Get Your Kids Talking! 15 Helpful Conversation Starters
If you ask a child, “Was it a good day?”, often they respond with a simple “I don’t know” or “It was fine.” Try to avoid asking that question.
Instead, ask specific, open-ended questions that can lead to a deeper and more meaningful interaction with your child. Open-ended questions and responses that are engaging and high in quality and quantity promote social, neurological, language, and literacy development.
Increasing the number of words a child is exposed to can lead to improved reading and writing skills, understanding of speech, and vocabulary size.
Open-ended questions require more than just one or two words to answer and can elicit more information. They can encourage critical thinking skills because they need your child to use more language to explain himself. These open-ended questions will also keep the conversation flowing.
Examples of open-ended questions include “What do you remember from…” “What happened when…” “How do we make…” Tell me about your….” “How do you feel about…” etc. After you have asked the question, wait 5-10 seconds for your child to think and formulate responses, allowing your child to answer the question without interruption! This technique demonstrates the importance of asking one question at a time.
Maintain eye contact and show that you are interested in your child’s answers, and keep the conversation going until your child gives you clues to move on. By modeling eye contact and by giving them plenty of time to respond, they will learn that looking at the speaker, smiling, and nodding are ways to show that they are actively listening.
15 conversation starters for the drive home from school or dinner time talk:
Tell me one thing that made you laugh or smile today.
Tell me about your favorite part of your day.
Was there a time today that you were a good listener? If so, what did you learn?
If I walked into your classroom, what would I see?
Tell me about something nice you did for someone today.
What classroom jobs did you have today?
Who did you play with at recess, and what activities did you do?
What are you looking forward to on the next school day?
What was the most exciting thing that you heard today?
Who did you sit by at lunch today?
How did your lunch taste?
What is something your teacher said to you today that you are still thinking about?
Tell me about what you read in class.
What was the hardest thing you had to do today?
What did you do to make someone else’s day terrific?
Have fun with it and enjoy fostering your child’s language and literacy while you bond with them.
If you feel that your child may need to be seen by a speech therapist, we can help! Our licensed speech-language pathologists can teach your child the essential skills required to communicate effectively.
Learn more about the speech and language services we can provide for children of all ages.
About the Author
Allison Geller is a communication coach, speech-language pathologist, and founder of Connected Speech Pathology, an international online practice providing professional communication coaching and speech therapy for children, teens, and adults. With more than two decades of experience, she has worked in medical and educational settings, published research on aphasia, and leads a team of specialists helping clients improve skills in public speaking, vocal presence, accent clarity, articulation, language, fluency, and interpersonal communication.
If you have any comments or questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us!
