talk when my child never wants to tell me how they feel?”  As it happens, the answer lies in having the sensitivity to understand that not everyone approaches life with the same penchant, temperament or skill level when it comes to verbal communication.  We have to honor the fact that different children have different skill sets when it comes to verbal communication and also modeling how to initiate potentially sensitive conversations.  In the podcast and in the book, I outline various approaches that can solve this dilemma, most of which involve modeling by the parent so that the child can follow suit.  Game-play with words and feelings can be a fantastic strategy, in other words you can play a game where you share how a particular event made you feel.  If the parent goes first, then the parent is modeling what to say or how to say it.  If the game catches on, you may find that your child wants to play the game and actually speak first, and that’s when you know that you’ve broken through successfully in encouraging a quiet child to speak.  It’s also okay to reinforce that quiet time and being quiet is okay, but that there are times when communication is important.  Again, modeling by the parent is essential.

The next podcast will focus on the fifth question in the Q&A section of the book about effective communication with children, so please stay tuned for that.  In the meantime, thanks for visiting and for listening.  You can hear Podcast 35 here:

https://learnwithmeremotely.podbean.com/e/teaching-humanity-remotely-with-dr-mindy-shaw-ep-35/

And you can find the parenting guide on Amazon right here:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08WJRX7JF