Why should you enroll your child in public speaking classes for children and teenagers now?

• What is public speaking?
• What will your child learn in the courses?
• How can public speaking skills be useful in life?
• Where to start learning?

There is an opinion among parents that public speaking courses are needed for those people who dream of becoming politicians, motivational leaders or television announcers. Those children who are far from the stage, but go to a children's development center to study robotics or chess, can do without this knowledge. However, practice shows that children who develop speaking abilities are more successful in school and in life.

The Art of Rhetoric

What is this - rhetoric? Rhetoric , in other words, oratory , is the skill of speaking correctly and beautifully, accurately expressing one’s thoughts, and persuading. Today, rhetoric is both a science and an academic subject. And the task of such a discipline is to teach good speech. Rhetoric is based on the achievements of modern linguistics, psychology and other sciences.

Today, at the center of rhetoric is a person who needs to be taught to effectively use speech and communicate. The priority now is to educate a person who, having information, would be able to speak competently, build a dialogue, and express his thoughts. This means that such useful skills and abilities need to be taught.

At what age can one begin to comprehend the intricacies of oratory?

Parents and teachers are often faced with the fact that children, upon entering primary school, do not always know how to ask and answer questions, provide information, and communicate with classmates. Sometimes a student who is ready for a lesson cannot answer either from his seat or at the board. The student is worried, confuses words, and stammers. This speech problem is associated with slow processes of perception and reproduction of information. And one more thing: you can be quite developed mentally, but have poor pronunciation, the wrong pace of information transfer. Such a child does not know how to successfully structure his speech, his statements are dull and uninteresting. The experience of literature teachers shows that in native speech lessons alone it is impossible to solve the problems of developing confident speech and acquiring communication skills.

All these problems are successfully solved by rhetoric.

Based on this, it becomes clear that the age from 6 to 12 years is a very good moment for teaching a child to clearly, clearly and confidently express his thoughts on various topics, as well as acquire the necessary communication skills:

• ask questions correctly and formulate answers quickly
• use intonation, facial expressions, and gestures correctly
• structure your speech competently
• improve diction
• become more confident
• convey information in a clear and accessible manner
• learn to communicate.

What is public speaking?

Competent, beautiful speech was highly valued even in the ancient world. In Ancient Greece, all educated people developed the skill of speaking. This skill has not lost its value today.

Oratory is not only the ability to speak beautifully. This is the ability to compose a competent and convincing appeal and convey it to the public using speech, gestures, and facial expressions. And this is the key to success in any field. Whether your child attends acting school or his main interest is technique, the ability to convey his ideas and present projects will be useful to him in life.

Goals and objectives

"Advice. When starting public speaking lessons, you need to remember the main goal of such classes: we, first of all, try to form a harmoniously developed, spiritual personality of the child.”

Objectives of rhetoric:

• teaching beautiful speech
• improving communication culture
• moral education
• stimulating the ability to think deeply and express thoughts correctly
• expressive reading
• teaching literary pronunciation standards
• diction training
• acquiring public speaking skills
• gaining self-confidence
• development of creative and literary abilities.

Regular and serious classes in rhetoric will not only shape the student’s diction and articulation, his ability to express himself clearly, establish contact with people, but also reveal his creative potential. As a result, the student will not only learn to speak, but also become more self-confident, show interest in learning, and learn to communicate.

Where to start learning?

If you have not yet chosen public speaking courses for children, you should do so as soon as possible. This is a great investment in your child's future. However, it is possible to begin instilling in your child the important skill of storytelling at home. Children's teachers offer several tips that will improve your baby's speech:

1. Watch famous speakers with your child, such as TED speakers. Notice how they speak, where they pause, and where they use gestures to enhance the effect.
2. Offer your child a game: in five minutes he must convince you of something. You can only use speech, gestures and facial expressions. The kid will have to improvise, find arguments and apply the entire stock of his knowledge.
3. Record your child's speech on a camera or voice recorder. An outside perspective will help you identify the main problems and difficulties and correct them.
4. Give your child a book and ask them to read a passage with an expression. This will teach your child to feel the text and place accents correctly.
5. Reflect with your child on different topics every day. This will not only broaden his horizons, but also teach him the art of dialogue.

Any person can develop the skill of a speaker, regardless of natural abilities, type of temperament or character traits.

If you are thinking about where to send your child for public speaking training in Moscow, then the best option would be the Center for Integrated Development “Imena Production”. In our center there is an acting school, where the best teachers in the capital teach students. Developing oratory abilities in your children, getting rid of mental and physical tensions, developing self-confidence and the ability to present themselves in society - all this is our main goal. Bring your child to Names Production!

Rhetoric lessons

Where can a child practice rhetoric? It’s good if it is included in the school curriculum or the school has a corresponding elective (club). In schools with in-depth humanities, such a subject will most likely be studied. If a student attends a theater studio, then there he will also have the opportunity to study the elements of oratory and practice strengthening his skills. If there are special courses in your city, and parents have the financial opportunity to take their child there, great: the classes will be taught by business coaches, psychologists or actors. In the absence of opportunities, but subject to a great desire, parents can try to work with the child themselves.

The content of rhetoric classes for primary schoolchildren includes two main areas:

1. "Communication". Students will learn about:

• goals, objectives and reasons for communication
• choosing the tone and pace of speech
• the need to take into account facial expressions, posture, gestures
• the importance of being able to listen to your interlocutor
• the power of words
• verbal and non-verbal communication
• rules of politeness.

1. "Speech genres". Children get an idea of:

• oral and written speech
• letter, congratulations, announcement
• dictionary entry
• story
• information, chronicle, note.

Primary school students practice speaking techniques (tongue twisters, rhymes, counting rhymes), discuss moral issues, learn polite communication, and come up with a lot on their own. Older students are already learning the first skills of self-presentation and public speaking.

Exercise “Tongue without bones”

This exercise will be a fun game of stage speech for children. The technique will help to work out the articulatory apparatus well, despite the fact that from the outside it looks more like ordinary antics. To prepare for a stage speech lesson, you should first do a short warm-up.

Articulation gymnastics has many advantages:

• the language will begin to work clearly and correctly;
• the feeling that the conversation is taking place with your mouth full will completely disappear;
• the pronunciation of sounds changes to be more clear.

Learning to perform

Not every adult can overcome anxiety when speaking in front of an audience. But you can teach a child to speak successfully in public even in childhood. Here are some tips for parents:

1. Consider the child’s character and temperament. Liberated children (sanguine and choleric) often take the initiative to speak up and tell something, but quiet children (melancholic, phlegmatic) need help and support.
2. Don't force, but interest. Coercion can discourage you from appearing in public as an adult. It is better to interest the child.
3. We rehearse at home. Ask your child to tell (read) some interesting text with an expression. First, be an attentive spectator, then switch roles. The fact that the student will be both a speaker and a mentor will help relieve fear of speaking.
4. Let's play for good. Special psychological games, role-playing games, and home puppet theater will help relieve stress.
5. Improvising is useful. Invent and improvise with the whole family at family holidays and home concerts. Compose fairy tales, poems and songs together, have fun from the heart. Let both adults and children take part in the performances.
6. Your own example. Show your child how to perform beautifully. Read the text expressively, with the necessary intonation, pauses, punctuation marks, pronouncing sounds clearly.
7. Listen carefully. Always be an attentive listener when your child is speaking. Otherwise, he may realize the worthlessness of his statements and will not want to speak in public.
8. Make an audio or video recording. Record the moment when your child is practicing his performance. Listen or watch it together later to analyze and gently point out mistakes.
9. Freedom of choice. Let the student choose what he will read: his favorite fairy tale, poem, or report for class.
10. Let's get used to reading. A child who reads a lot gets used to correct written language. Discuss what you read, developing oral speech skills.

By following the suggested recommendations, parents can help their child learn to be confident during a performance, develop speech, and become more relaxed.

Effective exercises

You can develop good public speaking skills through the following exercises:

1. Stand up straight, cross your arms over your chest, spread your elbows to the sides. Take a deep breath, releasing excess air from your lungs, slowly leaning forward. Exhalation should be accompanied by the pronunciation of elongated vowel sounds.
2. Each time you should pronounce complex combinations of sounds - VZVA, LBAL, STFRA. At first, this exercise may seem too difficult, but over time everything will begin to work out.
3. You should try to read a short text with your mouth closed.

A stage speech lesson, like any other, will give a good effect. After completing a certain series of exercises, you should consolidate the result by reading a complex text as expressively as possible. If classes are held together with a teacher, he may offer to take a special test at the end of therapy.

Speech technique exercises

There are a huge number of exercises for developing speech technique: for diction and breathing, for logical thinking and memory, and others. Here are just a few that parents can easily use in their homework:

1. "Explain." When showing ordinary household objects, we ask the child to give a detailed description of each of them.
2. "Words on the topic." We name the topic (for example, “person”, “city”, “kitchen”, etc.) and ask the student to name all the words that he can remember about this topic. An exercise can take the form of a competition where several people play.
3. "Come up with a rhyme." Offer your child words or pairs of words to come up with rhymes for.
4. “Repeat verbatim.” Taking a children's book, read out one sentence selectively and ask the child to repeat it word for word. It is better to do this playfully and with humor, otherwise interest in the game may quickly disappear.
5. "We listen to silence." Concentration game. Suggest being silent and listening to the sounds around you: in the house and outside the window. Let the child describe what he heard.
6. "Search for the Lost." The child remembers everything he sees in the room, leaves, and then is informed that one item is missing. The child, with the help of leading questions to the presenter, tries to guess what item is missing.
7. "Differences" We need to briefly describe the difference between the two words. For example, an orange ball.
8. "A story based on a picture." This school technique is also effective at home. Ask your child to describe the picture in detail. You can describe the picture by looking at it, or you can remove it and ask the child to remember what he saw. You can try to express your imagination in a variety of ways: “What is happening in the picture? What do you think happened before this action? What's next? What would you call the picture yourself?

"Advice. Tongue twisters are very useful for mastering speaking techniques. Don’t just pronounce them, but theatricalize the action.”

Watch a video about intonation exercises

Diction and sound features

The correct sounding of the voice will help improve the expression of emotions. A person must learn to freely regulate timbre, range of sounds, intonation and overall volume. To improve your sound, you should do the following exercises:

1. Often read prose or poetry, regularly change the volume of speech. The first line should be spoken quietly, the second more loudly.
2. You should pronounce one phrase with one intonation, try to change the second using simple words, express your emotional state - happiness, surprise, fear, anger, and so on.
3. It is also important to develop your imagination well. You can imagine what kind of voice animals would speak in if they could do it. The verse should be told from the perspective of a dog, cat or hare.

Good diction is very important for stage speech. It helps to achieve significant success in a career, since people already in their subconscious listen more to a person’s clear pronunciation and pleasant words.

Learning to communicate

The child begins to communicate very early. Already from preschool age, the child comes into contact with peers and adults. Note that communication is not always successful and needs to be taught. Rhetoric, again, can cope with this task perfectly, one of the tasks of which is to teach how to communicate effectively.

Effective communication is the compliance of the interlocutor’s speech norms with the norms of the literary language. When starting to study in primary school, children comprehend the features of the educational and scientific style of presenting material, but are immediately faced with the development of coherent speech. The speech of a primary school student loses its looseness and emotionality and acquires a certain stereotyped quality. This trend does not at all help schoolchildren to acquire real communication skills. The desired results in the formation of a child’s normal coherent speech can be achieved by practicing oratory with him.

By studying rhetoric, a child will learn the norms of behavior when communicating, learn how to conduct a conversation correctly - live and on the phone, learn which style of communication is best to choose in certain situations, learn how to make requests, speak correctly and be an attentive listener.

During the lessons, students will learn:

• evaluate and analyze communication situations
• communicate in accordance with speech etiquette
• correctly use verbal (verbal) and non-verbal means of communication (facial expressions, gestures, postures, body movements)
• choose the right intonation when communicating
• navigate various communication situations
• make contact successfully.

Improved articulation

To make the pronunciation of individual sounds and letters clear and understandable, it is important to regularly train the organs that are responsible for articulation.

During your first lesson, you should start pronouncing vowels, consonants and simple connectives. With such training, it is important to monitor your voice; it should sound bright and loud, not like in everyday life.

Many tongue twisters will help improve your speech apparatus and diction. It is important to pronounce such poems quietly or in a half-whisper. Over time, the reading speed should increase and the volume should increase. The following types of tongue twisters should be considered when practicing stage speech for preschool children:

• “The bob got some beans.”
• “The clatter of hooves sends dust flying across the field.”
• “Prokop came - dill was boiling, Prokop left - dill was boiling.”

If a child has been taking stage speech lessons for a long time, then over time he can complicate his task by learning longer and more complex phrases. If he managed to remember and correctly recite the longest tongue twister, “Liguria,” then he will definitely become a good speaker.

Recommendations for parents

Having realized the importance of rhetoric classes at an early school age, parents should facilitate easy and interesting learning for their child. Here are some tips:

1. Regularity of classes. It doesn’t matter at school, at home or on courses. Only constant training will ensure high results. It's better to train daily.
2. Theory without practice is ineffective. Offer your child more practical exercises, games, and tasks.
3. Development of creativity. A public speaking lesson will become truly effective and exciting for your child if you allow your child to express himself creatively in every possible way. Let him come up with stories and descriptions, write poetry, invent and compose.

“Advice to parents. Remember that you can achieve good results even in the short term if you start training from a fairly early age and on a regular basis.”

Technique

To carry out the “Boneless Tongue” exercise, you should use a simple mirror. To do this, you need to stand in front of him and start a simple warm-up:

1. Open your mouth a little. With the end of your tongue, begin to perform circular movements in different directions. You should perform 10 rotations clockwise and then counterclockwise.
2. Next, open your mouth wide, stick out your tongue completely and carefully lift its sides up. In this case, something like a tube should form. Next, you should start trying to move your folded tongue and blow into it.
3. Use your tongue to clean the surface of the lower and upper teeth. Try to repeat this exercise with your mouth closed and open.

Gently biting your tongue will help slightly relieve the tension in such a muscle. The exercises should be repeated before speaking, in which case the speech will be clear and well understood.

Exercise "Traffic"

This exercise is considered the easiest to improve the functioning of the speech apparatus. It will bring good results if you do it constantly. The “Cork” technique is quite popular among both children and adults. This fun activity will help:

• strengthen the muscles of the lips, cheeks and upper palate;
• tighten the skin on the face, hide small wrinkles and nasolabial folds;
• improve speech and diction.

Experts say that such lessons will be useful not only for future artists and stage performers, but also for those who want to maintain the condition of their skin and avoid age-related changes.

The lesson is conducted using the following technique: first you should prepare a small plastic or wooden cork from a champagne bottle. Then learn and prepare a tongue twister. Then clamp the plug in your front teeth. Without releasing it, you should begin to pronounce phrases and repeat them several times at once. This way you can accurately identify which sounds a person produces better and which sounds worse. It is important to regularly improve your pronunciation, train your articulatory apparatus, and also speed up your reading.

A person practicing tongue twisters with a champagne cork usually looks very strange. This kind of fun stage speech training can be a fun activity for the whole family and can be done in the form of a small competition. Each person must read the tongue twister using any unusual method, and then determine who did it best.

How to learn stage speech?

Professionals in this field, who help both children and adults prepare speech and diction techniques, use various teaching methods. The following are effective ways to improve your voice. The most common include:

1. Continuous development of stage speech. The specialist offers a choice of several sets of exercises, between which there is a logical connection. You should not take long breaks during class.
2. Stepped complication. The student begins to actively develop the level of his speech with simple material, then the load increases.
3. Use of games. Training stage speech through exciting activities is considered the most enjoyable, since during the lessons the student relies on his imagination. Fun game lessons often have a good effect.
4. Partnerships. During the lesson, the teacher and the child must communicate as equals. The teacher only advises, but does not order to repeat certain exercises.

Stage speech is useful for every person. To achieve a good result, you should prepare yourself for the fact that you will have to regularly train, improve yourself and learn new techniques. A child’s perseverance and hard work will help develop his oratory abilities.

When should I take a rhetoric course?

1. A teenager hangs out on the Internet all his free time, forgetting about live communication!
2. Experiences difficulties at school, cannot prove his ideas, follows the lead of popular classmates.
3. She withdraws into herself and does not communicate with peers.
4. He has a hard time going through adolescence (from 6th to 7th grade).
5. Unable to clearly answer questions asked by the teacher or parents.

Conclusions, results and reviews from parents about the course In the fall, it’s time to send your teenager to classes (from 2 weeks to 3 months). This is a fun process that has nothing to do with boring school lessons!