Do you think it’s natural for people to be afraid or nervous when they’re about to address a large crowd? Just think about it – Hundreds/thousands are waiting eagerly to listen to you, and it’s your job to get through to each one of them. How would it make you feel? We won’t be surprised if your answers are “overwhelmed,” “nervous,” or “inadequate.”
So, isn’t it obvious, being how young they are, your children would feel even more so? However, to help them succeed in life and instill in them the necessary leadership qualities, it is important to mold them so that they don’t have an iota of stage fright. It’s nothing to be scared of as long as what they speak makes sense and stays relevant. So, today, in this article below, let us at Delhi Public School Sushant Lok, positioned among the leading schools in Gurgaon, give you some tips on how you can help them achieve this.
To make your children overcome stage fright, here’s what you do:
- Making It Second-Nature: As a parent, you must understand that to communicate well, your children must know and understand what they’re trying to convey. While memorizing their speeches is essential, they mustn’t do the same and throw messages out there; they must connect and touch the audience’s souls with their speeches. To achieve this, it’s up to you to make them understand what they’ll address. We suggest you to get down to their level to communicate the idea and reasoning behind what they’ll be conveying. For example, if they’re addressing climate change issues, teach them what it is. Tell them accurate facts, details, and how they must deliver. A good idea will be to show them videos of great speeches so that they understand how it’s done.
- Practice Makes Perfect: Although a cliché, the idiom, “Practice makes perfect,” is most appropriate here. Once your children know what they’ll speak about, tell them to stand in front of the mirror and practice the speech repeatedly. Show them how to project an aura of confidence so that the audience starts to believe them. A great trick is teaching them correct body posture and communicative hand gestures. Once they’ve mastered these steps, ask them to do the same in front of you. Lastly, gather the rest of your family and hear them out. This way, they’ll progress step-by-step and eventually master the “What and How” of the speech before addressing the larger audience.
- Positive Critique and Reinforcement: Positive enforcement always works better than criticism. However, we can’t deny that the latter is also essential. After all, how can one better develop themselves without understanding one’s flaws? But, on most occasions, severe criticism forces one into a shell. Thus, see to it that you point out their flaws politely and teach them what they can do to rectify them. However, keep in mind to never halt them in the middle, or they’ll lose their flow. For example, don’t say, “I told you to do it the other way. Why are you repeating the same mistakes?” Rather, tell them, “Wow! Well done! But change ______________, trust me, it’ll be better!”
- Self-Affirmation: Self-confidence and self-assurance are the first things one needs to achieve to stand out from the rest. Tell your kids to speak to themselves whenever they start to feel unsure. Tell them to say to themselves, “I can do it!”, “It’s easy…why am I getting scared?”, “No one can stop me from achieving this!” It’s a proven technique, and every achiever does the same.
- Staying Calm: Kids can easily get overwhelmed when facing challenges. Thus, teach them to stay calm when they come across any difficulties in life. For example, things may go wrong when addressing an audience, such as a malfunctioning mic, unruly audience members, etc. They must be calm and concentrate on the task at hand. Tell them to take a deep breath and focus on what’s in front. At DPS Sushant Lok, one of the top schools in Gurgaon, we firmly believe that staying calm is the backbone of any achievement. This is something we always emphasize teaching our pupils at school, and we would like to urge our respectable parent community to also try teaching the same to kids at home.
Master Fear to Overcome It!
Fear is an unnecessary evil that impedes progress. It’s present in everyone and is nothing once overcome. Make your children understand what it is to teach them to combat it. Hopefully, this article today has successfully communicated our message. We’ll be bringing such relevant topics each week. See you in the next post!